Patient Safety

Patient safety is a high priority at CentraCare Clinic. Providing a safe environment for patient care and encouraging staff to speak up when a system breaks down are ways to emphasize this priority. Focusing on initiatives around medical event reporting and timely test result notification help to provide a safe health care experience for our patients.

Test Result Notification

Test Result Notification replaces the “no news is good news” way of thinking. In 1999, CentraCare Clinic started a patient safety initiative to notify patients of their test results. The purpose of this initiative is to relay results to patients in a timely manner, minimize risks related to delayed diagnosis or failure to diagnose and educate patients to take an active role in their care. Work continues today to ensure that all results are communicated in a timely manner.

Non-Punitive Medical Event Reporting

Proven ways to improve a system is to evaluate where it has broken down. CentraCare Clinic encourages the reporting of medical errors. Review of these errors allows for review of a system and the various factors that went into the mistake. Informed decisions affecting change are made to prevent an error from occurring again. Encouragement to report “accidents waiting to happen” allow for system changes before a mistake occurs.

Patient Safety Awareness

Employee education and tools that raise awareness to “sound alike, look alike” drugs continue to keep patient safety as a top priority in CentraCare.

National organizations such as the National Patient Safety Foundation assist patients in learning about the steps they can take and the role they play in safe health care.

The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) provides information on a variety of patient safety-related topics. To learn more, please visit the NPSF web site.