Our Patient Safety Goals and Practices

In all patient safety practices in our hospitals, services are provided in line with the principle of “first do no harm”, which was first expressed by Hippocrates and has become the general principle of medicine, and in accordance with the Joint Commission International International Patient Safety Goals.

Correct Patient Identification 

Incorrect patient authentication can lead to wrong person and wrong procedure errors, treatment errors, medication errors, diagnostic errors and more that can cause patient harm. It is therefore of vital importance. Authentication is performed using at least two of the authentication parameters defined in our hospitals (name/surname, date of birth, protocol number) and is accurately matched to our patients in all care settings with the intended treatments and services.

Improving Effective Communication 

Effective communication is communication that is timely, accurate, precise, complete, free of ambiguity and understood by the receiver, which reduces errors and results in improvement in patient care. 
Effective communication is important as it directly causes medical errors that frequently occur in the provision of health services. Communication that is timely, complete, accurate, accurate, complete, does not create uncertainty and is understandable by the recipient increases patient safety by reducing errors. For this reason, standardized processes are implemented in our hospitals in order to improve and develop the effective communication process of healthcare professionals. 

Patient-specific information is transferred from one caregiver to another in an interactive, complete and accurate manner, using a standardized communication technique, when.

• At shift changes
• In cases where patient information is transmitted for the purpose of treatment and examination when healthcare workers leave their workplace for a short period of time (meal and tea breaks, etc.),
• Patient transfers (internal and external)
• Persons to whom doctors delegate the care, treatment and responsibilities of the patient and in the process of receiving the patient
• In the information provided by our healthcare professionals to patients / patient relatives at every stage of care and during the discharge process.
  Timely notification of critical test results of our patients is ensured.

Verbal and telephone directives are accepted only in accordance with established criteria and rules in order to prevent errors caused by verbal communication. 

 

Improving Medicines Safety 

Ensuring the Safety of High Risk Medicines 

The Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) defines high-risk medicines as “medicines that, when used incorrectly, pose a high risk of serious harm to the patient.” High-risk medication errors can lead to injury or death of patients and the potential additional costs associated with their care. Regardless of how frequent errors associated with these medicines are, the consequences of such an error are clearly more devastating for patients.

Our key objective for ensuring the safety of high-risk medicines is to develop robust, well-developed risk mitigation strategies that reduce the risk of error and minimize harm.

In our hospitals, standardized safe approaches are applied for each drug group in line with the High Risk Drugs List prepared for drugs that have been identified as posing a high risk in terms of undesirable outcomes. The list is reviewed and updated every year in line with the current literature and additional precautions are taken for the storage, preparation, administration and monitoring stages of these drugs and our healthcare professionals are trained.. 

Ensuring the Safety of Medicines Similar in Appearance-Speech-Spelling 

Many medicine names are similar in appearance or spelling to other medicine names. Medicines with similar product packaging or similar names can be easily confused by healthcare workers and can lead to potentially harmful medication errors. Our hospitals have standardized risk mitigation strategies in place for these groups of medicines, such as defined lists, systematic warnings to draw the attention of healthcare workers, special rules for storage conditions and labeling.  

Ensuring the Safety of Concentrated Electrolytes

Concentrated electrolyte is the name given to concentrated forms of drugs in the electrolyte group that need to be diluted or prepared differently before intravenous administration.

Incorrect or unintentional administration of concentrated electrolytes can lead to fatal errors. In order to reduce or prevent such incidents, risk mitigation strategies are implemented and safety precautions are rigorously taken in line with defined standard processes for the safe management of concentrated electrolytes in our hospitals.

Other Medication Safety Practices

Our Clinical Pharmacy Services team checks the safe use of the medicines in your treatment plan (dose compliance, interactions, etc.)
Specified medicines are prepared and safely transferred by the Pharmacy in HEPA filtered laminar flow cabinets.

Ensuring Safe Surgery 

Wrong patient, wrong site and wrong procedure surgery poses a serious risk that can result in patient harm. 
In our hospitals, a standardized approach covering all surgical and interventional procedures has been adopted and implemented to ensure the right side, right procedure and right patient surgery.

Informing the Patient and Obtaining Written Consent 

Before the surgery/procedure to be performed, our patients are informed in detail by the doctor about the benefits and risks of the surgery/procedure, alternative treatment options, expected success and recovery process, their questions are answered and written consent is obtained. 
Marking
The surgical / invasive procedure area is marked by the primary surgeon in a hospital-defined manner by the primary surgeon in cases requiring side (right - left separation), level determination or multiple organs (with the participation of the patient such as fingers). 

Time-out - Last Check 

Time-out is the name given to the final verification process that takes place just before starting the surgery/procedure, when all team members are present.
During the time-out, our surgical team agrees on the following points

-That the patient is the right person 
-That the action to be taken is correct
-The surgical/invasive procedure area is correct
Time-out is done after the patient arrives at the place where the procedure is to be performed and the whole team actively participates in this final verification process.  It is not mandatory for the patient to attend the time-out. After agreement is reached, the operation / procedure starts.

Sign-out - Exit Control

It is the name given to the control process applied before the patient leaves after the operation / procedure is finished.

The following information is confirmed and verified.

-Name of the surgical/invasive procedure recorded/written
-Completion of instrument, sponge and needle counts (if applicable)
-Accuracy of the labeling of the samples taken 
-Equipment issues that need to be addressed
-Quality improvement activities to follow up on what went well and any issues noted and where necessary

Reducing the Risk of Infection Associated with Patient Care

Patient care-associated infections are infections that are transmitted to patients during the provision of healthcare services and can negatively affect the treatment process. These infections can complicate patients' recovery, lead to complications and prolong hospitalization..

Proper hand hygiene is key to eliminating hospital-acquired and other infections.
Up-to-date, evidence-based hand hygiene guidelines have been adopted and implemented in our hospitals. All employees are trained in line with our Infection Control Program. 
Compliance with hand hygiene is continuously monitored by our trained hand hygiene monitors.
Air blown dryers are not used throughout the hospital. 
Standardized appropriate isolation measures are taken for our patients with infections. 
Our patients and patient relatives are provided with trainings on the prevention of infections. 
Hospital cleaning is carried out in line with established standards. 
A Global Infection Action Plan is in place to ensure that our hospitals are prepared in case of a possible epidemic / global infection. In this context, regular trainings are provided and drills are conducted. 
Processes for the prevention and control of infections are continuously monitored and periodically evaluated by our Infection Control Committee.