Accountability in the Healthcare Industry

One of the most critical factors which contribute to the number of preventable cases of healthcare harm is the culture of silence surrounding these cases. The fear of medical providers to report incidences is related to the possibility of punishment and liability due to a medical error (Discovery, 2010). The criminalization of some acts of medical error has resulted in job dismissal, criminal charges and jail time for some healthcare workers. This is despite the fact that the system they are working in helped to create the situation which led to the error in the first place. Human error, due to fatigue and system errors can result in deadly consequences, but by criminalizing the error it effectively shuts down the ability to correct the root problem. Healthcare workers, working at all levels within the medical system, can provide valuable input on how to improve the processes and prevent harm from occurring (Discovery, 2010).

By 2001 it was brutally apparent that the U.S. Health Care system was in dire need of a reform in regards to quality and patient safety. Following two separate reports issued by The Institute of Medicine (IOM), To Err is Human (1999) and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century(2001) the U.S. Congress requested the IOM review quality processes across multiple government funded health care programs. And understandably, “these reports described America’s healthcare system as a tangled, highly fragmented web that often wastes resources by duplicating efforts, leaving unaccountable gaps in coverage, and failing to build on the strengths of all health professionals” (Brown J., p. I – 15, 2013). Thus, the Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America released 6 aims to address key dimensions that require improvement in our health care system. These aims propose that our system needs to strive to be more Safe, Effective, Patient-Centered, Timely, Efficient, and Equitable (STEEEP). All of which were created to help overhaul our current health care system and, more importantly, narrow the quality chasm.

Culture of blame is said to be pervasive in healthcare system CITATION. When handling life-death situations in the hospital, if something did not go well with our skill and practice, it is fatal. As a nursing student, I would probably expect from myself a fear of fault, shame, and discipline to be the top reasons why I took “hide and blame” approach. When making a med error for example, instead of saying, “I didn’t read that,” or, “I am totally forgot about that,” culture of blame probably would say something like, “the nurse didn’t tell me,” or, “the pharmacy should’ve warn us.” Again, it may be the truth, but it addresses the problem, not

In healthcare systems, there is a concept of fair and just culture. That concept is important to manage the risk. In any organization, errors can happen. But, the best first tool to understand the error is to report it when it happens. Reporting error in healthcare contributes to minimize the risk of recurring.

It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).

Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency

November, 1999 brought about a release of a report prepared by the prestigious National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) making medical mistakes and their magnitude of the risks to patients receiving hospital care to common public knowledge. The IOM concluded that between 44,000-98,000 deaths occur annually because of medical errors. Among a general agreement was that system deficiencies were the most important factor in the problem and not incompetent or negligent physicians and other caregivers (Sultz & Young, 2010). An excellent example of a system deficiency that leads to a crisis and sentinel event was the highly publicized overdose of Heparin to Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins in 2007.

Patient safety is of major concern in healthcare settings due to the preventable nature of events that sometimes lead to serious injury, and even death, for patients. This was catapulted to the forefront of healthcare delivery in 1999 when the Institute of Medicine wrote a scathing report; To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, that highlighted "the lack of safety for patients in healthcare organizations" (Ulrich and Kear 2014). The National Patient Safety

In the healthcare industry accountability displays responsibility, honesty, and hard work. Employer’s count on employees to display these duties everyday in order to have an productive organization accountability must be instilled within every employee. Throughout the healthcare field there are several patients that need attention employees must be able to provide this as well as take responsibility for their mistakes which often happens when working in healthcare. This paper will discuss a few points about accountability such as the importance of accountability in healthcare, how are employees

A “just” culture is necessary in healthcare to promote an environment where mistakes are brought out in the open and analyzed for ways to prevent errors from repeating. Therefore, there is a need for a consensus across the healthcare industry. To transform healthcare from the blame culture to a “just” culture will require change that extends beyond hospitals to the industry (Ross, 2015). The change has to be unified across all aspects of healthcare.

Anyone who has been involved in a medical error has firsthand knowledge of the shame and chaos that ensues in the mind of the involved healthcare provider. And while we are trained to address the first victim, the patient, and support and apply counter measures, we are not always well prepared to address the second victim, the healthcare provider. This phenomenon is known among those who study patient safety and is well documented in the literature, but it is not universally addressed across healthcare. Prior to this event, our patient safety team at my organization had recently developed a policy for healing the healer and we were able to implement the steps in this

One recent survey of more than 400 people accountable for hospital risk management, claims management and quality improvement in health care centers around

Accountability has become an important field in the health care programs because it involves the events and procedures for not only mitigating but also taking responsibility for the actions taking place in an organization. This is crucial because how the funds are handled may directly affect how the patient is treated or the quality of treatment the patient gets. Accountability has also been known to have a robust influence on how one makes decisions. This has been proved true in the study of social cognition, organizational dynamics, and human interaction. This shows the importance of accountability in the health care systems and how the employee's accountability is measured. It is also important to analyze how the checks and balances procedure is like. Accountability also affects the organization's working culture hence the importance to maintain a good working culture and avoid one that is blamed in health care.

Wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong patient errors are avoidable safety issues. Nearly 1.9 trillion dollars are spent on medical errors each year in the United States (Catalano & Fickenscher, 2008). Between 1995 and 2007, 691 wrong-site surgeries have been reported to The Joint Commission's Sentinel Event data repository (AHC Media LLC, 2008). In 2003 in response to the outcry for better patient safety The Joint Commission

In today's modern world with plenty of technology, it is hard to believe that we cannot figure out how to reduce Medical errors. The issue of medical error is not new in health care organizations. It has been in spot light since 1990's, when government did research on sudden increase in number of death in the hospitals. According to Lester, H., & Tritter, J. (2001), "Medical error is an actual or potential serious lapse in the standard of care provided to a patient, or harm caused to a patient through the performance of a health service or health care professional." Medical errors