Our institution has committed to improving the quality and safety of patient care. According to Owens, Limcangco, Barrett, Heslin, & Moore, between 2011 and 2014, there was a reduction of 6 to 64 % with the number of patient safety and adverse events (2018). An adverse event is an event that results in an injury to a patient as an outcome of medical care and the Office of Inspector General estimated that these events cost $324 million for one month and $4.4 billion a year (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, n.d.). Not only do our patients suffer, but our medical personnel and nurses also suffer and are devastated by these events. These events can affect performance and additionally jeopardize safety. As nurses, we strive for the best possible outcome results with the least complications in the patients in our care. …show more content…
These developments advance at a rapid rate. However, human nature is slow to change and does not change as rapidly as technology does. The minute we learn or get accustomed to new computer systems or devices, it is immediately followed by updates that we have to relearn. Technology may improve health outcomes; however, technology may also be the source of health care errors. One reason for errors is that these technologies have technicians and experts that have the better understanding of these types of equipment and these experts are not our nurses who have to use them in their field. We have to lessen the risks that could occur. Decreasing errors can be obtained by changing the way we organize work and actively participating in adverse events education and safety. Human factors engineering is a tool that could be utilized to lessen adverse events and
Hospitals are busy places, and with so much going on it is hard to believe that mistakes are not made. However, there are some accidents that should never happen. Such events have been termed ‘never events’ because they are never supposed to happen. This term was first introduced by Ken Kizer, MD, in 2001 (US, 2012). The Joint Commission has classified never events as sentinel events and asks that hospitals report them. A sentinel event is defined as, “an unexpected occurrence involving death or serious physiological or psychological injury, or the risk thereof” (US, 2012). Never events are termed sentinel events because in the past 12 years 71% of the events reported were fatal (US, 2012). Because these events are never supposed to happen, many insurance companies will not reimburse the hospitals when they occur. A study in 2006, showed that the average hospital could experience a case of wrong-site surgery, one example of a never event, only once every 5 to 10 years (US, 2012). This study illustrates how rare a never event is. Hospitals do not want these never events to happen any more than a patient does. To help prevent these errors, hospitals have created policies that, if followed, will minimize the possibility of a mistake. The consequences of never events are devastating and because of this the goal is to make sure that they are eradicated from hospitals and medical facilities.
Integrating safety into nursing practice, education and research has a lot of significant implications for the instructor, practitioner, patient and the facility’s management. These are discussed below in detail.
Woo, A., Ranji, U., & Salganicoff, A. (2008). Reducing medical errors with technology. Retrieved March, 2012, from http://kaiseredu.org
The concept of risk management is relatively new, as hospitals look to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), falls, injuries, and other forms of preventable harm, rather than reacting once harm has already taken place. Before this concept became a best practice, most health organizations relied on malpractice and liability insurance to protect against losses and mitigate the effects of accidents and poor patient outcomes (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2014). Today, risk management is an integral facet of a healthcare facility’s business practice in preventing risks, ensuring regulatory compliance, minimizing financial damage, and preserving its reputation in the community. Although most large
According to James Reason (2000), effective risk management requires detailed analysis of mishaps, incidents, and near misses, and free lessons in order to identify the roots of the errors. Nearly all adverse events involve a combination of 2 sets of factors: active failure and latent conditions. Active failures are the unsafe acts committed by people who are in direct contact with the patient or system. They take a variety of forms: slips, lapses, fumbles, mistakes, and procedural violations. Active failures have a direct and usually short-lived effect on the integrity of the defenses (Reason, 2000).
When a person chooses to become a nurse they make a moral commitment to care for all patients. This commitment cannot be taken lightly, as stated in the Code of Ethics for Nurses “The nurse respects the worth, dignity, and rights of all human beings irrespective of the nature of the health problem” (American Nurses Association, 2001, 7). Therefore, three ethical considerations that impact the safe practice of nursing will be explored in further details. These ethical considerations include substance use disorder in the workplace, professional boundaries, and the use of social media. Since Florence Nightingale’s era, nurses have been faced with various stresses. The goal is that nurses will be safe practitioners respecting
The goal of patient safety is to prevent harm to patients Mitchell (n.d.). Patient safety in any health system is critical not only for the credibility of the system, but for patient trust and satisfaction as well. Adverse outcomes are defined as any injury or harm resulting from medical care (Watcher, 2008). Adverse outcomes can result in death and disability and cost the health system dearly. Bernard and Encinosa (2004) reported that in the U.S. it costs twice as much to care for patients that experienced adverse outcomes. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) (2000) reported that adverse outcomes cost the U.S. more than 16 billion dollars or 6% of total inpatient costs. Therefore, adverse events are costly both in terms of human life and fiscal resources.
Each year this panel of experts put a microscope on patient safety across the board. They decide where upmost attention needs to be paid. Sometimes items leave the list because there are been strides take to improve in that area and sometimes it continues to stay on the list because they believe the relevance and importance is growing. Healthcare is evolving b...
Working as a nurse, patient care associate, or any other health care professional is not an easy job. Nursing profession has the highest rate of back and other injuries related to lifting, moving and transporting patients. Hospitals and other nursing facilities were experiencing increased numbers of injuries, which meant many lost work days, worker’s compensation costs and patient safety at risk.
Technological advances enable nurses to provide accurate, timely care for a patient. This is due to the fact that these advances enable doctors and nurses to quickly diagnose, explain and predict the health-illness status of a patient, thus allowing health care professionals to spend less time finding answers, and more time providing quality care. For nurses, this includes spending time with the patient establishing rapport, communication and a trusting relationship for optimum clinical care.
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.
Technology is stated as the scientific method and material used to achieve a commercial or industrial objective. To go one step further, nursing technology is using a tool to advance nursing practice. “The Institute of medicine identified that technology as a viable method of enhancing patient care delivery and improving staff productivity” Sensmeier, Horowitz (2003 page). Because inadequate nursing staff causes shortcuts to be taken, there are mistakes made that could have possibly been prevented. Errors by nursing staff were variously reported as being responsible for between 44,000 and 98,000 hospital deaths per year. Sensmeier, Horowitz (2003). Technology can have a large impact on nursing. In the past 5 to 10 years, computerized patient records have increased less than 10%. This number shows us that we are still not embracing technology to its full potential. Today in most hospital systems computerized electronic charting is being used. Many hospitals have many different systems for...
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).
Grissinger, M., & Globus, N. J. (2004). How technology affects your risk of medication errors.Nursing2004, 34(1), 36-41. Retrieved from www.nursingcenter.com
Although workplace accidents are very common, the majority of them can be prevented. As a company, you are obliged by the law to protect your employees, so it is important to take the necessary actions that will minimize the risk of accidents (Intelligent HQ, 2015).