We urge you and your family to become part of our patient safety team.
For our patient safety program to be truly effective, we need you to be fully informed and actively involved in your care.
What does your involvement in patient safety mean to you and your family?
We want you to become a partner in the development of a safe care plan. Your active involvement will help us consistently do the right thing at the right time for the right person – you.
We hope you will read on. Here are a few other things to consider:
If you haven't done so, visit My HealtheVet: My HealtheVet is a web-based product that gives you the information and tools you need to improve your health. You'll have to register to have full access to all features, but it's easy: Just click on the "Register Now" button on the left hand side of the MyhealtheVet home page (noted above) and follow the instructions.
Once registered, you'll be able to…
You'll also have access more than 18 million pages of health information from the site’s Health Education Library!
Check out these tips compiled by the VA:
Don't be afraid to ask questions if you have doubts or concerns: Speak up! This will allow your VA healthcare providers an opportunity to better assist you. We want you to understand your treatment plan and why we have chosen it for you.
Questions are the Answer, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), has suggested general questions, treatment specific questions, and a Build Your Question List tool.
Understand your role in your care: VHA's Patient Advocate site has published Patient Rights and Responsibilities so that you will better understand what to expect from care provided by VA. This document covers topics from your participation in healthcare decisions to keeping personal clothes and effects.
Involve your loved ones: Keep your loved ones informed about your care plan. Better yet, ask a family member to assist you in understanding and carrying out your care plan.
10 Tips for safer health care: what everyone needs to know, produced by Queensland Health, lists ways become more actively involved in your own health care decision making.
Make sure you and your caregivers are clear about what medications you take: Be sure to tell your caregivers what medications you are taking, including non-prescription medications, vitamins and herbal remedies. When you receive a prescription, make sure it is the right medication and the right dose. Here's an easy-to-use medication record sheet to help with keeping track of all of these - just fill it in. Be sure to keep your list up to date!
Home Oxygen Safety: A Veteran's Story Veterans who use home medical oxygen and their family members need to keep basic safety issues in mind to avoid fires and injuries. Listen to one Veteran's true story on this video and avoid learning "the hard way," as he did.
VA's Home Oxygen Safety Video - Produced by the Northern Arizona VA Health Care System and the National Fire Safety Organization.
Here are a few other sources of information available online:
Infection: Don't pass it on! : Did you know that each year, many lives and millions of dollars are lost due to the spread of infections in hospitals? Don't be afraid to remind friends, family and healthcare providers to wash and sanitize their hands before coming into direct contact with you. Want to learn more about what the VA is doing? Take a look at the Infection: Don't Pagvbss It On! web site.
For information about what you can do to help protect yourself and your loved ones from health care related infections, visit Safe Care Campaign: Preventing Health Care and Community Acquired Infections.
Having Surgery? Review VA's five-step "Ensuring Correct Surgery" process: We have information that will help you to understand what will happen before your surgery and how your doctors and nurses will take action to make sure that everything goes as planned. We have a five-step process that we call "Ensuring Correct Surgery."
Read our patient brochure and how find out how the process involves you!
Know what to do after being discharged from your VA medical facility: Make sure you understand what you need to do to keep your care plan active. Take time to speak to your caregivers about what medications you'll need and when you'll need to take them. Make sure you have contact information for one or more of your caregivers if you have further questions once you get home.
Learn more about how to plan your recovery. Falls are a serious concern, especially for older veterans. Learn more about fall prevention at home.
Here are number of other web sites that we hope will be helpful to you:
Five steps to Safer Healthcare from "My HealtheVet (public welcome)
University of California, San Francisco, offers a brochure, "Patient Safety & You" and patient safety page, Patient Safety
The North American Spine Society also offers advice on patient safety
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's "20 Tips to Help Prevent Medical Errors"
SafeMedication.com features complete, easy-to-read information on more than 800 drugs and general information on medications.
Patient and Nursing Home Resident Rights and Responsibilities from VHA outlines basics regarding respect, nondiscrimination, information disclosure, confidentiality, participation in treatment decisions and complaints.
The ACCE Healthcare Technology Foundation has published two brochures entitled Home Medical Device: Can I bring my own medical device with me to the hospital (Spanish version) and Fire Safety and Oxygen: A Patient Guide (Spanish version).
Some final thoughts…
Remember what our parents used to tell us before crossing the street? Before you proceed: "stop, look and listen." Our parents' aim was to involve us in making the right decision. They didn’t want us to be harmed because we were caught off guard.
Patient safety can be that simple for you and your family…
Above all, be proactive! Let us know if you feel the need to vary your care plan. Explain why. We'll listen.
Bottom line: As a well-informed patient, you can help us create a safer VA healthcare system.