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Alaska Regional Hospital

Keeping our patients safe

At our hospital, you are our first priority. We have procedures in place to help you feel informed, safe and secure.

 


Our commitment to your safety

Quite simply, patients are our first priority at Alaska Regional Hospital. We are all committed to your safety and well-being whenever you come to our hospital. Whether you are here for a diagnostic test or a hospital stay, our goal is to make you feel safe and secure at all times. Every member of our healthcare team is committed to the following:

  • Perform our jobs carefully, competently and compassionately
  • Include you as an active member of our healthcare team
  • Ask you to report any concerns about your safety
  • Promptly address your healthcare questions and concerns
  • Provide you with information about your plan of care and explain changes in treatment
  • Ensure timely communications between caregivers and patients

Safety enhancements and highlights:

Bar-coded electronic medication administration, preventing errors by matching patient wristbands to your medicines to confirm right patient, right drug, right dose, right route and right time.

Fall prevention: Often, procedures may impact your balance and strength. It’s important for you to ask for assistance when getting up for the first time after a procedure. You and your nurse will put together safety guidelines during your stay.

HUGS Infant Security System safeguards newborns and hospitalized children. When an infant or young child is admitted to or born at Alaska Regional Hospital, he or she is fitted with a comfortable, tamper-proof strap and Hugs tag around the ankle. The Hugs systems triggers an alarm if a hospitalized infant wearing a soft tamper-proof strap is moved to an unauthorized zone, the signal isn’t detected or the strap is cut.

Medication safety is very important for us to have an accurate and complete list of all medications you are on while you’re at the hospital. Please bring with you a written list of all your medications that you are currently taking. Your actual medications are not necessary at the hospital unless directed to you by your physician. When you leave the hospital you should receive a new and accurate list of your medications. If you do not receive a new list please feel free to ask for one.

Answering your questions

During your stay at the hospital there will be many staff members that will enter your room, all with the same goal of keeping you safe and comfortable. They are there to help you so please don’t hesitate to ask them questions about your care. Don’t be afraid to ask...

  • For the ID of everyone who comes into your room
  • If you are told you need certain tests or procedures, ask why you need them, when they will happen, and how long it will be before you get the results.
  • If the person giving you care has washed their hands before they touch you.

We do our best to meet your individual needs while delivering high-quality patient care. If you have any questions or concerns during your stay with us, please call our Quality Management Department Director at 264-2360.

Quality and patient safety links

MRSA


What is MRSA and how do you get it?

Everyone naturally has staphylococcus aureus on their skin as normal flora and it isn't until there is an opening on the skin (scratch, cut, etc.) that it can become a problem once it enters through the opening. The methicillin resistant staph aureus (MRSA) bacteria has developed over the years due to overuse of antibiotics. MRSA does live on the skin of some people and does not make them ill. These people are said to be “colonized.”

What's Alaska Regional doing to protect me or my loved ones?

Alaska Regional Hospital and its parent company, HCA, take quite seriously the potential threat MRSA might pose in our community. Approximately one year ago we instituted a program whereby we screen all patients considered to be “high risk.”

These groups of patients consist of those who are admitted for open heart surgeries, open joint and back procedures, critical care admissions, neonatal intensive care babies transferred to our facility, dialysis patients, and transfers in from nursing homes or assisted living homes. These patients are screened, on admission, so we can identify if they may already have community-acquired MRSA.

What if someone tests positive?

If these high risk patients have a positive nares (nose) screen, our hospital puts them into what we call isolation precautions. This is a simple extra precaution we take to ensure others are protected. Upon entry to the room, staff and visitors put a gown on just inside the door and take it off at the doorway prior to exiting the room. We also stringently reinforce hand washing which is the number one precaution anyone can take. We have installed, just outside or inside every room in the hospital, waterless hand sanitizer dispensers. Upon a patients’ discharge, these rooms receive what is called a “terminal clean.”

Terminal cleaning of a room takes approximately an hour to conduct as all surfaces are cleaned thoroughly with appropriate cleansers and all linens and curtains are changed out.

Our hospital is extremely proud of the quality of care we provide and we encourage you to ask more questions at any time.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Stopping MRSA is in your hands

Contact: Director of Quality, Safety, and Performance Improvement
(907) 264-2360