When I heard that the National Patient Safety Foundation was celebrating Patient Safety Awareness Week this week, my first thought was "Great. What about the other 51 weeks out of the year?" If there were ever a time to get really sick and get rushed to the hospital, this would be the week to do it!

But patient safety is no joking matter. When the New York Times wrote about patient safety in hospitals last November, I don't think anyone in the healthcare field was surprised with the study's findings. The general public, on the other hand, was shocked to read that medical mistakes cause as many as 98,000 preventable deaths and over one million injuries a year. An even more shocking way to look at it is the oft-repeated phrase: "Hospitals kill a jumbo jet full of patients every day due to medical errors."

Studies attribute a large portion of these errors to poor communication and The Joint Commission has even stated that inefficient communication is consistently the root cause of sentinel events. It's no surprise then that the goal for the patient safety campaign is to improve patient care through better communication.

This is something that has always been a core value for Voalte. In fact, improving communication and patient outcomes is part of our Mission Statement. However, regardless of whether it's through Voalté or another system, hospitals need to think about their communication strategy as it relates to patient safety. The technology afforded by smartphones and other mobile devices, while certainly cool, is merely the enabler to improved communication. Think of it as trying to lose weight by buying a workout video. The video is the tool for success, but it's up to the viewer to watch the video, follow the routines correctly, and supplement it with a healthy diet. With the right communication diet, perhaps we can turn that jumbo jet into a little Cesna.

Hospitals all over the country are thinking about patient safety this week and communication plays a big role in that. Below is a fun video from UMC on the subject. Sometimes humor gets the message across more than you think. 

What's your hospital doing for Patient Safety Awareness Week?