There has been several reports in the news this week questioning the quality of care provided in hospitals and nursing homes.
On 29 May 2017, agedcareguide.com.au reported on a study revealing an alarming increase of premature deaths in residential aged care homes. A study published in the Medical Journal of Australia has found that ‘preventable’ and premature deaths of residents in Australian nursing homes has risen 400 percent in the last decade. Click here to read article.
agedcareinsight.com.au also reported that the number of nursing home residents dying prematurely as a result of a potentially preventable injury has skyrocketed over the past decade, leading to calls for prompt national action to improve the safety of frail Australians. Click here to read article.
Five private hospitals in Perth are also running a “Speak Up” for Patient Safety program starting at Hollywood and Glengarry private hospitals, Joondalup and Peal health campuses and Attadale rehabilitation hospital. Click here to read more.
As an equipment specialist for healthcare providers, Unicare Health understands how important equipment safety is for a nursing home or hospital. We are committed to working with hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities to improve quality of care through equipment safety. Our equipment specialist team often conduct audits at nursing homes and hospitals to ensure that equipment is being maintained to the highest standards. Equipment that is not regularly maintained can be extremely dangerous to both patient and carer alike.
Nursing beds with faulty side rails, improper maintenance and use of patient hoists, defective walkers and mobility equipment with loose joints etc. are just a few examples of how potential falls and accidents can happen in a hospital, nursing home or even in a home environment. Regular equipment check ups can help to make equipment safer to use and reduce the potential dangers faulty equipment can cause.
Many hospitals and nursing homes choose to do yearly equipment audits with Unicare Health because they want to make sure they actually have all the equipment listed on their asset sheet.
One of the first steps in our equipment audit process is to make sure that nursing beds, chairs, walking frames, wheelchairs, shower commodes, patient hoists, patient slings etc. is at the physical location that it is assigned to be at. We tag these equipment so that we can track them in Unitrax – Unicare’s cloud based intelligent asset management platform pre-configured for healthcare facilities.
Unitrax was built in conjunction with AS/NZS 3551:2012 ‘Management Programs for Medical Equipment’ and best practices. It is designed for hospitals and nursing homes to save money and reduce risk through proper equipment monitoring and maintenance. Unitrax is the central hub of asset data including service history of every individual piece of your equipment, documentation, attributes, expected lifespan, and reporting.
After tagging equipment, we then begin with visual inspections of equipment area by area, around the hospital or nursing home. Our service technicians will thoroughly look at all the components of the equipment to make sure they are in good working condition. This visual inspection will also note any repairs that may have been made, that need to be made, or upgrades that could be made to make the equipment more effective. If there are any severe safety issues that could cause potential harm to the user or carer, our service technicians and product specialists will recommend repairs or replacement options.
This is an example of a faulty patient hoist discovered during our equipment audits, that could cause serious harm to the user and carer. It is a piece of equipment that has been worn over the years and modified several times over service repairs, causing it to lose its integrity and safety of use. Potentially dangerous equipment like this, needs to be reported to management and decommissioned.
During our audits we also report on responsible measures that can be taken within a healthcare facility, such as locations that could benefit from the installation of hand rails, accessible ramps and other precautionary measures that can help to reduce the number of falls among patients and carers.
If you are managing a hospital or nursing home and worried about the safety of your existing equipment, or in need of equipment safety maintenance, test or tagging, please do not hesitate to call Unicare Health on 1800 656 654 or email [email protected]. We are committed to working together with you towards a safer healthcare environment.