CCME Joins Nationwide Effort to Promote Patient Safety Awareness

In an effort to raise awareness and to encourage patients, caregivers, physicians, and health care organizations to work together to improve the safety of patient care at the local level, The Carolinas Center for Medical Excellence (CCME) will join in the 2012 Patient Safety Awareness Week Campaign, Be Aware for Safe Care. Patient Safety Awareness Week, which will take place March 4-10, 2012, is an annual education and awareness campaign for health care safety led by the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). Each year, health care organizations around the world take part in the event by prominently displaying the campaign logo and promotional materials within their organizations, creating awareness in the community, and deploying NPSF educational resources to hospital staff.

“Everyone has a responsibility to help improve patient care,” said Jill McArdle, RN, MSPH, CPHQ, director of federal programs & services at CCME. “The coordinated efforts of doctors, patients, hospitals, nursing homes, and all health care providers and organizations are essential to providing quality health care and preventing medical errors and harm to patients.”

CCME, the Quality Improvement Organization of North and South Carolina, has long supported the efforts to increase consumer awareness and involvement in patient safety. CCME has been working extensively for many years with health care providers to improve their processes and systems through evidence-based interventions to reduce medical errors. They also collaborate with several organizations and patient advocacy groups to share knowledge and encourage consumer empowerment and better communications to help prevent avoidable medical errors.

“Patient safety is a national priority and one of CCME’s most important commitments here in the Carolinas,” McArdle said.

As part of its endeavors, CCME will engage staff, patients, and the community through educational and awareness-building activities specific to patient safety. The campaign seeks to make patients, providers, and the public aware of the ways they can participate in and partner to improve patient safety. While undertakings of the past decade have brought improvements, recent studies indicate that much work remains to be done—and can be done most effectively through the involvement of all parties.

“The more we work together to promote patient safety, the more we all benefit from a safe health care system,” said Diane C. Pinakiewicz, MBA, president, National Patient Safety Foundation. NPSF encourages creative collaboration among provider groups, patient advocates, and other community organizations to help patients and consumers understand how they can participate to be part of the solution.

For more information about CCME’s patient safety initiative, visit www.ccmemedicare.org . To learn more about Patient Safety Awareness Week, visit www.npsf.org. 

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