Protection: It begins with you

Influenza, commonly know as “the flu,” is a respiratory illness that usually circulates throughout the fall and winter. People of any age can get the flu and sickness usually lasts two to seven days. Most people who get the flu are sick for only a few days. In others, the symptoms can last for weeks. In extreme cases some people can develop complications and become very ill, requiring hospitalization. Why risk it?

Protect your family: Illness caused by the flu can be prevented with a flu shot. Protect yourself and those around you.

Help protect your workplace: Get your flu shot to protect yourself, your co-workers and the patients we care for.

Protect yourself and your patients: Influenza is a potentially severe respiratory illness and is responsible for an increased number of healthcare provider visits, hospitalizations and deaths.

Influenza vaccine is available for all staff through CKHA Occupational Health & Safety Department (you can still call the OH&S department for an appointment), through your family doctor or nurse practitioner, and through Public Health clinics.

Are you ready for flu season?

Achieving the Highest Quality Care: Our Journey continues …

At a recent Best Practice Guidelines Breakfast For Champions, Dr. Irmajean Bajnok the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) Director of International Affairs and Best Practices Guidelines Programs spoke about her ideas on the “journey to enhance the quality of care”. She used the letters from the word JOURNEY:

J is for the Journey that we have undertaken together to enhance quality of care
O is for the best possible Outcomes that we aim to achieve
U is for Understanding the need for continuous improvement
R is for Reflection on our role and using the best possible Resources to find our way
N is to remind us to Never forget the patient and family in the centre of all we do
E is for Evidence, available through use of the RNAO Best Practice Guidelines
Y is for Yes! Yes we can do this! Yes, we are making a difference!

Here at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, we are one of only 21 RNAO Best Practice Spotlight Organizations. On this journey to enhance quality of patient care, we must continue to work together as a team to provide evidence-based, high quality and safe care. A healthy workplace includes a combination of the use of best evidence, team-work and collaboration, diversity and professionalism. We must be confident and competent in our own roles within the interprofessional team to do the work ahead.

An exciting professional journey, indeed!

Keeping Our Drinking Water Safer

CKHA is on the leading edge once again, with being the first hospital in Canada to implement a new container called Pharmasmart! This container that looks like a hard plastic blue and white mini suitcase (see the picture below) is built to contain waste pharmaceuticals so that they aren’t discarded in a harmful way.

Studies show that medications that are discarded in the improper way may lead to contamination of local water systems. Now that we have these containers, any medication to be wasted (other than controlled drugs and those that are potentially contaminated after being used on a patient) should be placed in the blue and white Pharmasmart container for safe disposal. These new containers are being kept on the medication carts and medication preparation areas in the Pharmacy Department and on the patient care units.

Designed to meet Ministry regulations that require hospitals to separate their waste streams (biohazard and non-contaminated), these new containers are handled in the very same way as the yellow containers we are using now. The yellow Sharpsmart containers will still be used for disposal of “contaminated” items and sharps. The blue and white Pharmasmart containers will now be used for wasted pharmaceuticals (outdated injectable drugs, dropped tablets, returned unused liquids). The contents of the yellow Sharpsmart containers are specially treated and then go into landfill. The contents of the blue and white Pharmasmart containers are incinerated, keeping them out of our precious water system.

I’m proud of our hospital for being the first facility in Canada to use this new container system to divert waste and keep our communities safer.

Don’t Just Think It, Say It – Engaging Patients and Families to Enhance Patient Safety

The first week of November is designated as Canadian Patient Safety Week. The theme “Ask.Listen.Talk” promotes communication amongst patients, families, and healthcare providers. This year, patient and family advisors became actively involved in sharing this message to other patients, families, visitors and staff.

Patient & Family Advisor volunteers and hospital staff joined together to share information with patients, families, visitors and staff about best practices in patient safety. Storyboards focused on two areas of safety – the importance of the ID band and ways to be actively involved in care. The patient & family advisors talked with other patients, families, and visitors about their role in enhancing patient safety and the importance of speaking up. We handed out information on how to be involved in their care. We asked “What could we do differently to make you feel safe at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance?” We showed others how, as healthcare providers, we ask patients to tell us who they are in two ways before putting the ID band on. We taught them how we ask them to check and make sure the information on the ID band is correct, and that we check the ID band before giving medication or treatment. We also encouraged patients and families to “speak up” to be actively involved in their care.

Working with patients and families as active partners in care can improve communication that helps create safer care.

What? The Chicken Dance?

The Strategic Direction: Patients, says that we will partner with patients and their families in the delivery of safe, quality care. With a focus of falls prevention and management, we asked the Active Lifestyle Centre if we could lead a community forum about this topic. So this fall, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance staff, a patient advisor, and a public health nurse prepared poster boards, gathered information, and headed over to the Centre. Our audience was the exercise class, who listened to us talk about safety strategies related to falls. Public Health previewed a video called “Exercises at the Kitchen Sink”. Then we were invited to join the exercise class. Little did we know that the forum would include working up a sweat, let alone testing our skills doing the chicken dance? What fun we had together.

We could see by the level of activity that they already had a strategy to prevent falls. But what could we do differently? What could be done in the community to prevent falls? And how could we make a hospital stay, if needed, be as ideal as it could be? Over refreshments in the cafeteria, we listened to what they believed could make a difference. From better street lighting, to making sure we had wheelchairs at the entrances and handrails in high traffic areas, ideas were brought forward for us to consider.

In addition to sharing ideas and ways to prevent and manage falls, we connected with community partners for a common cause - to make our environment as safe as it could be and to educate each other about what we can do to prevent falls. Learning took place and relationships developed. Perhaps our next encounter we will do the Macarena – and this time we will be ready.