UMC putting an emphasis on safety

Tuesday, July 3, 2001 | 9:33 a.m.

In response to growing concern about medical errors nationwide, University Medical Center administrators want to add a significant word to the public hospital's mission statement: safety.

The statement "Protecting the environment of its patients, personnel, staff and community" is expected to be changed today by the board of trustees to "Protecting the environment and providing for the safety of its patients, personnel, staff and community."

"UMC is smart to come out and publicly acknowledge that this is an important concern for people," Bill Welch, president of the Nevada Hospital Association, said Friday.

Most hospitals have mission statements that talk about providing quality health care, and patient safety is an implied part of that, Welch said. But UMC is the first he knows of to use the word safety in the mission statement.

"Whether it will actually change hospital practices, I don't know," Welch said. "Hospitals don't make mistakes. People make mistakes. And as long as humans are part of the equation, you're going to have some errors."

A nationwide study in 1999 by the Institute of Medicine estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital patients died from medical mistakes, ranging from surgical errors to being given the wrong medication.

The change reflects the work of a patient safety committee UMC formed about a year ago, Jackie Taylor, chief administrative officer, said.

One of the most challenging areas for the committee, which includes doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other staff, has been changing the culture surrounding medical mistakes, Taylor said. In the past, reports on errors have been seen as punitive actions directed at an individual, rather than as important tools for improving safety, Taylor said.

All accredited hospitals are required to keep internal records of medical errors and hand over the data in the event of an investigation, Welch said. But hospitals do not have to make that information public.

That is beginning to change, however.

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, a nonprofit group that evaluates nearly 5,000 hospitals nationwide, has launched new regulations that would require hospitals to tell patients when they have been harmed during treatment. The rules, which went into effect Sunday, also require hospitals to take more steps to prevent medical errors.

The state also is taking a close look at patient safety. Assembly Consent Resolution 7, signed into law last month, orders the Legislative Committee on Health Care to do an interim study of medical errors in Nevada.

"Health-care executive, physician and nursing leaders must radically change their thinking about medical mistakes," Dr. Dennis O'Leary, president of the commission, said. "We need to create a culture of safety in the hospitals and other health-care organizations, in which errors are openly discussed and studied so that solutions can be found and put in place."