Kimberly-Clark and Safe Care Campaign Team Up With the CDC and Joint Commission to Launch Quick Response Code-Enabled Patient Safety Education Program

ROSWELL and MABLETON, Ga., March 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) today announced the launch of the QR (Quick Response) Code Patient Safety Education Program in collaboration with Safe Care Campaign to provide hospitals and healthcare facilities with free patient and caregiver education available instantly at the bedside. 

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110928/DA76879LOGO)   

Each year, medical errors and delivery of care mistakes harm or kill patients and cost hospitals billions of dollars. Kimberly-Clark and Safe Care Campaign teamed up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Joint Commission's Speak Up™ Educational Campaign and the Patient Channel to issue the "Learn How to Be Safe While Receiving Medical Care" QR-code enabled poster to healthcare facilities nationwide.  The free poster delivers critical patient education information directly into the hands of patients and their families when they need it most and requires no staff time or training.  

"Infection prevention is everyone's responsibility.  One of the most powerful ways in which patients and caregivers can join medical professionals in helping to ensure safe and effective outcomes is by asking the right questions, gathering information and gleaning knowledge," said Joanne Bauer, President, Kimberly-Clark Health Care. "Our participation in this Patient Safety Education Program is yet another way in which we hope to reach consumers with potentially life-saving information and to further support medical professionals in helping them prevent the spread of healthcare-associated infections."

The Patient Safety Education Program poster offers instant access via a QR reader app or text message to nine educational vignettes related to healthcare facilities' most common patient safety issues:

• Insisting on proper hand hygiene from your caregiver
• Preventing an infection when you're having surgery
• Preventing a blood stream infection
• Preventing medication errors
• Preventing an infection when you have a urinary catheter
• Preventing errors during medical care
• Preventing patient falls
• Safety when your loved one is on a ventilator
• Patient's Guide to a Clean Healthcare Environment

"For the first time in the history of American healthcare, all healthcare facilities now have access to free patient safety educational resources. With the support of Kimberly-Clark, we are able to help restore patients from crisis to better health and improve the quality of their lives," said Victoria Nahum, Executive Director, Safe Care Campaign. "This program will arm and empower patients and their families with critical patient safety information when and where they need it." 

To download the free Patient Safety Education Program poster, visit http://www.safecarecampaign.org/poster/choose_your_program.html

Healthcare facilities can also order customized posters featuring videos most relevant to their needs.  A free companion iBook is also available to patients to help them understand what they can do to prevent medical harm from occurring while in the process of receiving care.  The book is available on the iPad through iBooks and via a computer through iTunes.

Kimberly-Clark in the Healthcare Environment
Around the world, medical professionals turn to Kimberly-Clark for a wide portfolio of solutions that improve the health, hygiene and well-being of patients and hospital staff. As part of their healing mission, caregivers rely on Kimberly-Clark to deliver clinical solutions and educational resources that they can depend on to prevent, diagnose and manage a wide variety of healthcare-associated infections. As a global enterprise with more than $1 billion in annual sales, Kimberly-Clark Health Care holds the No. 1 and No. 2 market share positions in several categories including; infection control solutions, surgical solutions, pain management and digestive health. Kimberly-Clark Professional also adds expertise in hand hygiene, surface disinfection, and facial tissue to provide a holistic approach to preventing HAIs. Throughout the care continuum, patients and staff alike trust Kimberly-Clark medical supplies and devices, KLEENEX Facial Tissue & Skin Care, and SCOTT towels for day-to-day needs. For more information, please visit http://www.kchealthcare.com

About Safe Care Campaign
Safe Care Campaign was founded by Victoria and Armando Nahum in 2006 after 3 different members of their family were infected in 3 different hospitals in 3 different states in just 10 months' time. Their son, Joshua died from an infection acquired in the hospital, but not until after gram negative bacteria in his skull caused so much pressure around his brain that it pushed part of his brain into his spinal column, making him a permanent ventilator-dependent quadriplegic. He was 27.

SOURCE Kimberly-Clark