How We're Keeping You Safe

How we’re protecting you against hospital-acquired infections

Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) are responsible for nearly 100,000 deaths per year in the United States – more than breast and prostate cancer combined.

The number one method for protecting patients against HAIs is following proper hand-hygiene compliance guidelines, according to the CDC and World Health Organization.

Extra effort

Hospitals are required to monitor hand-hygiene compliance, but the traditional assessment method – visual observation – does not effectively demonstrate comprehensive hand-hygiene compliance.

We want to do better. That’s why we invested in innovative technology to continually gauge hand-hygiene compliance, ensuring our providers take all necessary precautions to prevent transmission of HAIs.

Get to know the system

You may have noticed the badge holders your providers wear. These badge holders contain sensors that communicate with badge readers located at hand sanitizer/soap dispensers to identify whether a provider has followed required hand-hygiene protocols upon entering and exiting patient rooms.

We use the collected information to efficiently monitor compliance, measure the efficacy of training and proactively identify additional methods for preventing HAIs.

How we’re keeping you safe in the emergency department

During the COVID-19 pandemic, your safety is our top priority. That’s why we are taking every precaution to ensure our hospitals and Emergency Departments (EDs) maintain strict protocols to mitigate the transmission of COVID-19.

• Our rapid admission process typically allows for patients to be taken directly to a private room, but when waiting areas are needed, we have redesigned those spaces to make it easy for people to practice social distancing.
• To reduce transmission of COVID-19 through airborne droplets, Parkridge Health has instituted a universal masking policy across all of its locations. That means all physicians, nurses, support staff and other Parkridge colleagues will be wearing masks. We will also provide masks to patients and visitors upon entry.
• Patients who exhibit symptoms of COVID-19 are taken directly to a specified area of the Emergency Department. This allows us to streamline the treatment process for all our patients while further reducing the risk of disease transmission.
• All high-touch surfaces are cleaned frequently with solutions that eliminate germs and viruses.
• Whenever possible, we have taken measures to minimize the possibility of virus transmission, including disposable, individually packaged blood pressure cuffs used for each patient.

A walk through the ED

Accompany Parkridge Health System President and CEO Tom Ozburn, as he walks you through the ED at Parkridge Medical Center and discusses our safety precautions with our ED colleagues.

Saving lives through early sepsis detection

Sepsis is a catastrophic infection that kills more Americans each year than breast cancer, prostate cancer and AIDS combined, according to Sepsis Alliance. Parkridge Health and its parent company, HCA Healthcare, have launched an automated, real-time system to more quickly identify the earliest signs of sepsis. The system – known as the Sepsis Prediction and Optimization of Therapy, or SPOT – uses an algorithm developed by clinical and IT experts who leveraged data from millions of hospitalizations.

SPOT continuously monitors vital signs of all patients admitted to Parkridge Medical Center and identifies key markers shown to indicate a developing sepsis infection so we can begin immediate treatment.