How To Improve Patient Safety In Healthcare

INTRODUCTION The main objective of healthcare professionals is to provide the best quality of patient care and the highest level of patient safety. To achieve that objective, there are many organizations that help improve the quality of care. One of the best examples is the Joint Commission. Unfortunately, the healthcare system is not free from total risks. In healthcare activities, there are possible errors, mistakes, near miss and adverse events. All of those negative events are preventable. But, it is clear that errors caused in healthcare result in thousands of deaths in the United States.

Safe Practices in health care are practices that reduce the risk of adverse impact on patients due to exposure to medical care. In the article, “Role of effective nurse-patient relationships in enhancing patient safety” it is argued that “Ensuring and maintaining patient safety is an essential aspect of care provision. It is important that RNs maintain an effective nurse to patient relationship, a good health care environment and working practices that promote safety to ensure optimal patient care” (Conroy, Tiffany & Feo, et al. 2017). Furthermore, teamwork and communication is vital for the implementation of quality, and safe patient care. A lack of communication may lead to inadvertent patient harm. Creating an environment where nurses can speak and express their concerns and also alert/inform team members concerning unsafe situations is essential, thus advocating for their patients.

Objectives Discuss the purpose and use of the Pyxis. Discuss the history and background of the Pyxis medication dispensing system. Discuss the impact Pyxis use has had on healthcare. Discuss the effectiveness of Pyxis use in regards to patient safety Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Pyxis use. History Los Angeles, Doctor and founder John McLaughlin, came up with the idea to reduce health care costs and improve patient safety

Examine the Administration's Health Care Delivery System in the United States 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.

Analysis of Health care huddles: Managing complexity to achieve high reliability Anusha Rayapati HCA 620 Introduction This article was selected as it explained and discussed the probable standardized procedure that health care organizations may have to follow for improvements in patient safety. This article explains how the inter-personal and professional relationship of different health care providers need to be maintained for better health care as explained in one of the chapters of health care management.

Safety Culture “Organizations with a positive safety culture are characterized by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures” (Stavrianopoulos, 2012, pg, 202). Communication and teamwork go hand and hand. An effective teamwork involves effective communication. No communication can lead to possible medical errors, whether the failure to communicate comes from the patient to the nurse or between the health care providers. Evidence based care is another factor which aids in safety. “Healthcare organizations that demonstrate evidence-based best practices, including standardized processes, protocols, checklists, and guidelines, are considered to exhibit a culture of safety” (Stavrianopoulos, 2012, pg, 203). Providing better safety means learning from the past mistakes. By understanding the root of the issue, which would then lead to learning how to improve the situation. Educational training about safety should be available for medical staff to attend and learn if there was to be any doubt in he or she’s mind. Patient centered care is another factor in providing safety. It focuses on the patient and their family. Helping patient’s and family be more active in the care of the health plan can lead to safer and better

Joint Commission- National Patient Safety Goals Kathy Linkous University of West Florida Joint Commission- National Patient Safety Goals 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

Patient safety, working as an effective member of the healthcare team to achieve patient safety, and provide safe care to the patient, family, and community by self and system performance are three different learning outcomes, yet with the same end goal. Ensuring safe care to all involved in a situation is not just the nurses’ responsibility, but every health care team member. In NURS4377 Risk Analysis and Implication for Practice, this nurse learned about an aspect of patient safety. An assignment given questioned safety in medication administration. This assignment presented a look into the dangers of medication, common errors by staff, and ways to decrease adverse events. NURS4373 Management and Leadership required a leadership self-assessment,

Health Care Leader Interview NUR/492 June 17, 2013 Healthcare changes occurring today along with shrinking budgets and reimbursement rates for hospitals has forced institution CEOs to do more with less. Changes and restructuring of various health facilities require nursing leaders with flexibility and adaptability. Nurse leaders must also consider budgetary constraints, cost effectiveness, patient safety, and quality care while maintaining focus on improved patient outcome. The responsibility of ensuring patients receive safe and high quality care belongs to every employee in the hospital, including support staff such as IV therapy. In this hospital, this led to the development of a nurse director position to oversee the

Today’s modifications in health care reform will merit nurse executives to form associations with healthcare providers to remain viable and take a proactive stance on healthcare. Nurse leaders are essential players in regards to establishing standards and leading organizational change. The American Organization for Nursing Executives (AONE) established competencies that are foundational to transform an environment, which includes partnering with others for favorable outcomes. The AONE mission and vision is “to shape the future of health care through innovative and expert nursing leadership” (AONE, 2011, p. 3). Nurse leaders will need the skills established by the AONE competencies, which encompass communication and relationship building, knowledge of the healthcare environment, leadership, professionalism, and business skills (AONE, 2011).

Professor and Class, From the top to the bottom, everyone is responsible to maintain safety throughout health care organizations. This is one of the fundamental reasons for having these six goals in an attempt to improve the quality in patient care (Finkleman, 2012). We must work consistently and collaboratively adhere to these goals in order to achieve quality improvement. Also, health care professionals need to understand the rationale for applying these concepts into their scope of practice. According to our lesson this week, (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2016) “Quality Improvement is about inspiring change.” It is never easy to implement change because you are always going to face obstacles.

Week Two Case Study Healthcare in the United States is one of the most complex industries in our country. Over the past fifteen years patient safety has been the forefront in healthcare organizations and keeping the patient safe when they arrive at the hospital is very crucial (Alijani, Kwun, Omar, & Williams, 2015). In order to do this hospitals’ need to know different methods of safety approaches. Risk management in healthcare involves patients’ rights, patient safety, patient satisfaction, compliance, and quality of care. Risk management is an essential part of any healthcare organization, it helps them identify risks and helps make sure they are corrected so they do not happen again. Quality in healthcare involves safety, technology, compassion, skill and care (Nash & Goldfarb, 2006, p. 74). The staff as a whole must recognize that patient satisfaction is not only a measurable outcome of care but also a component of care.

Creating a Safe Environment in a Healthcare Setting In order to create a safe environment in a healthcare setting, it would be necessary to apply all four of the characteristics of a culture of safety. This would include psychological safety, active leadership, transparency, and fairness. Without ensuring that all four of those characteristics were addressed, there would be a high possibility of not having an environment that could be considered safe. It is not enough to say all of these conditions will be met, though, or all the characteristics will be addressed. Instead, it must be shown how that will be the case, in order to ensure that everyone involved understands what is at stake and how to build a safe healthcare environment. The first characteristic to be considered is the psychological safety of the people in the healthcare setting. They have to know that their concerns will be openly received by the staff and that they will be treated with respect (Simmons, 2009). Without that, they will not discuss any serious issues they are facing.

A significant finding in health care that Emanuel et al. (2015) gave emphasis to relates to the acknowledgement that hospitals are not necessarily safe places for healing. Rather, they pose significant risk of patient harm. Such findings have prompted attention to be given to patient safety. However, even with the increasing recognition of patient safety, the implementation of policies and practices linked to patient safety have proved challenging (Emanuel et al., 2015). A view that Emanuel et al. (2015) advanced is that it is possible to reduce errors by redesigning processes and systems through human factor principles. With this in mind, nursing staffing has become an area of interest in promoting patient safety.

Patient safety and quality of care are the center of the nursing practice. We all seek to ensure that our patients receive safe and effective care. Athough, the healthcare system is not perfect, and errors do occur. Studies have shown how costly medical errors with adverse reactions can be and have caused patient injury or death. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) decided that patients should not be harmed by systems that are set up to render care. A system that avows to do no harm.