Great Plains Health is focused on patient safety.
We include patients and family as members of their care team
- The patient and their family can participate in a bedside nursing shift report.
- Physicians and providers collaborate and complete bedside rounding.
- Management staff also completes patient rounding.
- Leadership conducts daily safety huddles to identify and address emerging issues, proactively address concerns and communicate any risks.
- We conduct daily unit huddles.
- We provide case management and coordination of care.
- We have daily inter-disciplinary team meetings.
- There's clear signage and orientation in patient rooms so that the patient and their family know how to call a rapid response team (RRT) when the patient’s condition is rapidly deteriorating.
- This results in more rapid responses being called to quickly address patients' change in condition than code blues.
- We provide an online portal with the patient’s EMR: OneChart.
- 50% of our patients are enrolled in OneChart to quickly receive test results and communicate with their provider.
We facilitate communication among the patient, their family and their care team
- Whiteboards in each inpatient room clearly identify the caregiver's name and role.
- Family can add information to the board, such as their phone number or questions.
- Colored scrub uniforms help identify members of the care team.
- Royal blue: nurse, RN or LPN.
- Teal: CNA.
- Plum: Lab and radiology.
- Bar codes on medications are scanned to verify patient identity, medication details and dosage accuracy.
- 98% bar code medication usage (2024).
We support patient and family member knowledge and skill-building
- Discharge instructions include specific medication instructions for which medication to continue, which medication to start taking and which medications to stop taking at discharge.
- We offer a Transitional Care Program to help prevent reduce readmissions.
We involve patients and family at every level
- We enforce hand hygiene for patient and family along with healthcare workers.
- 81% compliance with staff hand hygiene.
- We provide yearly safety training modules for patient privacy; infection control; and electrical, medication and environmental safety.
- Patients are part of our Patient/Family Advisory Council.
- We provide yearly staff training on unit/department skills day.
- We have an incident management system to address adverse events and near misses, to make changes, and to prevent future occurrences.