title: Validating patient safety in the endoscopy unit using the joint commission standards.
abstract: Patient safety has gained increasing interest and importance in the endoscopy suite. To maintain standards in patient identification, confidentiality, medication safety, and specimen handling while still meeting The Joint Commission or other agency requirements, all employees must be part of this process. This article demonstrates ways to accomplish this goal, using audits of safety standards that increase staff involvement. A sample audit tool is provided, along with methods to help all employees feel empowered to meet standards and report any patient safety issues.
authors.affiliation: GI Endoscopy, Virginia Mason Medical Center, Seattle, Washington. jillragsdale@gmail.com
authors.forename: Jill A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Ragsdale
mesh_terms: D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000451:nursing* / Q000592:standards; D006757:Hospital Units / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D007591:Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations; D008485:Medical Audit; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D017751:Safety Management / Q000592:standards; D014481:United States; D014861:Washington