Canada Healthcare Safety The Canadian healthcare system is currently undergoing a major transformation on patient safety mirroring similar top healthcare systems across the world. Increased awareness regarding the importance of patient safety issues has led to the creation of theoretical conceptualizations, frameworks, and studies that apply safety experiences from high-reliability businesses to medical settings. Canadians have universal access to publicly funded health care services, including primarily physician and hospital services. However, Canadians also experience longer waits periods due to high demands for services but not enough staff or adequate facilities to go around for everyone. This situation place a strain on patients waiting on either lifesaving or improving procedures but because of the lack of availability, medication, or unavailable rooms at hospital. The results, is the creation of over watch entities such as the Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) whom main responsibility is to study, report and recommend solutions to the Canadian government the current status of the healthcare system as a hole. The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) was established in 2003. Its broad overall mandate is to ensure the safety …show more content…
EHRs play a major role in patient’s safety since it can prevent double outpatient electronic prescribing, can track down in-patient computerized physician order entry and can have patients having their essential health data accessible to their different providers. The EHR is considered one of the main products in the integration of various tools such as decision-support systems, digital imagery that can be observed by authorized physicians while working with patients and other staff via telemedicine which would enable a safer and more efficient healthcare system in Canada (Gagnon et al.,
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.
For years now, the healthcare system in the United States have managed patient’s health records through paper charting, this has since changed for the better with the introduction of an electronic medical record (EMR) system. This type of system has helped healthcare providers, hospitals and other ambulatory institutions extract data from a patient’s chart to help expedite clinical diagnosis and providing necessary care. Although this form of technology shows great promise, studies have shown that this system is just a foundation to the next evolution of health technology. The transformation of EMR to electronic heath record system (EHR) is the ultimate goal of the federal government.
Dr. Lucian Leape an adjunct professor of health policy at the Harvard School of Public Health, is internationally recognized as the father of the patient safety movement. In 2012, Leape and colleagues identified a broad range
“An electronic health record (EHR) is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. EHRs are real-time, patient-centered records that make information available instantly and securely to authorized users.” (healthit.gov) The EHR mandate was created “to share information with other health care providers and organizations – such as laboratories, specialists, medical imaging facilities, pharmacies, emergency facilities, and school and workplace clinics – so they contain information from all clinicians involved in a patient’s care.” ("Providers & Professionals | HealthIT.gov", n.d., p. 1) The process has proved to be quite challenging for providers. As an incentive, the government began issuing payments to those providers who “meaningfully use certified electronic health record (EHR) technology.” (hhs.gov) There are three stages that providers must progress through in order to receive theses financial incentives. Stage one is the initial stage and is met with the creation and implementation of the HER in the business. Stage two “increases health information exchange between providers.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) Stage three will be the continuation and expansion of the “meaningful use objectives.” ("United States Department of Health and Human Services | HHS.gov", n.d., p. 1) The hospital, where I work, initiated the HER mandate many years ago. In this paper, I will discuss the progression and the challenges that my hospital encountered while implementing the EHR mandate.
Patient safety is the basis of quality health care in the hospital. Works applied to patient safety and practices that have not prevented hazard have focused on negative outcomes of care, such as mortality and morbidity. Healthcare employees are important to the surveillance and coordination that will reduce such adverse effects.
The public health care system in Canada is still flawed, proven through the wait times that many patients have to go through. Canadians may wait up to six to nine months for “non-urgent” MRIs . The waiting list is dreary for Canadians, unlike Americans who can get their services immediately through paying out-of-pocket, the long public sector in Alberta waits up to a year for services, the wait for cataract surgery was six weeks ; these waits for some patients put the public health care system to shame, and helps push the idea of the privatized health care system a bettering option for the future of the nation. Additionally, 41 percent of adult Canadians said they experienced a difficulty in accessing hospital and physician care on weekday nights and weekends . Furthermore, it is still evident that Canadians in fact pay a higher income tax compared to Americans, due to the fact that they are paying the fund the health care system through their taxes; however, it is still significantly less to pay for a public health care system than it is privatized . Privatization is further proved as a superior choice with regards to the discharge situation many Canadians face. In Canada, it is common to see patients discharged earlier than recommended due the rising amount of patients using the free-of-charge public health care system, patients are released “quicker and sicker” because of this . Additionally, when discharged, the public health care system does not cover home care and private nurse care ; further proving the notion that there is still some forms of privatization already in the health care system in
Electronic Health Record (EHR) is a digital collection of patient health information instead of paper chart that captures data at the point of collection, supports clinical decision-making and integrates data from multiple sources in any care delivery settings. The health record includes patient’s demographics, progress notes, past medical history, vital signs, medications, immunizations, laboratory data and radiology reports. National Alliance for the Health Information Technology defines EHR as, “ an electronic record of health-related information on an individual that conforms to nationally recognized interoperability standards and that can be created, managed, and consulted by authorized clinicians and staff across more
In our organization we have had many revisions to our safety process. Originally, it was at our hospital that the 1996 well known “Willy King” incident, about the amputation of the “wrong” leg occurred. As a response to the incident, we were required to develop a root-cause-analysis and develop a plan to avoid similar situations in the future. We were one of the first hospitals to establish a “safety process” in the surgical environment. Through inter-disciplinary collaborati...
Unfortunately, the quality of health care in America is flawed. Information technology (IT) offers the potential to address the industry’s most pressing dilemmas: care fragmentation, medical errors, and rising costs. The leading example of this is the electronic health record (EHR). An EHR, as explained by HealthIT.gov (n.d.), is a digital version of a patient’s paper chart. It includes, but is not limited to, medical history, diagnoses, medications, and treatment plans. The EHR, then, serves as a resource that aids clinicians in decision-making by providing comprehensive patient information.
It is nearly impossible to motivate people to do what is right without exception. Patient safety officers create an environment that encourages to identify and report errors and “near misses”, all while having a supportive staff. The problem is there are not bad people in healthcare; the problem is that good people are working in systems that need to improve safety. By recording reports, it offers a strategy in raising the level of patient safety in healthcare, and it also explains how patients themselves can influence the quality of care they receive. Patient safety officers carry out activities to spread improvements across, reinforcing “Just Culture.” Patients along with the hospital staff need to be recognized and appropriately rewarded for their efforts and be able to work within a culture of trust. To bring about these much needed changes in healthcare administration and practice, it is important to focus on the conditions that allow positive events to propagate within a culture of 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 coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
Studies have implied that, healthcare professionals who practice clinical features through EHR were far more likely provide better preventive care than were healthcare professionals who did not. (page 116). From 2004, EHR has initiated, even the major priority of President Obama’s agenda is EHR (Madison & Stagger, 2011). Health care administration considers EHR as the introduction of advanced technology which can improve patient satisfaction are can increase the financial incentives of the healthcare organization. Studies have pointed out that the federal policy is proposed to transform all medical records into EHR (Hebda & Calderone, 2010).
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
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.