Patient Safety at Mount Sinai West

Across Mount Sinai Health System, we are dedicated to the highest standards of quality, safety, and patient experience. We have many processes and programs in place for our doctors, nurses and entire care team to provide the safest possible care for every patient.

These are a few of the many things we do to keep you safe:

• Antibiotic Resistance: Frequent use of antibiotics is an important patient safety and public health issue because it can lead to antibiotic resistance and make it harder to treat infections and illnesses. Even appropriate use of antibiotics can cause harm. To improve the quality of your loved ones’ care, we have a dedicated program aimed at improving antibiotic prescribing. Your health care providers will explain to you why you do or do not need antibiotics. They will outline the risks and benefits of using antibiotics for your current medical condition.
• Blood Safety: We have systems in place to keep blood products safe from contamination. We also ensure the right patient gets the right product at the right time.
• Electronic Medical Records: An Electronic Medical Record (EMR) includes information about a patient’s health history, such as medical history, diagnosis, medicines, allergies, immunizations, lab results and treatment plans. Mount Sinai Health System uses Epic as its EMR and our care teams use it to coordinate care and enhance communication. As a Mount Sinai patient, you have access through MyMountSinai on a password-protected, secure internet site. These sites allow patients to see their medical information and communicate with the care team. Sharing medical information helps patients engage with their care teams and patients can be more involved in decision making about their health care. Visit MyMountSinai to enroll
• Equity in Quality Initiatives: Our goal is to better understand where health inequities exist and how to develop a framework to reduce these inequities. Through engagement with leaders from across the Mount Sinai Health System, we hope to expand existing initiatives and identify areas of growth to improve health outcomes for all populations and communities served. Learn more about Mount Sinai’s Equity in Quality Initiatives
• Fall Reduction Program: Reducing the risk of patient falls while at the hospital is a top priority. To prevent patients from falling and to keep you safe, we have remote patient monitoring, bathroom call bells and hourly care checks. When we visit you during our care checks, we focus on checking for pain, seeing if you need help using the toilet or changing your position and we make sure your phone, call bell, TV remote, water, reading glasses, and other things you might need are easily within reach. We focus on your comfort and safety during your hospital stay.
• Hand Hygiene: Hand hygiene is everyone’s responsibility, and frequent handwashing prevents the spread of infections. We track hand hygiene through random anonymous observation of our staff. Collecting data helps us identify barriers to consistent hand washing. All our hospitals collect a set number of observations per month, and we coach employees on correct hand hygiene practices. Patients and visitors can always ask staff to clean their hands if they do not see them do so when they enter the treatment room or area.
• Healthcare-Associated Infection: Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are infections people get while receiving care in a hospital or other healthcare setting, caused by bacteria, viruses, or other pathogens. We can prevent most HAIs through good hand hygiene, caring properly for catheters and IVs, and regularly cleaning and disinfecting patient care areas. Learn more about Healthcare-Associated Infections
• Medication Administration: To avoid against medication errors, we focus on the “five-rights”- giving the right dose of the right drug at the right time to the right patient. And we make sure to administer it in the right way. In many areas of the hospital including the emergency room and inpatient units, we use a bar code medication administration (BCMA) system. The nurse scans a patient’s wristband and each medication before giving it to a patient to prevent medication errors.
• Patient Experience: Patient Experience is the sum of all interactions that patients have with the Mount Sinai Health System. It is the delivery of safe, high quality, equitable, and compassionate care in every encounter, with every patient who walks through our doors. We continually listen to our patients through patient surveys, comments, focus groups, and patient & family partnerships – all in effort to better understand what a great experience looks like, to recognize our staff members, and to continuously improve how we care for patients, their families, and our collective community. When we work together as a team, with our staff, patients, and family voices at the center, we can sustain an exceptional experience for both staff and patients. Learn more about Mount Sinai’s commitment to improving the patient experience
• Patient Identification: To avoid medical errors, our care teams will confirm a patient’s identity, by asking for your first and last name and date of birth. This identification process is done before drawing blood for lab tests; before administering medications; before patients receiving blood transfusions; before tests (e.g. x-rays, MRIs); and before any procedure, every time.
• Surgical and Procedural Safety: Our care teams use safety checks and structured conversations to make your procedure as smooth, safe, and comfortable as possible. Before, during, and after procedures in the emergency room, operating rooms, and doctor’s offices you may see members of your care team use colorful checklists so that they do not miss a single step in your care.