How To Improve Patient Safety In Healthcare

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.

healthcare organization accrediting bodies, and to maintain credibility with patients and peers alike, must adhere to the National Patient Safety Goals. As stated by Ulrich and Kear (2014), "Not only are nurses responsible for providing safe patient care, we are also responsible for creating an environment in which others can provide safe patient care, and for being the last line of defense when needed between the patient and potential harm. Having a deep understanding of patient safety and patient safety culture allows nurses to be the leaders we need to be in ensuring that our patients are always

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,

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.

Los Angeles, Doctor and founder John McLaughlin, came up with the idea to reduce health care costs and improve patient safety

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.

The role of nurse administrators has changed from a patient care focus to a wider range in responsibility for the patient. There are chief themes in all scopes of this position such as: “collaboration, coaching, mentoring, diversity, co-creating, communicating and coordinating outcomes management, and enabling the spirit of the community” ("Nurse Executive," n.d.).

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.

Patient safety is a growing concern among healthcare professionals and the public (Goh, Chan, & Kuziemsky, 2013). As professional nurses, it is our duty to demonstrate improved safety for our patients, visitors and guests to the facilities in which we serve. It is also our duty to prevent adverse events and to view unfortunate incidents as learning opportunities to achieve a holistic view of patient care. By improving patient safety, we accept responsibility for more positive patient outcomes and a successful hospital stay. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of data evaluation and interpretation to improve patient quality and safety.

Australian health care is a complex and ever transforming system, with the need to improve safety and quality of health services an ongoing priority (Australian College of Nursing, 2015). Nurses account for two thirds of the health workforce and are known to bring a deeper understanding to the healthcare sector by identifying financial, social and cultural challenges affecting current health regime (Australian Nursing Federation, 2009). As a result of their expertise at the ground level, nurses may play a significant role within the formation of health policies and not just within the implementation of them (Twigg et al. 2013; Parliament of Australia, n.d). Due to their strong advocacy for patient safety and wellbeing, nurses may prove valuable representatives within national debate about policy reform (Premji & Hatfield, 2016; Sayers et al. 2011). Therefore, it is imperative that a framework for nursing leadership is established to ensure nurses are heard and able to attribute to policy involvement at all levels of the government. The following essay will examine the role of the nurse in policy development at the federal, state and organisational levels and discuss the challenges currently encountered by nurses as they implement health policy and effectively promote safe and quality health practice.

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.

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

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

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.

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)