Fierce healthcare reported sometime in June of 2012 that hospitals across the country had received safety report cards from one Leapfrog group. They reported that most facilities got a C or below in the rankings. The report also showed that the biggest hospitals such as the Henry Ford Hospital in Michigan barely got a passing grade. The report cards were meant to inform patients and also to motivate improvements in patient safety, they were faced with a lot of criticism and controversy especially from hospitals that did not pass. This paper will discuss the controversy facing patient safety in the U.S. It will also analyze the effects of the issue and the solutions suggested and currently in place to solve the issue. The major complaint was that the score cards give a single letter grade for twenty six patient safety measures. Many hospitals claim that the score cards had within them the wrong questions. They insist that they should address matters of how much the hospitals are doing to better themselves in respect to patient safety. The point, however, is research has shown that many hospitals are doing little to nothing to better their patient safety. A case exists where a post-surgical patient was suffering from low bloody pressure. The nurse taking care of him noted this and asked the supervisor what to do. The supervisor asked her to contact the physician that was on call. The physician said to give the patient Albumin. The nurse on duty read in the patient’s chart that he had been given albumin, a product of blood. On reading also that the patient was a Jehovah Witness, she reported the case to the hospital CEO who gave the decision to inform the patient. The on-call physician resented the CEO’s involvement as he did not ... ... middle of paper ... ...nd opinion policies that will not allow a diagnosis be made from the decision of one practitioner. These alternatives will ensure that healthcare facilities tighten their ship, so to speak. Healthcare facilities need to be less income oriented. This will ensure that the objective of all doctors and nurses is to restore patient health and not to make money for the institution. This would not actually mean that hospitals would lose money. On the contrary, patients will be more comfortable in an environment where the doctor has the well-being as their primary objective. This will attract more patients. References http://www.umt.edu/bioethics/healthcare/resources/educational/casestudies/pscasestudies/default.aspx http://www.ahrq.gov/patients-consumers/diagnosis-tratment/hospitals-clinics/10-tips/index.html
Orlando Regional Healthcare, Education & Development. (2004). Patient Safety: Preventing Medical Errors. Retrieved on March 2014 from world wide web at http://www.orlandohealth.com/pdf%20folder/patient%20safety.pdf
The Texas Medical Institute of Technology, through programs such as Chasing Zero, is bringing a public voice to the issue of healthcare harm. The documentary is a stirring example of the quality issues facing the healthcare system. In 2003, the NQF first introduced the 30 Safe Practices for Better Healthcare, which it hoped all hospitals would adopt (National Quality Forum, 2010). Today the list has grown to 34, yet the number of preventable healthcare harm events continues to rise. The lack of standardization and mandates which require the reporting of events contributes to the absence of meaningful improvement. Perhaps through initiatives such as those developed by TMIT and the vivid and arresting patient stories such as Chasing Zero, change will soon be at hand.
Risk management is the system in which companies assess potential liabilities within an organization (Raso, Gulinello, 2011). Through this process information is gathered, assessed, and implemented to avoid these potential risk. Risk managers are beneficial to their organizations because not only do they save money but they can also save lives. In the hospital setting where mistakes can cost someone their lives, risk managers work to develop protocols to help prevent human error. Information is gathered through the process of evidence based practice as well as guidelines in place by best practice. Not only do they help protect the lives of the patients within the facilities, they are also responsible for ensuring staff safety. A risk manager’s responsibility is multi-faceted and complex. They will prevent potential litigations by implementing patient safety protocols, reduce risk to associates, and reduce cost to the organizations.
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher
Safety is focused on reducing the chance of harm to staff and patients. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals includes criteria such as using two forms of identification when caring for a patient to ensure the right patient is being treated, proper hand washing techniques to prevent nosocomial infections and reporting critical information promptly (Joint Commission, 2015). It is important that nurses follow standards and protocols intending to patients to decrease adverse
...staff would not be required to put in the overtime to compensate for the lack of workers. Patients would no longer have to suffer the neglect of the staff because he or she was too busy. Making sure the patient gets the best quality care reduces the time spent for recovery. Reducing the time spent for recovery increases the organization’s finances. Providing a safe facility also reduces the expenses on the private hospital’s budget. Ensuring a patient is safe can reduce potential use of ongoing treatment and services. Hiring the appropriate nursing staff needed can save the organization money. Instead of cutting back on staff, more staff needs to be hired to fulfil the needs of the patient. In the economy today, private hospitals need to focus on the overall long term effects of each action opposed to quick reactions resulting in financial strain for the facility.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2011). Introduction to the Culture of Safety (Educational Standards). Retrieved from IHI open school for health professions: http://www.ihi.org
Patient safety is the responsibility of everyone in the hospital environment because of the nature of the job. The nature of work in the hospital is complicated and involves working with patients with different illnesses and diagnoses. The safety of a patient is the responsibility of everyone because we all go through continuous training and education to ensure the quality health of a patient. Patient safety is everyone’s responsibility because it affects the amount of money lost by the hospital. Safety is the responsibility of everyone because it determines the reputation of a hospital. Nobody likes to go to a hospital with a bad reputation on patient safety. For a hospital to keep a good reputation, every section in the hospital must be in proper functioning, with quality and patient safety at the maximum. Patient care includes everyone in the hospital because patients trust all medical practitioners with their life. The belief is that we are all more knowledgeable and trained in taking care of them and providing a diagnostic solution to their
Safety within hospitals must be viewed in a holistic way. Patient safety is always prioritized but
The rate of errors and situations are seen as chances for improvement. A great degree of preventable adversative events and medical faults happen. They cause injury to patients and their loved ones. Events are possibly able to occur in all types of settings. Innovations and strategies have been created to identify hazards to progress patient and staff safety. Nurses are dominant to providing an atmosphere and values of safety. As an outcome, nurses are becoming safety leaders in the healthcare environment(Utrich&Kear,
Longo, D. R., Hewett, J. E., Ge, B., & Schubert, S. (2005). The long road to patient safety: A status report on patient safety systems. JAMA: Journal of the American Medical Association, 294(22), 2858-2865.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) “patient safety is the reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with healthcare to an acceptable minimum”. (WHO, 2009) In the healthcare industry, maintaining patient safety is the main concern. Adverse events are “the failure of planned events to achieve their desired goal” (Reason, 1995). Once adverse events occur it is of the utmost importance to identify the underlying causes that lead to their occurrence. In healthcare, due to its complex nature, there is never a single reason why an error occurs. There are always several factors that lead to error (WHO, 2008). It is vital that these causes be indentified in order to ensure patient safety is protected at all times.
Whether you are coming in to sit and wait for someone or you are the one who is having a procedure done safety and quality in any department of health is very important. Patient safety and quality of hospital care can affect hospital ratings.
Patient safety is an extremely broad arena of health care that directs many of the policies in place and contributes enormously to training and nursing conduct. Patient safety can range from preventing falls, averting medication errors, safeguarding patient information, or vigilance towards abnormal trends, to name a few. The process by which these precautions are identified reside in the works of the Institute of Medicine’s Crossing the Quality Chasm and the Joint Commission’s 2016 National Patient Safety Goals. Identification of a problem is easy but defining the future progression and implementing the process culminates in a successful effort.
The National Academy of Sciences notes that the United States has many of the world’s most successful clinical research facilities and cutting edge medical technology, but there has not been as much of an effort to establish a system to measure the quality of care and the productivity of the healthcare system (National Academy of Engineering and Institute of Medicine Committee on Engineering and the Health Care System, 2005). Each of these concepts have certain strengths and weaknesses. The application of these concepts can assure that patients are safe, prevent organizational incidents, and can also help in the investigation of incidents. This paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of five of these concepts, how these are related to patient safety and can help with the investigation of incidents, illustrates the strengths and weaknesses in a table, and includes a basic incident response tool that integrates the strengths of these concepts.