Gerontology: A Case Study

Patient safety is number one in hospitals. Every staff member that comes into contact with a patient should always have the question, “Will the patient be safe?” in the back of

The Joint Commission focuses on certain goals each year. For patient safety and positive outcomes, hospitals are required to follow certain standards. National Patient Safety Goals were established in 2002 to help identify areas of concern with patient safety. This group is made up by a panel of experts including nurses, doctors, pharmacists and many other healthcare professionals. They advise the Joint Commission on how to address these different patient safety issues. Two goals to be discussed are improving the accuracy of patient identification and medication safety. To improve patient

If care provided to a patient is not safe, than the intervention is ineffective and therefore not helping to improve that patient’s quality of life. To help provide a safe environment, observation and communication are extremely important. Inform the patient and family of any interventions before proceeding with them to insure the patient

Exercises and physical activity have been associated with numerous health benefits including reducing incidences of falls and injuries among the elderly and the geriatric population. Appropriately exercise programs and cardiovascular fitness in older people improve strength and balance. The interventions included strengthening, endurance, balance, flexibility exercises, Tai Chi, stand up/step down procedure and walking exercises. In the first research, the findings were that program targeting balance, leg strength, and freezing gait were only effective in people with milder illnesses, as opposed to more serious disorders like Parkinson’s disease. The study was done for a period of 2 years. In the second research, the findings showed that a multi-component enhanced physical performance of the community indwelling adults but did not translate to psychological outcomes or reduced rates of falling.

The Joint Commission has instituted a number of goals nationally; the aim is to improve patient’s safety. The goals selected look at areas that are of concern in the healthcare industry particularly how it affect patients safety and make recommendations how to reduce if not eradicated these. The Joint Commission is the governing body that accredited hospitals and other health care organizations. The two hospitals that this paper will be comparing, using the goals and criteria recommended by the Joint commission, is Holy Cross Hospital located at 1500 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring, MD and Shady Grove Hospital situated at, 9901 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD.

As we age, our brain and nervous system go through natural changes. An aging adult may experience memory loss, decreased touch sensation, change in the perception of pain, change in sleep pattern, decreased coordination and increased risk for infection (Ignatavicius, 2013, p. 912) .

As the Joint Commission aims to nationally improve health care systems through health care organizations collaborations, it publishes recommended patient safety goals. As stated by the Joint Commission, “the first obligation of health care is to “do no harm””. The Joint Commission’s 2015 National Patient Safety Goals for hospitals include : Identify patients correctly; Improve staff communication; Use

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2016) press release one of the leading cause of accidental deaths of the elderly is falls. This is an issue for our seniors many long-term care (LTC) facilities across the nation. However, one of our primary goals in health care is patient safety. Although, no one can guarantee a patient will never fall, it is our job to maintain a safe environment, prevent falls and injuries. The families of our elders move them into a nursing facility expecting an accident free, uneventful stay for the remainder of their loved ones days. In some cases, frequent calls at various hours of the day to report adverse event which are often falls becomes the reality.

Over the last several years, a wide variety of health care organizations have been facing a number of challenges. This is because of pressures associated with: rising costs, increasing demands and larger numbers of patients. For many facilities this has created a situation where patient safety issues are often overlooked. This is because the staff is facing tremendous amounts of pressure, long hours and more patients. The combination of these factors has created a situation where a variety of hospitals need to improve their patient safety procedures. In the case of Sharp Memorial Hospital, they are focused on addressing these issues through different strategies. To fully understand how they are able to achieve these objectives requires looking at: specific ways the organization has responded to the crisis in medical errors, their definition of patient safety, the causes of errors, systematic barriers and transformations that have been adopted. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights as to how the facility is coping with the crisis in patient safety.

Patient safety one of the driving forces of healthcare. Patient safety is defined as, “ the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of healthcare or as the prevention of errors and adverse events caused by the provision of healthcare rather than the patient’s underlying disease process. (Kangasniemi, Vaismoradi, Jasper, &Turunen, 2013)”. It was just as important in the past as it is day. Our healthcare field continues to strive to make improvement toward safer care for patients across the country.

Patient safety is one of the nation's most imperative health care issues. A 1999 article by the Institute of Medicine estimates that 44,000 to 98,000 people die in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of lack of in patient safety regulations. Inhibiting falls among patients and residents in acute and long term care healthcare settings requires a multifaceted method, and the recognition, evaluation and prevention of patient or resident falls are significant challenges for all who seek to provide a safe environment in any healthcare setting. Yearly, about 30% of the persons of 65 years and older falls at least once and 15% fall at least twice. Patient falls are some of the most common occurrences reported in hospitals and are a leading

When we think about medical safety and the risks we can prevent by proper technique and proper method of planning, we must discuss falls. Medical staff and researchers have discovered that falls are among the most common and reoccurring potentially serious safety problems in a medical environment (Byers & White, 2004). Falls greatly affect all types of health care including; acute care, long-term care, and nursing homes, becoming a top health priority internationally. Research has shown that more than one third of people above the age of 65 years fall every year, along with increasing numbers for those with chronic conditions affecting mobility and illness (Child, 2012). Allowing falls to occur at this scale is not only hindering the health care provided, but may cause mortality, serious or fatal injury, patient’s hospitalization period to increase, and a potential reduction of the quality of life of the patient (Child, 2012). An important concern with fall prevention is miscommunication in medical planning and improper use of equipment that decreases the chance of a fall. Falls can be reduced by educating medical staff and designing programs to establish techniques and prevention incorporating everyone that is involved in the patient’s care. By interacting with the medical staff and designing new and improved strategies, teams have recognized a significantly lower fall rate even within a time period

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In today’s health care system, “quality” and “safety” are one in the same when it comes to patient care. As Florence Nightingale described our profession long ago, it takes work and vigilance to ensure we are doing the best we can to care for our patients. (Mitchell, 2008)

Upon starting this Gerontology course, I was overwhelmed with the course expectations, having to complete an Older Adult Review project, weekly discussion board posts and comments with precise APA format (which I was horrible at) and lots of supplemental reading to fulfill the learning outcomes of this course. Nevertheless, I overcame all those obstacles and have obtained newfound knowledge of what it is like to age, firsthand, coming from one of my favorite patients which has cleared many of the stereotypes I had on the geriatric population. Thanks to this course and interviews with Mary, I have a better understanding of the geriatric population which will benefit my future career as a Registered Nurse.