The Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of patient safety within healthcare institutions. In line with this need the highly impactful ‘Preventing Risks of Infections and Medication Errors in IV Therapy’ (PRIME) Programme developed by the Joint Commission International (JCI) and supported by BD, a leading global medical technology company, completed its very first cycle of the program in India which comprised 13 large and prominent tertiary care hospitals from across the country.

Speaking on how the program helped the hospital, Dr Santosh Shetty, CEO, Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital & Medical Research Institute, Mumbai, said, “At our hospital, one of our primary focus areas is continuous quality improvement and patient safety. These are the basic tenets that have laid the foundation for our leadership position today. BD PRIME program has been an extremely effective milestone in this journey through the focus on medication safety.”

Pavan Mocherla, Managing Director-BD-India/South Asia added, “BD has supported patients and healthcare workers throughout the 120+years of its existence. With our portfolio of products, services and capabilities, we have been at the forefront of implementing safe and innovative technologies to enhance patient and healthcare worker safety resulting in improved clinical outcomes, better patient experiences, and process and economic efficiencies. Increasingly, healthcare facilities across India are working to upgrade quality standards to achieve better patient outcomes, increased patient safety and cost efficiency in healthcare systems.''

In this pursuit. BD worked with JCI to create a Gold Standard benchmarked safety program called ‘Preventing Risks of Infections and Medication Errors in IV Therapy (PRIME)’.Through this hallmark program, BD has helped thirteen hospitals across India enhance their clinical outcomes by minimizing complications and improving safety for patients.

Despite the challenging environment during the pandemic, both JCI and BD continued to virtually support healthcare professionals, hospitals’ management and staff with the Program and witnessed great engagement, improvement in practices and outcomes.

Speaking about JCI’s continued partnership of PRIME with BD, Dr Marwa J. Zohdy, Vice President, Global Consulting Services, Joint Commission International (JCI) said, “We are very encouraged and excited with the overwhelming interest from more hospitals to join the PRIME program.”

The 13 hospitals in India which will be receiving the certification on the successful completion of BD’s JCI-PRIME program include PSG Hospitals in Coimbatore, CIMS Hospital in Ahmedabad, Peerless Hospitex Hospital and Research Centre, Tata Medical Center, Belle Vue Clinic and Fortis Hospital in Kolkata, Max Super Speciality Hospital in Delhi, Medanta – The Medicity in Gurugram, Kasturba Hospital in Manipal, Fortis Hospital in Mohali, KIMS HEALTH in Trivandrum and Kokila Dhirubhai Ambani & Medical Research Institute Hospital and Breach Candy Hospital Trust in Mumbai.