Patient Safety For A Healthcare Facility Essay

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

Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are infections patients can acquire in a healthcare facility while being given medical care. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website notes six major sites of infection that patients are at risk of acquiring while receiving care in acute care hospitals in the United States: pneumonia, gastrointestinal illness, urinary tract infections, primary bloodstream infections, surgical site infections from any inpatient surgery, and other types of infections. Their website recounts that as early as 1847 evidence is documented of persons acquiring infections while receiving care in a hospital. The website for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service’s Agency for Healthcare Research

Vital improvement for patient safety has triggered an enormous amount of positive change in the healthcare system. There were “1.6 million adverse events each year that led to 180,000 deaths” (Liang & Mackey, 2011). In a review, avoidable errors led to $19.5 billion dollars in healthcare expenses (Liang & Mackey, 2011). The National Patient Safety Agency analyzed 425 deaths from acute care hospitals and found “15% of the deaths were related to unrecognized patient deterioration” (Higgins, Maries-Tillot, Quinton, & Richmond, 2008). This finding led to the Institute for Health Care Improvement’s promotion for the use of an early warning scoring system to assist with identifying deteriorating patients (Albert & Huesman, 2011).

Hospitals report data to The Centers for Disease Control and based on the research and viewing of the data they have concurred that “Surgical site infections are the second most common type of adverse events occurring in hospitalized patient. While advances have been made in infection control practices, including improved operating room ventilation, sterilization methods, barriers, surgical technique, and availability of antimicrobial prophylaxis, SSIs remain a

Health care associated infections (HAIs) are one of the most common place errors of hospital care. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately “1 in 20 hospitalized patients fall victim to an HAI, leading to nearly 100,000 deaths per year”. These infections have often been shrugged off by physicians as an inevitable risk of hospital stays, although there are simple measures that can prevent a large portion of HAIs. Because there are simple precautions to limit HAIs, hospitals and

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

Surgical site infections occur when a patient experiences infection following surgery, often as a direct result of the care received in a hospital or other medical facility. While these infections can often be easily treated while the patient is still at the hospital, the incidences of these infections can have significant and lasting impacts on patients and the hospital itself, even resulting in a patient’s death if the infection is not detected and treated appropriately. Since these infections occur while patients are under the care of professionals and during hospital stays, it is imperative that all involved in patient care follow procedures and policies established by the facility to reduce the risk of infections in patients. This involves not only information about surgical site infections and their prevention, but the impact of these infections on patients, hospitals, and staff members, as well as how surgical site infections impacts a facility’s accreditation. The purpose of this paper is to discuss surgical site infections, the implications of their occurrences at hospitals, accreditation expectations, and outcomes related to cost and quality.

An analysis of patient safety in the health care industry reveals a multitude of challenges facing providers and patients alike. A new commitment to providing safe, quality health care to patients is a critical part of reforming the U.S. health care system. But to be effective, a new health care discipline (i.e. Patient Safety), needed to be established that would emphasize the reporting, analysis, and prevention of medical errors that lead to adverse health care events. In analyzing this growing health care issue, I found that measuring and improving patient safety is complicated by many factors. We’ll examine a few of them in hopes of gaining a better understanding of the issues preventing the health care industry from resolving

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are a principal source of patient illness and impermanence. Each SSI that happens is related to roughly seven to 10 supplementary postoperative hospital days, and patients with SSIs have a two to 11 times complex threat of death related to surgical patients without SSIs.3,4 Surgical site infections have now developed as the most communal and most expensive cause of health care–associated infection. Thus, hospitals and health care providers must regularly track and improve devotion to evidence-based approaches for averting these distressing infections. According to the Center for Disease Control’s (CDC) progress report on selected Healthcare associated infections (HAIs), surgical site infections (SSI) related to 10 surgical processes within the time 2008 to 2012 fell to 20%. However, despite the encouraging national report, none of the states showed any improvements better than the national standardized infection ratio (SIR) HAIs including surgical site infections.

Hello Kimberley, I agree, on your review that Internet sites address concerns about safe  administration of medications. In the facility where I work, the focus on the National Patient Safety goals for safe medication administration are high. The process of safe administering medications to patients are shared with all staff members of our organization. Communication breakdown can cause instability of the process. When error are made, it is reviewed with all staff members, to prevent this error from happening again."Patient safety is an essential and vital component of quality nursing care. However, the nation’s health care system is prone to errors, and can be detrimental to safe patient care, as a result of basic systems flaws (Ballard, 2003).

Surgical site infections are estimated to occur in 3% of surgical patients and cost the healthcare

Are the current infection control practices not enough to control this problem? Low infection control can be influenced by factors such as increasing inpatient acuity of illness, inadequate nurse-patient staffing ratios, unavailability of system resources. Even that healthcare personal is knows the importance of hand washing in infection control, evidence based studies have shown the not adherence to this simple practice. For this reason a constant re-evaluation of infection control guidelines, and application techniques must be a continuous practice in every healthcare center. Being healthcare workers (doctors, nurse practitioners, nurses, nurses aids, and healthcare worker in general) the front line defense against hospital acquired infection applying daily infection control practices to prevent cross contamination and spread of infections is the key. For this reason all healthcare staff must receive continuous education and training about infection control, correct hand hygiene technique, and use of alcohol base hand rubs. Infection control culture and clinical staff engagement are crucial to increase appropriated level of care, and decrease infections

Communication is the most critical part of human relationships. This is valid for patient-provider relationship also. We expect that innovation will build effectiveness and diminish expenses and latencies. Furthermore, the right innovation holds the guarantee of much enhancing quiet patient safety, particularly when patients are under the consideration of various physician’s. Information Technology for Patient Safety depends on data gathered by the World Health Organization's (WHO) Patient Safety Working Group and contemplated the part of IT in enhancing patient safety. Perceiving those present guidelines in health IT concentrate on data capture and information trade, the

Surgical site infections are not just a problem for the patients; they have legal implications that affect both the physicians and the organization. In the United States there are twenty-seven states that have enacted laws that require hospitals and healthcare facilities to report data related to hospital acquired infections. The Center of Disease Control National Healthcare Safety is the only national system designed for the collection of hospital

Patient safety is an important aspect of hospital care. Hospitals are expected to keep patients safe and protect them from harm, while delivering the highest standard of care (Graham, 2012). Since the changes announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that injuries acquired during hospitalization, such as inpatient falls, will not be reimbursed any longer, hospitals are now proactive in implementing measures in order to avoid these events (Graham, 2012). In addition, reduction of harm from falls was identified by the Joint Commission as a national patient safety goal (Hicks, 2015).