Notice of Privacy Practices

At Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery, we understand the importance of protecting your health information. We follow strict privacy policies in accordance with state and federal laws. View our Notice of Privacy Practices. 

As A Patient

Your safety is an integral part of our services. As a patient, you play a vital role in making your care safe by becoming an active and informed member of your care team.

The following are suggestions on how to keep you safe while you are a patient:

• Do not allow caregivers to touch you without washing or sanitizing their hands.
• When a caregiver approaches you, hold up your arm and have them check your armband for your name and birth date. We verify your identity before a procedure is performed as well as the medications that are administered to you.
• Before taking medications, ask your nurse to explain them and the possible side effects.
• If you do not understand something, ask questions.
• Do not get up to use the restroom by yourself the first time after your procedure. The effect of medications and your procedure put you at risk for falls.

Typically, patients who experience cardiac or respiratory arrest are in a state of decline or exhibit warning signs that may be subtle for up to eight hours prior to the arrest. At Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery, we have implemented the Rapid Response Team (RRT) to help these patients. If any clinician or visitor of a patient is concerned, they may seek the advice of the RRT. Visitors may ask any nurse to call the RRT to come to the bedside and assess the patient at any time.

Warning signs that may indicate that the RRT needs to be called include:

• Chest Pain
• Difficulty Breathing
• Difficulty Arousing
• Inabilty to Talk
• Excessive Bleeding
• Changes in Mental Status

When you are admitted, the nurse will ask you for a compete list of all medications you take at home. Nursing staff will reconcile your list against any new medications your physicians orders in an effort to avoid adverse drug reactions.

Quality Health Care

Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery is dedicated to delivering high quality health care. Various quality measures are undertaken in each department in order to improve the delivery of care. A few of the ongoing quality performance-monitoring projects include:

Hand Hygiene

Hand hygiene is the most important action that a health care worker can take to stop the spread of infections. Hospital staff is consistently monitored on hand hygiene. Health care providers are expected to wash their hands before and after patient contact or use an alcohol-based handrub.

Patient Satisfaction

We take the opinions of our patients very seriously. Patients who are seen at the hospital are randomly selected to receive a satisfaction survey through Press Ganey. Surveys are sent through the mail within a few weeks of the procedure or appointment and asked to rate our services, physicians, nursing, food services, housekeeping, admitting and billing services.  Press Ganey is a patient experience company in South Bend, Indiana. We partner with them, but it is an independent company. This means there is no chance for bias in the survey questions or reported results. 

Once all of the surveys are collected, patient satisfaction scores are tabulated for the hospital as well as each department. Patient input is then used to improve processes within the facility. As a whole, Texas Health Center for Diagnostics & Surgery consistently scores 90% or higher in overall patient care.

How to Report Events:  Joint Commission's Patient Safety Event

Beginning Sept. 1, 2018, callers to The Joint Commission’s patient safety event phone line — 1-800-994-6610 — will receive automated instructions on how to file a report or concern; the line will no longer be answered by a staff member. This is being done to lessen confusion and to provide more accurate information for the caller. In particular, this will help address the issue of callers attempting to contact by phone to report patient safety events, as these reports must be submitted in writing.

According to Accreditation Participation Requirement (APR) standard APR.09.01.01, organizations need to update their notice instructing patients on how to contact The Joint Commission with the following information about reporting patient safety concerns:

• At https://www.jointcommission.org, using the “Report a Patient Safety Event” link in the “Action Center” on the home page of the website.
• By fax to 630-792-5636.
• By mail to The Office of Quality and Patient Safety (OQPS), The Joint Commission, One Renaissance Boulevard, Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois 60181.

Reports of patient safety events to The Joint Commission must include the health care organization’s name, street address, city and state.

In the course of evaluating a report, The Joint Commission may share the information with the organization that is the subject of the report. Joint Commission policy forbids accredited organizations from taking retaliatory actions against employees for reporting quality of care concerns to The Joint Commission.

Patient safety event reports can be submitted anonymously and confidentially. However, those who provide their name and contact information enables The Joint Commission to contact them for more information, if necessary, and to confirm how the report is handled.

Accredited and certified organizations can still reach OQPS by emailing:  patientsafetyreport@jointcommission.org or calling the Sentinel Event Phone Line at (630) 792-3700. The process of self-reporting sentinel events remains the same.

OQPS cannot determine over the phone if an event meets Sentinel Event criteria. Health care organizations must open a Sentinel Event Report on the Joint Commission Connect® extranet site by selecting “Self-Report Sentinel Event” from the dropdown list of “Continuous Compliance Tools.” After the Sentinel Event Report is reviewed, the patient safety specialist assigned to the incident will call the employee who opened the report to discuss reviewability and next steps.