Quality
Hospital Role in Safe Care
LifeWings Crew Resource Management
Communication is the greatest tool we have in our efforts to provide our patients with the best and safest care. Great communication takes effort and requires specific skills, so we provide our staff with special training in crew resource management (CRM). This training takes communication principles from the military and other high-reliability industries and applies them to the hospital setting. We know that when we communicate as a team, our patients receive better and safer care.
For our CRM training, we partner with LifeWings, a world-class leader in teaching these communication skills to healthcare providers as well as pilots, airline employees, and astronauts.
Safety Response Team
The Safety Response Team is a group of skilled and experienced clinicians who immediately respond to the bedside of any patient exhibiting a significant change in condition. This team can be activated by anyone who is concerned about a patient by dialing the number posted in every patient room and nurses' station. We encourage you to call the Safety Response Team if you are concerned with your medical care or a family member's care.
Infection Prevention
Healthcare associated infections (HAIs) can have serious negative effects on a patient's recovery. Our record for preventing hospital-acquired infections is substantially better than the national average. In fact, we have been recognized by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as a top performer in this area. We know that when we prevent these infections, our patients will have a faster recovery.
The most important method for preventing infection is cleaning our hands frequently. If you are a patient, you can help with this by asking everyone who enters your room (visitors and healthcare workers) if they have used hand sanitizer or soap and water to wash their hands. You should also ask all visitors to clean their hands with the sanitizer located near the door of every patient room.
Other special precautions, such as protective gear, are used to prevent the spread of infection. Under certain circumstances, visitors may be asked to wear a cover gown or gloves when they enter a patient's room. You can help by carefully following the instructions of the doctors and nurses when they ask you to use these precautions.
We use evidence-based protocols to prevent infections related to medical devices, such as a central-line catheter, ventilator, or urinary catheter. The protocols in place ensure that safety and infection prevention are top priorities in caring for patients needing these devices.
Heart Attack and Stroke Care
Culpeper Regional Hospital is focused on optimizing care for our stroke and heart attack patients. Collaboration with our affiliate, the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System, has allowed us access to advanced telemedicine technology to coordinate stroke care with neurologic experts at UVA Health System. We also work diligently to ensure our patients experiencing severe heart attacks receive treatment in UVA Health System's cardiac catheterization lab within the recommended time frame for best results. Learn more about these programs and the work our Emergency Department is doing to provide safe, quality care.
Surgical-Site Infections
Culpeper Regional Hospital is an active participant in the national patient safety initiative to reduce surgical-site infections. Evidenced-based practice tells us that the administration of an antibiotic within one hour prior to surgery and up to 24 hours after surgery minimizes the risk of surgical-site infections. Collaboration between the Infection Control Team and all members of the surgical staff has produced terrific results. Culpeper Regional Hospital's surgical-site infection rate is well below the national standard.
Pressure Ulcers
To prevent and proactively treat pressure ulcers, also known as bedsores, we use screening tools to identify patients at risk of getting a pressure ulcer, special equipment such as pressure relief beds, and clinical interventions to prevent ulcers from forming. If a patient comes to us with an existing ulcer, our highly qualified and trained staff has shown great success at providing care and treatment to speed the healing process.
Hand-Off Communications
As part of our endeavor to promote transparency and patient safety, we have adopted a hand-off communication process. During a shift change, each nurse gives a detailed report to the oncoming nurse at the patient's bedside, using the patient's electronic medical record information. This style of hand-off communication provides an avenue for our patients to interact with the off-going and oncoming nurses to verify medical information for accuracy, ask questions, and take a more active role in their plan of care. The information shared with the oncoming staff is current and up-to-the-minute, and you are informed when there is a change in the nurse who is caring for you.
Patient Falls
Falls in the hospital can have serious consequences. In an effort to reduce the number of falls in our facility, we have carefully examined our care processes and physical environment. Some of our fall prevention strategies include hourly rounding on our patients, assessments to identify patients at risk for falling, bed and chair alarms, and installation of ceiling lifts. We also remind our patients how important it is that they call for help before getting out of the bed on their own.
Patient Satisfaction
It is important to us that the quality of your healthcare is excellent. It is also very important to us that you are satisfied with how you are treated. At Culpeper Regional Hospital (CRH), we want to provide the best possible service to our patients and their families.
You can help us improve the service we provide. Following care at CRH, patients are randomly selected to participate in a patient satisfaction survey. We depend upon our patients and their families to give us feedback and let us know how we are doing. The survey results are anonymous and are reported to us in a summarized manner.
While you are at the hospital, if we are not meeting your expectations for patient satisfaction, we hope you will let us know immediately, so we can help resolve your concerns.
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