Patient Safety

To help keep you safe, we will check your identity before giving any care. We may ask you to say your full name and date of birth, and we’ll compare this with your armband and your chart. Click on the tip sheets below to see how you can help to ensure positive patient identification for yourself, your child or family member.

Patient identification bracelets enable staff to identify the CORRECT patient for the CORRECT care

How you can help:

• Make sure you are wearing your patient identification bracelet at all times
• If you do not have an identification bracelet, inform staff as soon as possible
• Expect staff to confirm your identity with at least two verifiers, such as: full name (first and last), date of birth, medical record number or health card number
• Expect staff to check your identification bracelet before administering a test, treatment or medication. Please alert staff if this does not occur.

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We have a number of practices in place to help reduce the chances of you getting hospital-acquired infections like Clostridioides difficile (C. Difficile) infection and antibiotic resistant bloodstream infections such as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) bacteremia and Vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE) bacteremia. Our teams are constantly practicing, following and improving infection prevention and control standards such as routine hand hygiene. We also have practices in place to ensure that a standardized surgical safety checklist is routinely in use for surgeries at Unity Health to decrease the chance of error and adverse events.

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 and we also believe it’s the right thing to do. It’s important to us for you to know how we are performing. Unity Health’s patient safety indicators listed below are reported to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care and are available to the public via Health Quality Ontario.

Unity Health Toronto Patient Safety Indicators and Reporting Frequency

1. Nosocomial Clostridioides difficile (C. Difficile) infection (monthly)
2. Antibiotic-resistant bloodstream infections (monthly)
3. Hand hygiene compliance (annually)
4. Surgical safety checklist compliance (every three months)

Being informed and involved in your own or your loved one’s care is another way we can work together to promote high quality and safe care. At Unity Health, we want to encourage our patients and their families to speak up when they have questions or concerns about the care they are receiving.

If you are worried about your care or the care of your loved one:

• Find the name of the assigned nurse or doctor and speak with them
  • The assigned doctor and nurse names may be found on a whiteboard by the bedside. Go to the unit desk and ask for the specific nurse
  • If you can’t find the name of your or your loved one’s assigned nurse, ask the person at the desk for the charge nurse and ask for the appropriate nurse/doctor to be paged
  • If the charge nurse cannot help, ask for the unit manager or the after hours manager

Are you worried about the care of your loved one or your own care? Follow these steps:

• Find the name of the assigned nurse and doctor on the whiteboard by the bedside. Go to the desk and ask for the nurse.
• If the assigned nurse cannot help ask the person at the desk for the charge nurse and ask for the doctor to be paged.
• If the charge nurse cannot help or the doctor does not call back, dial 0 and ask for the manager of the unit or after hours, the manager on call.
• If the manager cannot help, Dial 0 and ask for the Administrative Director or after hours the Administrator On-Call and/or the Physician Director.
• Are you still worried? Dial 0 to Call/ Page the CEO of the Hospital and/or the Chief of Staff.

By working together, we can keep you from falling. Here are some tips to keep you safe:

• Use your call bell if you need help getting out of bed
• Wear supportive walking shoes or ask for non-slip socks
• Keep your belongings and call bell within easy reach
• Use your walker, cane or wheelchair while you’re here
• To learn more, please ask your health-care provider about our falls prevention video and brochure

We ask everyone who comes to our locations to wash their hands and use sanitizer often. Many patients/residents have weakened immune systems that make them susceptible to a variety of illnesses.

Keeping your hands clean will help you avoid getting sick and spreading germs to others. Here are some hand hygiene tips:

• Alcohol-based hand cleansers are useful when soap and water are not available
• Don’t forget the backs of your hands and in between your fingers
• Wash your hands with soap and water for at least 15 seconds
• Hand hygiene is everyone’s responsibility. Feel free to ask our staff if they have washed their hands before they provide treatment or conduct procedures.

Medication safety is a top priority at Unity Health Toronto. By working together, we can make sure you get your medications safely. View this poster for helpful tips.

Your Health Care – Be Involved is an initiative developed by the Ontario Hospital Association’s Patient Safety Support Service with funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Your Health Care – Be Involved is the first of its kind in Ontario, providing patients with five tips to engage and encourage them to be more involved in their health care:

Be involved in your health care. Speak up if you have questions or concerns about your care.

Tell a member of your health care team about your past illnesses and your current health condition.

Bring all of your medicines with you when you go to the hospital or to a medical appointment.

Tell a member of your health care team if you have ever had an allergic or bad reaction to any medicine or food.

Make sure you know what to do when you go home from the hospital or from your medical appointment.

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