Patient Safety Indicators
At Unity Health Toronto, we take your safety seriously and we are committed to providing you with high quality health-care services.
We have a number of practices in place to help reduce the chances of you getting hospital-acquired infections like C. difficile, MRSA or VRE. Our teams are constantly practicing, following, and improving infection prevention and control standards.
Paying close attention to the spread of infectious diseases is essential, and it can show us what we need to do to improve. The Ontario Ministry of Health has established a number of patient safety indicators. All hospitals are required to publicly report these indicators but we also believe it’s the right thing to do. It’s important to us for you to know how we are performing.
Clostridium Difficile (C. diff) Infection Rate
We report the number of new hospital-acquired C. difficile (C. diff) cases on a monthly basis.
What determines the rate?
The rate measures the number of C. diff cases over the total number of days that patients spent in the hospital (patient days) during the month.
What is C. difficile?
Clostridium difficile is one of many types of bacteria that can be found in feces (bowel movements). C. difficile occurs when antibiotics kill your good bowel bacteria, allowing the C. diff to grow. C. diff produces toxins that can damage the bowel and may cause diarrhea. It can be mild, severe (possibly requiring surgery), and in extreme cases C. diff may cause death. There are three things that we need to do all the time to prevent C. diff:
- Practice proper hand hygiene.
- Our health-care teams are practicing the four moments of hand hygiene every time we approach a patient. This means washing their hands with soap and water or using alcohol-based hand rub whenever we are working with patients.
- Make patients and families partners in care.
- We are educating patients and family members about the importance of hand hygiene and the extra precautions to take when caring for a loved one with C. difficile. We are also encouraging our patients and their families to ask their healthcare providers if they have washed their hands.
- Practice antibiotic stewardship.
- We are making sure we are giving patients the right antibiotic for the right period of time.
We regularly audit our cleaning practices for the hospital environment and patient equipment, and ensure cleaning is consistent, thorough and done with a cleaning product that is registered with Health Canada to kill C. difficile. Enhanced cleaning is done in our high traffic areas such as the Emergency Department.
Clostridium difficile infection rate for hospital patients (per 1,000 inpatient days)
Period: August 2023
| St. Joseph’s Health Centre | St. Michael’s Hospital | Providence Healthcare |
|---|---|---|
| 0.43 | 0.50 | 0.13 |
Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA)
We report the number of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) cases and the bacertaemia rate on a quarterly basis (every three months).
What is MRSA?
Staphylococcus aureus are bacteria that lives on the skin and mucous membranes of healthy people. When Staphylococcus aureus becomes resistant to certain antibiotics it is called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. MRSA can also live in the nose and on the skin of some individuals. People who carry the bacteria but do not get sick are known as carriers. If people get sick from MRSA, there are a few antibiotics that can be used to treat them. MRSA does not usually pose a problem to healthy individuals.
What determines the rate?
The rate measures the number of MRSA cases over the total number of days that patients spent in the hospital (patient days) during the quarter.
MRSA bloodstream infections in hospital patients (per 1,000 inpatient days)
Period: Q1 2023-24
| St. Joseph’s Health Centre | St. Michael’s Hospital | Providence Healthcare |
|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.04 | 0.00 |
Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococcus Rate
We report our Vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE) rate on a quarterly basis (every three months).
What is VRE?
Enterococci are bacteria (bugs) that are part of the normal human bowel. All normal bugs can cause infection if they are given an opportunity, for example, moving from their usual home onto a surgical incision or drain. Certain strains of the Enterococci bug have learned how to survive even with the use of antibiotics. This is called antibiotic resistance. One such strain has become resistant to the antibiotic called Vancomycin.
What determines the rate?
The rate measures the number of VRE cases over the total number of days that patients spent in the hospital (patient days) during the quarter.
VRE bloodstream infections in hospital patients (per 1,000 inpatient days)
Period: Q1 2023-24
| St. Joseph’s Health Centre | St. Michael’s Hospital | Providence Healthcare |
|---|---|---|
| 0.00 | 0.07 | 0.00 |
Surgical Safety Check List
We report our Surgical Safety Checklist compliance rate on a quarterly basis (every three months).
What is the Surgical Safety Checklist?
The Surgical Safety Checklist provides the opportunity for everyone on a surgical team to discuss important information regarding the patient and procedure. It guides the surgical team members – nurses, surgeons, anesthesiologists – in verifying all information to ensure that they are performing the right procedure on the right patient.
Our compliance rate is intended to help us set a starting point so that we can track results over time. Should our compliance increase, we will try to sustain our successes. If our compliance decreases, we will look at our operating room processes to target areas for improvement.
For patients having surgery, you can expect that your healthcare team will use the Surgical Safety Checklist as part of your care.
What determines the rate?
This indicator refers to the percentage of surgeries in which the surgical safety checklist was performed.
Period: Q1 2023-24
| St. Joseph’s Health Centre | St. Michael’s Hospital |
|---|---|
| 100% | 99.68% |
Hand Hygiene Rate
We report our Hand Hygiene Rate on an annual basis (once a year).
Hand hygiene relates to the removal of visible soil and the removal or killing of transient microorganisms from the hands and may be accomplished using soap and running water or an alcohol-based hand rub.
What determines the rate?
Number of times hand hygiene performed divided by number of observed hand hygiene indications, multiplied by 100.
Public reporting of hand hygiene compliance is another measure to ensure care becomes even safer and improves over time. It provides a benchmark for tracking and monitoring performance improvement measures.
Hand hygiene compliance by hospital care providers (%)
Period: FY 2022-23
| St. Joseph’s Health Centre | St. Michael’s Hospital | Providence Healthcare | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before patient contact (moment 1) | 71.7% | 78% | 93.2% |
| After patient contact (moment 4) | 80.49% | 85% | 95.8% |
Last updated September 28, 2023