Patient Quality and Safety
Instructions:-
Post a description of one existing source of data you found with variables related to a patient quality and safety problem in your practice. Locate the data posted for your agency/facility. If you are unable to find this information for your agency, locate a national database that can be accessed by health professionals, e.g., Medicare Hospital Compare. (Data are also available for home health and nursing homes.) Include the citation and the link to use for web access. Identify three variables found in the database that are important in better understanding a patient safety problem. Explain how you would interpret the results and how they might help improve nursing practice and patient outcomes. Explain how data is used in your own agency, including nursing involvement in the process.
Solution
Patient Quality and Safety
Most healthcare facilities around the globe focus on providing the ultimate levels of care to patients. Patient safety is a vital component that aims at preventing harm and medication errors to patients. Patient care, as a characteristic of a health care system, has a set of tested strategies to improve the overall patient care. The staff at any hospital and care homes must apply patient safety methods to enlarge the reliability of the facility to patients (Kwan, Lo, Sampson, & Shojania, 2013). This paper will discuss three variables in the healthcare database systems that are important for one to understand the patient safety problem better.
In understanding patient safety, it is imperative to consider three factors; disclosure policies, reporting errors, and human factors. These factors are important due to their relationship with patient quality and security problems. First, healthcare professionals must focus on medical error prevention. According to research conducted by the Harvard Medical Practice, roughly 70% of mistakes are initiated by negligence. Also, 90% of these errors are preventable (Brennan, et al., 1991). When reporting errors, information systems must be used to hold healthcare providers responsible and accountable for performance and errors. When these errors are reported appropriately, they will, in turn, contribute to improved patient safety and quality. Therefore, it is significant for healthcare organizations to report fatal errors that were intercepted as well as less costly errors in creating a focal point for improved patient safety (Kwan, Lo, Sampson, & Shojania, 2013).
Secondly, disclosure policies affect patient outcome. Disclosure policies are written policies that entail a procedure where patient information is shared among parties involved in care. Violating these policies can cause medical errors that might harm the patient. Such errors must be avoided. Additionally, patients must be aware of the methods of treatment, and any valuable information that patient must know should be communicated duly. Another variable that is considered in patient safety is the human factor. Human factors affect the patient directly and indirectly (Carayon, et al., 2013). The interactions in hospitals are vital for patient safety. Most organizations undertake survey, using appropriate tools, to get feedback from patients about the staff at a facility. Through such surveys, organizations can adhere to competencies and behaviors associated with hands-on patient safety.
Conclusively, it is important for
health organizations to consider these three variables to improve patient
quality and safety. A collection of data through surveys can be used to
eradicate patient abuse by nurses, fraud and medication errors for the
betterment of patient outcome.
References
Brennan, T. A., Leape, L. L., Laird, N. M., Hebert, L., Localio, A. R., Lawthers, A. G., et al. (1991). Incidence of adverse events and negligence in hospitalized patients: results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study I. New England journal of Medicine, 324(6), 370-376.
Carayon, P., Wetterneck, T. B., Rivera-Rodriguez, A. J., Hundt, A. S., Hoonakker, P., Holden, R., et al. (2013). Human factors systems approach to healthcare quality and patient safety. Applied ergonomics, 45(1), 14-25.
Keers, R. N., Williams, S. D., Cooke, J., & Ashcroft, D. M. (2013). Causes of medication administration errors in hospitals: a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative evidence. Drug safety, 36(11), 1045-1067.
Kwan, J. L., Lo, L., Sampson, M., & Shojania, K. G. (2013). Medication reconciliation during transitions of care as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review. Annals of Internal Medicine, 158(5), 397-403.
