DHB continually looking at improvements

30 November 2009

District health board continually looking at improvements

Hawke’s Bay District Health Board is continually looking at improving systems and processes to reduce the risk of adverse events.

Chief executive Kevin Snee said work on improving systems to prevent serious and major events was ongoing. Quality Improvement programmes such as Optimising the Patient Journey, event reporting, route cause analysis, infection prevention training programmes and work to identify patients most at risk of falls had all helped reduce the number of events this year.

“The DHB has had a rigorous reporting process in place for some time and the public can be assured that there is an excellent practice of reporting and investigation continually carried out.

“Any event highlighted a continuing need for improvement and the DHB was continually building on its strong quality and risk focus to develop a culture of patient safety.

“Any death or injury is a tragedy and of great concern to all our all our clinicians, nurses and Allied Health staff – we must maintain this transparent process of being able to report adverse events and when things go wrong as it helps us improve and learn.”

Hawke’s Bay Hospital treats about 30,000 patients every year. Most people were treated without any adverse event, however despite the best possible efforts, things can go wrong, Dr Snee said.

The DHB is constantly seeking ways to improve performance and to review deaths and adverse outcomes to find out what happened and to identify areas requiring improvement.

ENDS

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