Patient Safety

The safety of our patients is very important to us. We encourage our patients to take an active role in their own safety by being knowledgeable about their own health condition(s). As the patient member of the healthcare team, your involvement and knowledge about your health condition, treatment and medication can go a long way in maintaining a safe healthcare environment.

During the first few days of your hospital stay, you will be given the opportunity to attend a patient and family orientation session. You will get more information on patient safety, falls prevention, hand washing techniques and ways to speak up about your hospital care. 

Speak Up!

At Adventist HealthCare Rehabilitation, we promote the "Speak Up" program that is sponsored by The Joint Commission, a national accrediting organization. We encourage you to:

• Speak up if you have questions or concerns
• Pay attention to the care you are receiving
• Educate yourself about your diagnosis, medical test(s) and treatment plan
• Ask a trusted family member or friend to be your advocate
• Know the medications you are taking and why you are taking them
• Ask about the facilities certification for the services provided
• Participate in all decisions about your treatment

An example of a way you can "Speak Up" is to make sure that staff are checking your armband before administering medications. You will receive this armband when you are admitted. It has your name, medical record and other identifying information on it. Don't be afraid to tell the staff if he or she does not check your armband. WE WANT YOU TO "SPEAK UP!"

Please use our Patient Safety Hotline if you have suggestions or would like to communicate patient safety concerns to our Quality Management Department. The hotline is confidential and anonymous and is accessible 24 hours a day. To contact the hotline please dial 240-864-6055.

If you or a family member has a concern, please voice this concern to the charge nurse and/or nurse manager.

Infection Control

There are many ways to prevent infections during your stay in the hospital. Hand washing is the single most important way to prevent the spread of infections. While in our facility, you will notice Purell hand sanitizing gel dispensers in multiple areas around the hospital. We encourage patients and visitors to use these dispensers often.

Santize Hands Before: eating, coming in contact with another person, apply makeup, or touching eyes, nose, mouth, etc.
Sanitize Hands After: using the restroom, touching another person, coughing or sneezing, or anytime hands are visibly soiled.

Our staff at Adventist HealthCare Rehabilitation understand the importance of hand washing and preventing infections. Don't be afraid to SPEAK UP! and ask your caregiver if they have washed their hands before they touch you.

Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE, is available for staff, patients and visitors at all times. This includes gloves, gowns, eye protection, and masks. Anyone experiencing signs of an infection will want to take extra precautions to keep themselves and loved ones safe by wearing PPE. This includes visitors and staff who enter the room. Certain types of infections will require extra precautions, called isolation precautions, to ensure all staff, visitors, and the patient remain safe. When this occurs, those entering the room will require PPE when coming in contact with the patient.

Fall Prevention

Adventist HealthCare Rehabilitation is committed to safe patient care in all areas. One of these areas is prevention of falls and patient injuries. On admission, every patient is assessed for their fall risk. In collaboration with the Maryland Patient Safety Center, a patient considered to be at "increased risk for falling," they will be given a yellow bracelet and yellow non-skid socks. Other precautions to prevent falls may include the use of a gait belt, personal alarms, low beds with mats and self-releasing lap belts. Our staff completes hourly rounding on every patient to address their needs and offer assistance.

Hand Washing

Hand washing is the single most importance mechanism for infection prevention. Adventist HealthCare Rehabilitation puts a very high priority on opportunities to sanitize hands for the safety of our patients. We encourage patients and visitors to ask their caregivers to wash their hands before touching the patient. Our staff are committed to washing their hands upon entry and exit of the patient room. Many other opportunities exist to sanitize hands, which is an expectation of our employees. These include but are not limited to:

• Before:
  • Coming on duty
  • Entering patient/resident room
  • Each patient/resident encounter
  • Applying gloves
  • Entering an area on isolation precautions
• After:
  • Coming in contact with patient/resident's intact skin, (i.e., taking a patient's/resident's blood pressure, pulse, lifting/moving the patient/resident)
  • Working on a contaminated body site and then moving to a clean body site on the same patient/resident
  • Coming in contact with bodily fluids, dressings, mucous membranes, etc., and hands are not visibly soiled (i.e., handling sputum containers, bedpans, urinals, catheters)
  • Contact with medical equipment/supplies in patient/resident areas
  • Using the restroom
  • Blowing or wiping the nose
  • Eating

Do not be afraid to SPEAK UP! and ask our staff to sanitize their hands. We are committed to safe patient care and excellence in hand hygiene.