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Patient Safety: A Pact and Our Promise

The health care professionals at Barnes-Jewish Hospital are committed to providing safe, high quality health care to patients every day. This is why we have adopted certain standards of clinical excellence and put programs in place to consistently deliver exceptional care.

Clinical Excellence

Patients expect high standards of clinical excellence from Barnes-Jewish Hospital. To consistently deliver this high quality care, we offer both proven techniques and new treatments most likely to improve the health of our patients. These measures include minimizing the risk of hospital infections, developing processes to ensure safer surgery and establishing systems for tracking medication accuracy.

For example, Barnes-Jewish uses DoseChecker and PharmADE; two "pharmacy expert systems" developed by the hospital’s pharmacy department and medical informatics researchers at Washington University in St. Louis.

These computer-based tools automatically review prescription orders, compare them to patient-specific information in the Barnes-Jewish database and identify potentially harmful drug interactions or dosages outside the normal range. This “safety net” alerts pharmacists to potential medication issues, which then are discussed with the patient's doctor. DoseChecker and PharmADE received a National Hospital Pharmacy Quality Award and have been recognized by the Smithsonian Institution.

Proven Care

In addition to continually reviewing clinical processes and putting systems in place to enhance safety, the hospital incorporates "evidence-based medicine" standards to ensure patients receive the highest quality care.

Based on clinical trials and comparative research, we know what kinds of medications and interventions most often lead to the highest quality outcomes for patients. These guidelines are known as "evidence-based medicine."

For example, giving antibiotics to patients before surgery lowers the likelihood of infection. Giving certain medications quickly to patients with heart attack symptoms reduces the risk of cardiac damage. Giving anti-inflammatory therapy to patients with asthma helps them breathe easier.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital offers patients the medical treatments that are known to produce positive outcomes of care. Doctors also consider a patient's individual circumstances when deciding on a course of action.

Service Commitment

The caregivers at Barnes-Jewish know the way you are treated in our hospital is often as important as the type of care you receive. That is why the hospital has established service excellence measures that directly impact patient satisfaction.

For example, patients are more satisfied when they receive medical test results quickly. To achieve this, Barnes-Jewish has set goals to reduce the number of days it takes to make an appointment or the number of hours it takes to get test results. An example of this is the hospital’s efforts to reduce the wait time for mammogram results and provide patients with a treatment plan in the least amount of time.

Your caregivers are committed to clearly explaining any diagnosis or treatment so you can make informed decisions about your care.

Recognized Leader

The BJC Center for Health Care Quality and Effectiveness coordinates our patient safety and health care quality efforts and shares information among the 13 hospitals in BJC HealthCare so that everyone can learn from successes throughout the organization.

This coordinated approach has been recognized by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). BJC HealthCare and Washington University School of Medicine were selected by AHRQ to conduct fundamental patient safety research. When the research is completed the results will be shared nationally.

Find a doctor or make an appointment: 866.867.3627
General Information: 314.747.3000
One Barnes-Jewish Plaza
St. Louis, MO 63110
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