Minnesota Hospital Association announces winners of the Patient Safety Excellence Awards

Fifth round of winners named in ongoing program to prevent adverse health events

Thirty-one Minnesota hospitals recently were named winners of the Minnesota Hospital Association's Patient Safety Excellence Awards.

The awards honor hospitals' efforts to prevent four types of adverse health events: pressure ulcers, or bedsores; falls; wrong-site invasive procedures and foreign objects retained during labor and delivery.

The hospital association's safety campaigns -- SAFE SKIN, SAFE from FALLS, SAFE SITE and SAFE COUNT -- are based on national and state best practices and on participating hospitals' sharing of information about adverse health events that occurred at their facilities. To qualify for an award, hospitals must implement at least 90 percent of each campaign's required measures, such as consistently verifying the procedure that is to be performed on any patient immediately before beginning every surgery.

Today's winners are the fifth round of honorees in the quarterly program that began in spring of 2008.

SOURCE Minnesota Hospital Association