What is the mission of the patient safety program?

The mission is, To improve the quality of life for all those we touch through excellence in patient care, education, research and community service.  This mirrors the Hospital's mission statement.

Who is responsible for patient safety at University Hospital?

University Hospital Leadership has designated the Patient Safety Committee (subcommittee of the Hospital's Environment of Care Safety Committee) as being responsible for oversight of the patient safety program.  This multidisciplinary team consists of representation from the medical staff, nursing, UMDNJ Risk and Claims and the UH Environment of Care Safety Committee.

Do I have any responsibility for patient safety?

As an employee, you are responsible for participating in efforts to improve patient safety and for eradicating potential risk.  This includes reporting actual and potential patient incidents that may or may not result in a patient injury.

How do I report an actual or potential patient injury?

If it is a medication related event including adverse drug reactions, call the Pharmacy department hotline at 2-5009 and report the medication event or ADR.  You do not need to complete the Hospital's Confidential Patient Incident Report, noting the medical event or error.

All other actual or potential patient incident should be reported to your immediate Supervisor and documented on the Hospital's Confidential Patient Incident Report.  The original is to be sent to the University Risk and Claims office and the copy of the Hospital's Confidential Patient Incident Report" should be sent to the QA/PI office of the hospital.

Will I get in trouble if I commit a patient safety error?

The focus of the patient safety program is to improve hospital processes and provide patient care in the most safe and effective manner possible.  The focus of the patient safety program absolutely is not to be punitive against staff that commits errors.  Sometimes the Patient Safety Committee will conduct a process analysis (or root cause analysis) to identify the underlying causes of an event to identify why the process failed and to develop risk reduction strategies and corrective action plans to avoid future occurrences of the same incident. 

For further information reference the following policies:  Patient Care Incident Reporting (831-200-057); Medication Event/Adverse Drug Reaction (831-200-133); Process Analysis (831-200-161) and Patient Safety - Informing Patients About Adverse Outcomes (831-200-196).