Discussion Post: Safety & Security from High-Risk Legal & Health Threats
Describe one of the safety committees your organization uses and how it reduces risk within your organization. Who are the general members of the group, how often do they meet, and is there a regulatory requirement that they report or publish notes? Is this a good use of the staff's time or would another method that still addresses the safety goal of this group be more efficient?
The infection prevention committee is one of the safety committees in my organization. The committee is an essential part of the patient safety program of the health care facility. It is responsible for establishing and maintaining infection prevention and control, monitoring, surveillance, reporting, research, and education. This committee represents a multidisciplinary team of staff from nearly every department in the facility.
Members of the committee include:
o Infectious disease doctor
o Microbiologist
o Director of Hospital
o Head of Housekeeping
o Pharmacologist
o Infection Control Nurse
o Infection Control officer
They have a meeting on the first Monday of each month. The Hand Hygiene Champions committee recruits infection control advocates among the hospital's staff to gather hand hygiene adherence data through direct observation. This method has been proven to be the most accurate and reliable and it provides opportunities for immediate feedback if non-compliance is observed. As required by the Joint Commission, the committee must monitor compliance with hand hygiene, identify issues, and improve adherence to improve patient and staff safety (The Joint Commission, 2009). While direct observation has been known to be the gold standard in hand hygiene auditing, it requires appropriately trained observers in using the auditing tool to gather the most accurate data (The Joint Commission, 2009).
The response should include a reference list. One-inch margins, Using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, double-space and APA style of writing and citations.