Barbara Stehling

"Before the survey, we had done our periodic performance review, and critical test reporting was one of the items we identified that we were not in compliance with," says Barbara Stehling, RN, BSN, Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO)/continuing quality improvement coordinator and patient safety officer for SPMH."That was when we started working on our current process," she says.

Barbara Stehling, RN, SPMH JCAHO/Quality Coordinator, said that each fall questions about the types of flu circulating and the availability of vaccine increase.Stehling also indicated that many people erroneously assume that all staph infections are largely hospital associated.

"When we have had community education seminars on staph infections in the past, our attendees are surprised to find out how prevalent staph bacteria are and where these opportunistic super bugs can be found," she said.

Medication errors are 100 percent preventable, Stehling said.Frequently, she stated, patients come to the emergency department and are unable to tell caregivers what medications they are taking.

"It not only takes critical time to track down a patient's updated prescription records but also increases risk of caregivers unknowingly giving patients a medication that may negate the effects of their prescriptions," she emphasized.

"Before the survey, we had done our periodic performance review, and critical test reporting was one of the items we identified that we were not in compliance with," says Barbara Stehling, RN, BSN, Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO)/continuing quality improvement coordinator and patient safety officer for SPMH."That was when we started working on our current process," she says.

"Our scores for heart failure indicated that we had an opportunity to refine our processes," said Barbara Stehling, SPMH's continuous quality improvement officer.

Barbara Stehling, the Joint Commission-Continuous Quality Improvement coordinator at SPMH, said a hospital's participation in the program is an indicator of its commitment to quality care.

"Our hospital is at the forefront of this initiative," Stehling said.

She added that prior to joining the 100,000 Lives campaign, SPMH had all of the improvement changes in place except one - the rapid-response team.