"Our goal is to have no patient safety events or violations. It is a lofty goal and is one we need to shoot for and work towards. I want to get, within a short period of time, you afraid to go to any other hospital except for ours because of our safety record."

Dr. Arden Weathers, a surgeon at The Regional Medical Center and hospital patient safety committee board member, offered these words to hospital trustees Tuesday as he shared with them a Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations National Patient Safety Goals 2004-2005 report.

The commission is a not-for-profit organization that sets standards by which health care quality is measured.

"I think we are significantly ahead of most hospitals in our safety efforts as well as in our peer review," Weathers said. "Safety is not something I do ... but is a team effort of everybody who works there. From the people who work in the kitchen, to clean the hospital, to the surgeons in the operating rooms ... everybody is involved in all services. It is a team effort by the entire staff."

The Institute of Medicine reported that about 50,000 to 100,000 of deaths occur per year nationally from medical errors, about half of which are preventable. The total cost of errors nationally is between $17 billion to $20 billion.

"Of course, it does not cost us $20 billion, but errors that are made here cost us money, too," Weathers said. "That is a secondary reason to try to prevent errors. The first reason is to get patients out of here safely and in good health.

"Most people here are trying to do a good job," he continued. "We do make mistakes, and the mistakes are made from a process issue instead of people.

Weathers said in light of this, the hospital has implemented a process that has gotten away from the primarily punitive aspect with a focus on altering policies and processes to lessen the amount of errors.

TRMC's steps taken to reduce harm and eliminate errors include the following:

n Identifying patients by date of birth and name to ensure appropriate medication and procedures are conducted. Through the use of bands and bar-codes, Weathers said, the hospital can better ensure that patients receive the proper medications and treatment.

n Improving communication through reading written doctor orders and standardizing abbreviations, acronyms and symbols. Also, a handwriting policy has been implemented that requires inspections and holds physicians up to handwriting legibility standards and tests.

"If they fail two out of three inspectors ... then they have to print, take a course or do dictation," Weathers said.

n Improving the safety of high-alert medications by limiting their locations and standardizing medicine concentrations.

"All premixed solutions or solutions that are mixed are mixed in the pharmacy or are bought already mixed," Weathers said.

n Eliminating "wrong site, wrong procedure" surgical procedures by implementing several check stations to ensure the hospital has the right person, having the right operation on the right body part. A surgeon is required to mark the right spot with a "Yes," and every surgical case is looked at for complications, Weathers said.

n Starting six-month testing of clinical alarm systems, such as blood pressure monitors and intensive care monitors, to ensure the systems are audible and operable.

n Emphasizing the importance of hand-washing techniques through awareness campaigns.

n Reconciling medications across continuum of care to ensure the patient is receiving right medications throughout hospital stay requiring each department that serves patient to rewrite medication orders.

"It is a little difficult with our different kinds of computer systems in some areas, but we are getting close to getting that complete," Weathers said.

n Reducing patient falls by making more frequent bathroom rounds and giving patients greater accessibility to food.

"Every patient in the hospital has a fall assessment done every day," Weathers said. "We try to figure out who the patients are that are going to fall ... and to do what it takes to prevent."

In other business:

n Trustees agreed to maintain the Dec. 28 meeting date for the next board meeting despite the Christmas holiday weekend.

n In an attempt to address recent board evaluations, trustees were encouraged to better tackle issues such as quality of care, human resources and disproportionate share.

n Announced the slate of officers for 2005 with Millie W. Brunson, chair; Willie B. Owens, vice chair and Horace James, secretary.

n Named the TRMC executive committee for 2005 as Joseph Rice, past president at-large; Judith Salley Guydon, at-large; James Amaker, at-large; Jerry Degen, chair of the medical staff committee.

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