Patient Safety

At MemorialCare, we understand how important reliable, consistent and safe patient care is to you and your family.

When the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued their reports on quality of health care in America, To Err is Human: Building a Safer Healthcare System (1999), MemorialCare was already committed to the creation and integration of a robust patient safety program as an essential component of our quality patient care.

Patient Safety Resources

Patient Safety Tips from Orange Coast Memorial

MemorialCare Focus on Patient Safety

We believe that accountability for patient safety is embedded in a collaborative relationship involving our governing board, administrative leadership, our medical staff, employees, you and your family.

Our Patient Safety Program is a formalized, multi-faceted plan that is evaluated annually. It includes the following critical components:

Leadership Commitment
Our administrative and medical leadership has defined patient safety as a MemorialCare priority in strategic planning, employee performance evaluations, organizational culture, and resource allocation.

Culture of Safety Survey
Regular feedback is encouraged and solicited from our physicians, employees, and patients about patient safety aspects. The feedback information is aggregated and integrated in the annual review and the MemorialCare Patient Safety Program.

Patient Safety Education
Ongoing, current patient safety education is included in physician and employee development programs. The multi-faceted approach includes awareness campaigns, written articles, continuing education programs, seminars, pocket cards, and clinical tools. Our Patient Education Program encourages your active participation in learning about safety strategies and practicing them in each health care interaction.

Leaping Ahead in Patient Safety

For two consecutive years, Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach has been named to the Leapfrog Top Hospitals list. Only eight pediatric hospitals nationwide received this honor in 2007 and only two pediatric hospitals in California.

All five MemorialCare Medical Centers are listed in the top 25 percent nationally for the Leapfrog Quality Index measuring 27 indicators of hospital-based patient safety. Based on the National Quality Forum Safe Practices for better health a consortium of 160 public and private organizations that provide health care benefits to milions of employees, the Leapfrog Group works with medical experts throughout the United States to help consumers make more informed hospital choices.

At MemorialCare Medical Centers, teams of doctors, nurses and other professionals have worked together for years to refine many practices that affect patient safety. Dozens of innovations have been introduced at MemorialCare to establish a culture of patient safety. The Leapfrog Group designation acknowledges these advances, placing Memorial Medical Centers among the best in the nation. For more information, go to: www.leapfroggroup.org.

MemorialCare Medical Centers have voluntarily completed the Leapfrog Survey every year since 2002.

MC*21 The Next Generation of Care

MemorialCare Medical Centers have embarked upon MC*21, a system wide effort to improve and simplify care delivery processes.

MC*21 provides frontline caregivers with state-of-the-art tools for care, including innovative equipment for documentation and information retrieval. The result is greater efficiency, enhanced patient safety and more time for caregivers to do what they do best — care for patients.

But MC*21 is about much more than new technology. This effort greatly facilitates the implementation of evidence-based, best practice medicine. Additionally, MC*21 redefines the way physicians and hospital staff work and communicate with each other. With streamlined electronic medical records systems in place, caregivers have more time for one on one health care delivery.