Patient Safety

What is Safer Healthcare Now?

UHN participates/submits data to Safer Healthcare Now! (SHN) which is a patient safety initiative aimed at reducing preventable adverse events and deaths in Canadian healthcare. SHN campaign was launched by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) on April 12, 2005. SHN is patterned after the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), 100K Lives campaign (http://www.ihi.org/ihi).

What is the goal of Safer Healthcare Now?
The goal of SHN is to improve the safety of patient care in Canada through learning, sharing and implementing interventions that are known to reduce the number of injuries and avoidable deaths related to adverse events, such as infections and and medication incidents.

UHN Safer Healthcare Now! Interventions
	AMI - Acute Myocardial Infarction – implement treatment and care protocols known to reduce complications and deaths for heart attack patients
	CLI - Central Line Infections – prevent central venous catheter – related bloodstream infection (CR-BSI) and deaths from CR-BSI by implementing a set of evidence-based interventions in all patients requiring a central line.
	CRRT – Critical Care Outreach Team – prevent deaths in patients outside Intensive Care who are progressively failing through treatment by implementing rapid response teams.
	Med Rec – implement medication reconciliation to prevent adverse drug events and potential harm in patients in acute-care hospitals during admission, transfer, or discharge.
	NACS – New Approach to Controlling Superbugs - This initiative was designed to share new strategies (e.g. Positive Deviance) to help reduce health care associated infections like MRSA, VRE, and C difficile.
	SSI – Surgical Site Infections – prevent surgical site infections and deaths from SSI by implementing a set of evidence-based interventions in all surgical patients.
	VAP - Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia – prevent ventilator-associated pneumonia and deaths from VAP and other complications in patients on ventilators by implementing a set of interventions known as “VAP bundle”.
	VTE - Venous thromboembolism - Implement evidence-based best practice guidelines to ensure that general surgery and hip fracture surgery patients receive the appropriate thromboprophylaxis (primarily drugs that prevent blood clots) to prevent deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolus

For more information about Safer Healthcare Now, please visit their website: www.saferhealthcarenow.ca

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