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What’s NEW
Patient Safety is a big deal here
Everyone, from the CEO and Board,
to managers and frontline staff, is
working to make our hospitals as safe
as possible for our patients by following
the National Patient Safety Goals and
other practices that have been shown
to reduce harm and death.
Patients and families play an important patient-safety role. Our SPEAK UP campaign engages patients and families to tell staff about any concerns or questions they might have. To help encourage this effort, you may see staff wearing buttons that say, “It’s OK to ask me if I’ve washed my hands.” Patients and families should ask anyone who enters the patient’s room to wash their hands if the patient or family did not see them do so.
Brochures about the SPEAK UP
program are available in the lobby by
the SPEAK UP posters and in preadmission
materials. Patients and
families are highly encouraged to
read this material and to become
involved in patient safety.
Speak up if you have questions
or concerns.
Pay attention to the care you are
receiving.
Educate yourself about your
diagnosis, tests and treatment.
Ask someone you trust to be
your advocate.
Know what medications you take
and why you take them.
Use healthcare organizations that
have been evaluated against
established standards.
Participate in all decisions about
your healthcare.
Electronic medical
records
This winter you will
start seeing our
patient-care staff
wheeling computers
into patient rooms to
track care, instead of
using paper charts. It’s
the first phase of our new
electronic-medical-records
system, designed to support patient
safety. This new technology will allow
doctors, nurses, and other healthcare
providers the most up-to-date
information about the patient’s
condition. Medical-record
information will remain completely
secure with special electronic
safeguards in place.
Easier-to-read statements
We know our patient statements
have been difficult to understand, so
we did something about it. The new
format, which begins with December
2006 services, will be easier to read
and more informative than our
current statements. The new
statements will list the name of the
insurance and the date the insurance
was billed, a summary of charges,
phone numbers to call with your
questions, and more.
Charity-care improvements
Our financial-assistance and charitycare
policies were updated Sept. 1,
2006 and include a 15 percent
courtesy discount to
uninsured patients.
The charity-care
policy now
allows patients
with an income
of up to 400
percent of the
federal poverty
level to be
considered for a
charity adjustment,
using a sliding scale.
The old limit was 200 percent of the
poverty level. These policies are available
at www.salemhospital.org/financial.
Dallas hospital outreach
West Valley Hospital in Dallas
continues its outreach to the
community by sponsoring a
community health fair this winter,
with the intention of making it an
annual event. To keep up on what’s
happening at West Valley Hospital,
check out their monthly ads in the
Polk County Itemizer-Observer.
Facility-replacement project
continues as planned
Please the construction update in this issue of "The Messenger"
in the class insert
for details about the latest travel
and parking changes. You can keep
up with construction activity at
www.salemhospital.org/newhospital.
