Your Safety is Our Goal

Bell Hospital staff members are actively working to provide a safe environment for you. We encourage patients and their families to be involved. Your active participation is valuable in making our safety initiative successful.

Some things that are currently being done to keep you safe are:

• Using two patient identifiers – your name and date of birth are the preferred identifiers whenever a lab sample is collected, medication is given, blood is transfused, or surgery is performed
• Not using ambiguous abbreviations helps to prevent confusion by the person reading your chart
• Quickly calling your physician or practitioner regarding any test values with critical results and reading back orders to make sure that they are understood
• Practicing good hand hygiene by using soap and water or alcohol gel reduces the risk of spreading an infection to you 
• Taking well defined steps to protect your personal health information
• Using safety devices to reduce the risk of accidental exposure to blood from needles and other sharps
• Marking your surgical site to ensure that surgery is performed in the correct location
• Asking for a list of your medications when you come to the hospital so we can compare them to medications that are ordered during your stay with us
• Determining your risk for falling while you are at the hospital and taking specific actions to protect you from harm

We appreciate the opportunity to improve our care and services. If you would like to talk with someone about your experience, we encourage you to do the following:

• Ask to speak with the manager of the department.
• Contact the Quality Manager at 906-485-2674.
• Ask to speak with the Chief Nursing Officer.
• Share your thoughts on our Patient Satisfaction Survey.