Patient Safety Assessment

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

Mulloy, D. F., & Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient safety & quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from http://www.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2678/

"To continuously improve health care for the public, in collaboration with other stakeholders, by evaluating health care organizations and inspiring them to excel in providing safe and effective care of the highest quality and value” (Jointcommission.org, 2015). These requirements are regimented in the National Patient Safety Goals and are enforced via surveys and internal inspections to ensure that healthcare institutions abide by the safety mechanisms put in place to facilitate the optimal patient outcomes and environments.

Over time the health care industry has become more complex. Health care is rapidly evolving and continuing to complicate our delivery of care, which in turn has the same effect on quality of care. This steady evolution and change results in nursing shortages and an increase in the prevalence of errors being made. In hopes of preventing these errors and creating safe and high quality patient care, with the focus on new and improved ways of thinking, The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was developed. The QSEN focuses on the following competencies: patient-centered care, quality improvement, safety, and teamwork and collaboration. Their initiatives work to prepare and develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that are necessary to make improvements in the quality and safety of health care systems (Qsen.org, 2014).

Risk managers may choose a model of patient care necessitates a particular work design aimed at increasing coordination and opportunities for patient and staff input (Avgar, Givan & Liu, 2011). Questionnaires can be created, distributed and collected so that information can be

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

The Joint Commission also addresses safety issues through the publication and distribution of the Sentinel Event which identifies a severe breach in safety and addresses ways on how to improve processes and to prevent harm in the future. It also publishes the National Patient Safety Goals which address healthcare safety and ways to solve problems that focus on issues such as identifying patients correctly, improving communication among staff, and administering medications safely, just to name a few. “A majority of Joint Commission standards are directly related to safety, addressing such issues as medication use, infection control, surgery and anesthesia, transfusions, restraint and seclusion, staffing and staff competence, fire safety, medical equipment, emergency management, and security. The standards also include requirements for preventing accidental harm; responding to patient safety events; and the organization’s responsibility to tell patients about the outcomes of their care” (TJC,

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.

Safety and quality are two different terms used interchangeably. Patient safety depends upon the minimization of the undesired incidences while quality is achieved by reaching at anticipated endpoint. In order to successfully access and implement safety and quality culture, this is necessary to learn from deficiencies and encouraging safety science education. In fact, this is very necessary to measure quality as it helps to capture any inconsistency in the treatment processes provided by healthcare organizations. Both focus on person centred and informatics care that include the involvement of health practitioners, patients and consumers to avoid anxiety, frustration or any cause of delays in appropriate treatment. Safety and quality of care is very important to improve clinical practice and health outcome, reduce risks in the delivery of

2012 Joint Commission Patient Safety Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved January 2014, from Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center: www.lovell.fhcc.va.gov/about/2012PatientSafetyGoals.pdf

In the medical health simulation field, the safety word appears often in different conversation or article related to simulation. In other words, simulation centers provide a safe environment for learners to practice their skills whenever they encounter areal situation. As healthcare workers our goal focus on the patient safety. How often do you take time to think about your safety? Generally speaking, only in few occasion we think about our safety. Especially when you at work you believe you are safe environment. Today you will see the importance to be aware of your physical safety while working.

Issues related to a lack of patient safety have been going on for a lot of years now. Throughout the first decade of the 21st century, there has been a national emphasis on cultivating patient safety. Patient safety is a global issue, that touches countries at all levels of expansion and is one of the nation's most determined health care tests. According to the Institute of Medicine (1999), they have measured that as many as 48,000 to 88,000 people are dying in U.S. hospitals each year as the result of lapses in patient safety. Estimates of the size of the problem on this are scarce particularly in developing countries; it is likely that millions of patients worldwide could suffer disabling injuries or death every year due to unsafe medical care. Risk and safety have always been uninterruptedly been significant concerns in the hospital industry. Patient safety is a very much important part of our health care system and it really

The Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) toolkit was developed when the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and American Hospital Association (AHA) joined together to initiate a project to prevent healthcare associated infections in hospitals. The project was a national success due to CUSP. Its tools are used to assess the hospitals’ issues at the unit level. CUSP toolkit provides knowledge, materials and assessment tools to change the unit-based culture of behaviors and habits, in order to improve patient safety. There are five basic steps, involved in CUSP – 1. Educate staff in the science of safety. 2. Identify defects. 3. Engage executive leaders. 4. Learn from mistakes. 5. Implement teamwork tools.

The project objective is to increase trainee awareness of current patient safety standards by 50% as evidenced by an increased participation in patient safety initiatives both in the academic and in