Safe care means avoiding injury from the care that is intended to help you.

Fairview pledges to care for you safely, avoiding injury and helping you become and stay healthy. We recognize that doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other caregivers are human and sometimes make mistakes. Fairview leaders strive to create an environment that keeps our employees and staff safe and allows them to provide you with safe, error-free care. Read how Fairview caregivers respond to a survey question, I would feel safe being treated here.

What is Fairview tracking?

Fairview and all hospitals in Minnesota report incidences of 28 types of serious health care events as part of Minnesota's Adverse Health Event Reporting law. Fairview staff is working to eliminate all such events, and is focusing on the following measures as important to delivering safe care:

• Medication reconciliation
• Hand hygiene
• Patient identification
• Patient fall rate

Putting safety initiatives into action

A new surgical site marking policy states that the health care provider performing a surgical procedure must mark the surgical site (the patient's body part to be operated on) with his or her initials—not just an “x.” Everyone in the operating room also pauses before the procedure to double-check the patient's identification, the procedure to be performed, the patient's position, the site to be operated on and the equipment.

To encourage patients to be actively involved in their health care, Fairview staff has placed posters in Fairview hospital rooms.

If you have any safety concerns about care at Fairview, contact us.