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October 30, 2017

MCH joins patient safety network

McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) has taken another significant step towards improving patient safety. The hospital recently joined the Children’s Hospitals’ Solutions for Patient Safety Network (SPS Network), a group of over 120 Canadian and American children’s hospitals working together to improve patient safety.

People usually think about hospitals as a place to go when they need to get better. Unfortunately, there are a lot of risk factors in the hospital environment that can cause illness and injury. Risks include infections in IV lines and surgical sites, pressure sores and falls. These events are called hospital-acquired conditions and can result in additional treatment and longer stays. SPS Network hospitals are collaborating to prevent these risks and associated harm, with a focus on keeping patients safe.

“We’ve been working hard to make safety our top priority at McMaster Children’s Hospital.”

“Joining the SPS Network will allow us to share with and learn from other organizations,” says Filomena Canci Tavares, clinical manager of patient safety at MCH. “It’s an “all teach, all learn” approach and that allows us to pool our knowledge to prevent harm and improve care.”

Network hospitals follow standardized, evidence-based protocols that have been developed to protect patients from preventable hospital-acquired conditions. Sharing information and data has allowed the network to refine these protocols, and they’ve achieved a significant reduction in hospital acquired infections and medication errors across all participating pediatric hospitals. All network hospitals have committed to a 40 per cent reduction in hospital-acquired conditions by the end of 2018.

“We’ve been working hard to make safety our top priority at McMaster Children’s Hospital,” says Dr. Peter Fitzgerald, vice president of MCH. “We’re continuously evaluating the care we provide. Joining the SPS Network will allow us to do so with even more information at our fingertips.”

Staff at MCH are passionate about involving parents and family members in patient safety initiatives. Through the SPS Network, they will continue to educate families about how they can contribute to a safe healing environment by learning what to look out for and speaking up when they are worried about their child.