Improving The Quality Of Care And The Highest Level Of Patient Safety

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

The Institute of Medicine released a report in 1999 titled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System concerning the number of medical error related deaths. The report states that between 44,000 and 98,000 medical error related deaths occur each year in hospitals across the country (Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. S., 2000) In response to this report, the Institute of Medicine released Crossing the Quality Chasm: Health: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century that outlines six aims for the future of the healthcare system: safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, equitable (Institute of Medicine, 2001). These aims set to establish the quality of healthcare across the country. Quality is defined by the Institute of Medicine as ““the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (2001).

The third leading cause of death in America may surprise you. Hospitals and healthcare organizations dedicate their branding to reflect a place of hope, comfort, and healing when ones health is compromised. Sadly, medical errors do exists in the realm of healthcare. The National Center for Biotechnology Information defines medical error as “an act of omission or commission in planning or execution that contributes to or could contribute to an unintended result.” Medical errors may include incorrect record keeping, administering incorrect medication to a patient, misdiagnosis, failing to remove all surgical instruments and performing surgery on the incorrect site. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality identified eight factors that contribute to the cause of medical errors. These factors include “communication problems, inadequate information flow, human problems, patient-related issues, organizational transfer of knowledge, staffing patterns, technical failures and inadequate policies and procedures.”

According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, To Err Is Human, the majority of medical errors result from faulty systems and processes, not individuals (Hughes, 2008). However, due to processes that are inefficient and variable, multiple health insurance, differences in provider education and experience, and other factors that contribute to the complexity of health care the IOM has put together six aims of health care that is effective, safe, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable (Hughes, 2008).

The book explains that vast majority of errors occur due to good doctors trying to do the right thing but being unable to reach the goal since the system is fragmented. The authors include many instances of medical error, responses from patients, families, and healthcare professional, and the steps taken to improve the performance and reinvent the health care system. Throughout the book, heroic role of many leaders of healthcare professionals, scientists, and academic professionals are presented.

The United States Health Care System currently has a unique quantity of the different types of medical care that the system offers. Regardless of this fact, many issues arise when it comes to assuring high quality care for everyone. Not all is well since the current health care system is a top economic and social problem for Americans (Health Care Problems, 2015). Many issues such as medical errors, quality of care, and other issues can impact the health care organization such as hospitals, clinics, and physicians. One of the issues is medical errors. They occur when a hospital or doctor provide an inappropriate service of care. Medical errors are defined as human errors in health care and reflects the deterioration of the relationship between patients and the health care system. This paper attempts to examine the medical errors and its impact on health care, while recommending changes to company corporate structure, governance, culture, focus, and social responsibility, and recommend reallocation of resources to prevent the issue from repeating in the future (Health Care Problems, 2015).

Patient safety has become a major concern in the healthcare sector because of the prevalence of medical errors. Patient safety has even stood out as its own ideal discipline and it encompasses certain areas of healthcare service provision such as reporting, analysis and prevention of medical errors (because of the upsurge of medical errors across the globe). Initially, medical errors were not considered a big issue in medical circles until there was an increased trend of medical errors across the globe which resulted into adverse medical events and a high number of patient deaths. This trend prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to carry out an assessment of the impact of medical errors across the globe and established that at least 1 in every 10 patient across the globe is normally affected by medical errors (World Health Organization 2008).

In the course of operations, all healthcare organizations experience errors occurring. Policies and procedures must be in place in order to minimize the severity of errors and the impact on patient safety. When an error occurs, there are two types of causes of the failure”

The essential for eminence and safety step up initiatives permeate health care.Quality health care is define as “the grade to which health services for persons and populations boost the probability of desired health outcome and are reliable with existing professional information. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) statement, the mainstream of medical errors result from defective systems and processes, not persons. process that are incompetent and changeable, altering case mix of patients, healthiness insurance, difference in provider instruction and practice, and frequent other factors put in to the involvedness of health care. With this in intellect, the IOM also assert that today’s health care business function at a minor level

Imagine a situation when you have a health problem and need a specialist for medical help but instead, they become the cause of the biggest health problem in your life. A question, will you ever trust the health organization again? Probably no. Healthcare facilities should create a sense of trustworthiness and safety. Patients trust their doctors to always make the right decisions instead of them without a second thought. We must remember that doctors are humans and tend to make mistakes. Usually, patients don't ask questions and everything that doctors will say they accept as the only truth. But Medical mistakes are a really serious issue in the USA. Although not always life threatening but can cause very serious health conditions. Medical mistakes are the third-largest killer of Americans right after heart disease and cancer and these mistakes result in about 400,000 deaths and cost $1 trillion annually in the United States (Zikhani, 2016).

Medical errors are among the five most common causes of death in the United States, among them - cardiovascular, cancer, stroke and lung disease. According to scientists, the number of deaths of Americans as a result of medical errors exceeds the number of deaths caused by breast cancer, car accidents or AIDS. Checking the quality of care insurance company organized for the benefit of the patient, and as a result hospitals financially punishes not only technical, but also for medical errors (Ulene, 2008).

Mistakes and medical error is reputed to be one of the leading causes of death in a patient care setting. Indeed, if it was to be ranked among other diseases as cases of death, it would rank third. It has been further illustrated that the best way of mitigating medical errors and the presence of mistakes in care delivery lies in effective communication and learning from mistakes committed. For this reason, it is clear that the policy of honesty reign paramount as a key attribute that would elicit tangible improvement. Complete honesty ensures that individuals in the medical setting and patient care are able to communicate effectively and in the process elicit an element of exchange and learning. In cases where such

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.

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

Reporting errors can strengthen the processes of care and also enhance the quality of care. To effectively avoid further errors that can cause harm to patients, improvements must be made on the incidents or events reported in reporting system. Reporting errors can help the organizations better understand what happened, identify the factors that cause the occurrence of errors or incidents, determine its frequency and predict whether it could happen again and find an intervention to prevent or to