At Kootenai Health, superior quality care and patient safety are our top priorities. At every step of the patient care journey, you can feel confident that our team of health care professionals is committed to providing a superior patient experience. It is this unwavering commitment to safety that becomes the foundation for improved patient outcomes.
Whether you are seen in the hospital, or in a clinic outpatient setting, your care team has been trained in best practices to create the safest possible environment for patients and employees.
How We are Getting Better
We are proud of our quality and safety record, but we are always working on ways to improve. Here is a sample of a few of things we are focused on:
Falls Reduction Program
Kootenai Health has a fall-reduction program that provides guidelines for everyone involved in the care of patients in the hospital and the Emergency Department. The fall-reduction program includes patient evaluation, interventions, staff education and training, patient education and outcomes assessment.
Hospital-Associated Infection
We work hard to lower the chances that you develop an infection while you’re in the hospital. We try to avoid using urinary catheters because they can cause urinary tract infections as well as remove central IV lines when no longer needed. All health care providers clean their hands before and after caring for every patient. We clean our hospital rooms and medical equipment before and after each use. We separate contagious and compromised patients from other patients. We also require providers and visitors to wear gloves, gowns and masks to protect you from germs.
Hand Hygiene
Clean hands are the best protection against spreading infection. We wash our hands before and after every patient contact. You may notice all the hand sanitizer dispensers around our facilities.
Resources:
As part of our commitment to transparency, here are links to publicly-available safety and quality data resources. Please note, some of these platforms may contain data sets from more than two years ago, and may not be a current representation.