Developing and implementing a culture of patient safety is our top priority at Regional West Medical Center; safety impacts everything we do. Training begins as soon as employees are hired and is a focused and continuous effort throughout their career at Regional West.

New Hire Training

All new hires, physicians, and volunteers receive safety training and education. In addition, all Regional West employees are required to undergo both general and job-specific testing on a yearly basis. Our goal is that every employee has a thorough understanding of how to maintain and promote a safe work environment.

Safety Coaches

Regional West's employee safety coaches represent every department and unit on our campus. Safety coaches play a vital role in keeping our patients’ safety a priority for employees while acting as liaisons to help staff identify, address, and eliminate human error.

Regional West safety coaches are trained communicators, educators, role models, observers, and partners who work with their fellow employees to prevent errors that can result in harm to our patients.

Safety coaches positively impact Regional West safety for the benefit of both patients and employees:

• Reducing behaviors and practices that could result in harm.
• Improving and promoting active communication between hospital units and departments.
• Identifying problems and seeking resolution before they become safety events.
• Sharing lessons learned.

Condition Help

At Regional West, we have taken the concept of Rapid Response one step further with Condition Help. Condition Help is a patient/visitor activated Rapid Response team. This action is a safety tool to improve patient care and patient safety. It empowers the patient/visitor to access further help when the healthcare team is not present or not responding to the visitor or patient’s concerns as expected. This activation of a Rapid Response provides another layer of safety when there is a breakdown in how care is being managed or there is confusion about the plan of care.

Activating Condition Help 

Condition Help may be activated by family or loved ones when:

• They have spoken to the nurse, charge nurse, or physician and still feel their concerns have not been addressed. 
• There is a noticeable, clinical change in the patient and the healthcare team is not present or is not responding to the patient or visitors’ concerns. 
• There is a breakdown in how care is being managed or confusion about the plan of care.