Safety

How is Riverview Health addressing safety?

Riverview Health prides itself on being a safe place to receive care as well as a safe place for our staff. We have multiple policies and procedures in place to reduce the risk of serious safety issues, otherwise known as “never events” and have committees in place that review these policies routinely in order to stay up-to-date with evidence-based practice. We conduct periodic audits to determine compliance with policies and safe practices.

Below, you can find a few examples of what we have been doing to improve the quality and safety of our patients.

Prioritizing Quality

Riverview Health has Pillars of Excellence that represent the organizational foundation of our mission to improve and preserve the health and well-being of those we serve. The first pillar is Quality and the goals identified on this pillar become goals for the entire organization. For 2023, Riverview Health is:

• Working to improve sepsis care: Early identification and treatment of sepsis is imperative to improve outcomes and save the lives of our patients. We have a multidisciplinary team utilizing best practices to improve our sepsis bundle compliance.
• Reducing readmissions: No one wants to come back to the hospital. Riverview Health team members evaluate readmission information to improve our processes and transitions of care in order to better serve you.
• Harm reduction: Hospital-acquired infections, such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections, central-line-associated bloodstream infections and surgical site infections are addressed utilizing best practices to prevent these events from occurring. In 2022, we saw a greater than 50 percent reduction in these infections and are continuing our efforts in 2023.

The full list of quality and safety initiatives Riverview Health reports to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) can be found by accessing the CMS Hospital Compare website: here.