What Urgent Care Startup’s Should Know About Patient Safety

When thinking about starting an urgent care, there are hundreds of tasks that need to get done. From finding the right location to finalizing the business plan, there is so much to think through and prepare for.

Making sure that your urgent care is actively preventing patient injury is important to the growth and sustainability of your center. March 10th-16th is Patient Safety Awareness Week, where the Institute for Healthcare Improvement brings the prevention of patient injury in healthcare environments to the forefront. Here are just two small ways your urgent care center staff members can help make sure patients are kept safe from sickness.

1. Staff Hygiene

Even though hand washing and disinfecting is vital to the health and wellness of patients, there are still healthcare workers who don’t wash their hands as often as they should. A 2015 study found that just 40% of hospital workers followed hand-hygiene policies, putting patients at risk.

To help encourage regular hand disinfecting, keep an alcohol-based hand sanitizer around your urgent care, even investing in personal hand-sanitizer for each staff member. Even though it might sound costly, studies have shown that when presented with more opportunities to use hand-sanitizer, staff members are more likely to be active in disinfecting their hands.  

2. Immunizations

Another way to make sure that your urgent is taking all the necessary precautions for patient safety is to encourage staff members to get immunized. This is especially important during the flu season, as it helps stop the spread of the flu from patient to patient. Other immunizations recommended for healthcare personnel is Tdap, MMR (two doses), Hep B, and Varicella (two doses).

We believe that patient safety is the foundation of a great urgent care. By taking the necessary precautions with staff members, you can have peace of mind knowing that patients will be well cared for and will be well on their way to feeling better.