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Patient Safety

The safety of our patients is very important. We encourage you and your family to be involved in your care. To keep you safe during your stay please take the following precautions:

  • Check your armband to make sure your name and birth date is correct. Your name must be spelled correctly.
  • Make sure staff check your arm band before giving you any medicine, drawing your blood, or performing any other tests.
  • If you have allergies such as medicine and food, you should have an ID band that is yellow, with the allergies listed on the band.
  • Make sure staff members wash their hands when coming into the room and giving you any medication or treatment. They should again wash their hands as they leave the room or before giving care to your roommate.
  • Do not adjust the medical equipment needed for your care, such as alarms. Call your nurse for any concerns.
  • Do not leave the patient floor on your own. You will be taken for your tests by hospital staff.
  • Do not be alarmed if you hear the sound of a fire alarm. The hospital has fire drills as a safety measure. In the event of an actual fire, our staff has been trained to handle this emergency in a rapid and safe manner.

When you are a patient in the hospital, you may have a greater risk of falling. This is because of surgery, medicines, new environment, and being weak. To help prevent a fall and possibly hurting yourself, follow these guidelines:

  • Tell your nurse if you have been falling at home, or if you have been having problems walking.
  • Make sure you know how to use the nurse call system for your bed and bathroom. Your nurse will show you how to use them.
  • Ask your nurse what activity the doctor has ordered for you, and follow it!
  • If you are allowed to get out of bed without help be sure to move slowly. Tell your nurse if you feel dizzy when you stand up.
  • Always call for help when you feel too weak to get out of bed by yourself. Your nurse wants to help you.
  • Use the bed's side rails to help in turning and to prevent accidental falls, especially at night. Ask your nurse any questions you have about using the side rails.
  • If you use a walker or cane at home, you should use them in the hospital. Ask your nurse if you need to have a therapist teach you how to use them.
  • Always wear slip resistant footwear when you are out of bed.
You Have a Voice About Patient Care and Safety--Let Us Know Your Concerns
If you have any concern about patient care and safety in the Kennedy Health System, please contact one of our managers or a Guest Services Representatives at one of the numbers listed below.
If your concern cannot be resolved by our hospital's management team, you may contact the New Jersey Department of Health agency at their complaint hotline (1-800-792-9770). You may also contact the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO).

Kennedy Memorial Hospitals – University Medical Center (KMH-UMC) is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). Our hospitals voluntarily submit to evaluations which ensure our compliance with national hospital standards on a continuing basis.

Joint Commission surveys are conducted every three years. Kennedy's most recently JCAHO re-accredited in 2006. All our facilities are scheduled for unannounced resurveys during 2010. Patients and customers, as well as medical staff, hospital employees and volunteers, with unresolved patient safety or quality of care concerns may contact JCAHO by mail, fax, email or phone, as listed below. The hospital will take no disciplinary action to its employees for safety or quality of care concerns reported to the state or JCAHO.

Kennedy Safety Hotline
KHS has a safety hotline 856-582-2899 for associates, patients, and families to call with needs and opinions in helping to ensure safety in the hospital. These calls assist Kennedy's Safety Committee to improve the KHS Patient Safety Program.

Guest Services:
Kennedy Memorial Hospital - Cherry Hill 856-488-6864
Kennedy Memorial Hospital - Stratford 856-346-6002
Kennedy Memorial Hospital - Washington Township 856-582-3115
Kennedy Safety Hotline - 856-582-2899

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization
Division of Accreditation Operations
Office of Quality Monitoring One Renaissance Boulevard
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Fax: 630-792-5636
Email, complaint@jcaho.org
Hotline: 1-800-994-6610
Infection Control and Prevention
  • For your safety, Kennedy uses a system of infection control and prevention called "Standard Precautions." This system uses various methods of barrier protection, such as wearing gloves, gowns, masks, and eyewear.
  • Kennedy uses additional isolation if you are known to have or suspected of having a contagious disease or of carrying germs that are resistant to antibiotics. You may be placed in a private room or placed with others with the same condition. A special color-coded sign is placed outside of your room with instructions regarding any special precautions needed. If you or your visitors have questions about isolation precautions, please ask your nurse. These precautions should not be alarming to you.
  • You also play a part in preventing the spread of infection. Hand hygiene, using soap and water or the alcohol-based hand sanitizer available throughout the facility, is the single most effective thing you can do to help stop the spread of infection. Washing before eating, after using the bathroom, after blowing your nose, and after other activities where your hands may become contaminated, is strongly encouraged. If you need assistance, please ask. It is anticipated that your caregiver will wash or sanitize his/her hands prior to giving you care. Please feel free to ask "did you wash your hands?" of any of your caregivers. You should hear a resounding "Yes."
Ethics Consultation
Ethics Consultation is an advisory service designed to assist patients, family members, professionals and staff in making decisions related to healthcare issues.

The consultation team is a subgroup for the larger Medical Ethics Advisory Committee. The team may include representatives from the medical staff, nursing, pharmacy, social services, clergy, and other hospital departments and the community. An Ethics Consultation may be requested free of charge by any patient, family member, healthcare surrogate, nurse, doctor, or anyone else with concerns about a patient.

When a person's medical prognosis and choices about care create dilemmas, an Ethics Consultation may be of benefit. A patient, family member, or healthcare provider may want help to "talk through" options in patient care such as the benefits and burden of care and treatment. Conflicts existing among the concerned parties about the best course of action may also generate an ethics consultation.

From within the hospital, just dial "0" on any hospital phone and request an ethics consultation. From home or the community please call:

856-346-6000 (Stratford Hospital)
856-582-2500 (Washington Township Hospital)
856-488-6500 (Cherry Hill Hospital)