Dear Colleagues,
Accreditation is here! This week, six Accreditation Canada surveyors will be touring the TGH, PMH, and TWH sites to assess our compliance with national standards of excellence in quality and safety of services. This is an opportunity for all of us to highlight the quality initiatives, innovation, patient-centred approach and interprofessional teamwork entrenched in UHN.
Everyone is part of Accreditation Week - surveyors will engage a wide variety of staff, physicians, and patients/families. Their interactions will focus on the day-to-day work of staff in their particular areas of the hospital. If you are approached by a surveyor and asked a queston that you are unable to answer, please direct the surveyor towards another staff member whom you feel may be able to answer the question. Surveyors may come to a particular location more than once, as each tracer is a unique and flexible process.
Along with asking questions, the surveyors will be assessing actions of staff, including:
- Wearing your UHN ID badge
- Washing your hands before and after each interaction with a patient or patient environment, before an aseptic procedure or exposure to bodily fluids
- Positively identifying all patients prior to any provision of service
- Knowing how to respond in an emergency
The survey team members come from different health care organizations across Canada and have backgrounds in a variety of health professions. You can
learn more about the members on the Corporate Intranet.
Remember to showcase unit/department initiatives with the surveyors – you have much to be proud of so please share!
Please join me in welcoming the survey team to UHN and thank them for assisting our organization in continuous quality improvement.
Bob
