Quality and Patient Safety

Our staff is responsible for accurate patient identification. You will be asked regularly during your stay to verify your name and date of birth. This verification is critical to ensuring patient safety.

Your safety is our priority while you are a patient at Pen Bay Medical Center. We encourage you and your family to be partners and active participants in your healthcare through the use of the “Speak Up” program.

Speak up if you have any questions or concerns and if you don’t understand, ask again.
Pay attention to the care you are receiving. Ask questions when you don’t understand.
Educate yourself about your diagnosis, medical tests, and your plan of care.
Ask a trusted family member or friend to be with you if you are unable to ask questions for yourself.
Know what medications you take. (We do have wallet-sized cards available to list your medications.)
Use a healthcare organization that has undergone rigorous on-site evaluations.
Participate in decisions about your treatment. You are the center of your healthcare team.

The Patient & Family Advisory Council (PFAC) serves as a formal organization of current and former patients and family members who are working with and provide input to Pen Bay Medical Center and Waldo County General Hospital staff to continuously improve patient and family healthcare experiences. Please visit our page to learn more. 

During your stay, many people may enter your room, from doctors and nurses to aides.

• Ask for ID of everyone who comes into your room. All hospital employees wear identification badges.
• Speak up if hospital staff doesn’t ask for your identification.
• Ask if the person washed his or her hands before they touch you.
• If you are told you need certain tests or procedures, ask why you need them, when they will happen and how long it will be before you get the results.

All medications you take while in the hospital are prescribed by your doctor, dispensed by the hospital pharmacy and administered by a nurse. Patients are not permitted to administer their own drugs or keep personal medications at their bedsides, unless authorized by their physician.

By taking part in your own care, you can help the members of your healthcare team avoid medication errors. Here’s how:

• Be sure that all of your doctors know what medications you have been taking, including prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications, herbal and vitamin supplements, natural remedies and recreational drugs.
• Be sure that all of your doctors know of any allergies you may have to any medications, anesthesia, foods, latex products, etc.
• When you are brought medications or IV fluids, ask the person to check to be sure you are the patient who is supposed to receive the medications. Show that person your ID bracelet to double-check.