Don't Forget to Remind Children's Hospital Employees to Do Their Job Properly

That sounds a bit cynical, doesn't it? Well, take a look at the April/May/June 2005 issue of "Family Highlights" published by CHRMC. In a section titled "What Familes Can Do to Prevent Medical Errors" the fifth bullet point instructs us, the parents, to "Ask health care workers who care for your child if they have washed their hands." For some reason this management task has been delegated to parents - and watch the huffy expressions on the Children's employees' faces when you do exactly what Family Highlights tells us to do.

As long as we've offended them already, at CHRMC management's direction, perhaps we should go further and ask more questions that should be in the purview of management. "Have you looked at the chart for this child?" "Do you know their medical history?" "Are you qualified to perform, and experienced in performing, the task before you?" "Did you administer all medications at the prescribed time today?" "Was the dosage correct on each medication?" "Was the medication adminstration recorded properly in the system?"

We can see that this list is endless, yet critical. But the first question - did you wash your hands? - is the one that is critical to preventing infections. And an infection is why Hunter was admitted to Children's on November 24, after having surgery here on November 10 and having her stitches removed on November 22, and why she'll likely be here until at least December 12. But it sounds like that was my fault because I did not, in fact, ask every single healthcare worker who was in surgery and subsequent care and procedures whether they washed their hands. I guess CHRMC management would give me a negative performance review for that oversight.

See http://www.seattlechildrens.org/home/pdf/family_highlights_spring05.pdf