...dictionary (2011) a hospital is a health facility where patients receive treatment. Obviously, this definition does not state anything about the kind of treatment, the right or wrong treatment or who does the treatment a doctor, nurse etc. Questions one may not ask oneself till patients receive a wrong treatment. According to a landmark study in 1991 1.3 million injuries occur annually in U.S. hospitals of which 69% are partially due to errors in patient management and 13% of these resulted in a patient’s death (Mcafee, Macgregor, Benari, 2003.) Also the Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusetts became aware of the landmark study (1991) and is therefore preparing to set up a physician order entry (POE) system throughout their hospital. The labor and delivery ward will first use the POE system. The new POE system will be able to replace paper-based and verbal medication ordering processes with an information system. A doctor will enter the patient’s medication order via the new system, which will next transfer that order to the internal pharmacy. Mount Auburn faces the challenge of how to introduce the new system successfully to its new users. In addition, medical error rates at the Mount Auburn Hospital can be decreased through the implementation of a POE system, because it will improve the communication of the drug order between the physicians, nurses and pharmacist and it can guarantee available drug and patient information. This paper starts by explaining the reasons...
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...Hourly Rounds Reduces Patients’ Frequent Call Lights and Improves Safety. Christian Oyibe NURS 8103 Evidence Based Practice. Governors State University Professor Somi Nagaraj, MSN, DNP. June 5, 2013. Introduction The nurse call light is an important tool in which patients used to get the attention of nurses during hospitalization. It is one of the many means by which patients can exercise control of their health care. It is done to seek the nurses’ attention for help during inpatient hospitalization. The ideal situation is that when the patient pushes the call light, the nurse or the staff will be there to find out what assistance the patient needs. However, when these calls are made by patients, and there were delays in response time, this will in turn lead to frustration in most cases, and the patient will attempt activities that threatened their safety, thereby leading to falls and other safety issues. In most inpatient hospital or other health care facilities, call lights are made by residents or patients who need bathroom or bedpan assistance. The problem associated...
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...where I worked, I have came across different types of medication errors which involve patients and this could be a cause for serious problems to patients and in some cases will lead to death. It is a serious matter. Also drug error can have bad effect on nurses, both personally and professionally. C) Problems that I have identified regarding this topic ISSUE 1 In Medical ward, CRF and DM patient was advised to give injection Human Mixtard 10 units BD (10 units before breakfast and 10 units before dinner). And it was advised to give the injection 20 minutes before food. But the nurse who changes the treatment chart was mistakenly written injection Human Mixtard 10 units before breakfast and 20 units before dinner. The night dose was double. But luckily it was noticed by doctor during morning round. Otherwise nobody will recognize and will give the dose as it is. And will lead patient to a serious condition. ISSUE 2 While giving tablets through NG tube, I have noticed that some nurses throw the medication when it was difficult to pass through the tube. In this case patient will not get any effect of the prescribed medication. This a serious matter in which doctor will start new drugs daily because he will be thinking there is no response for the previous drugs. He does not know what is happening from nursing side. He will assume nurses will give medications appropriately. ISSUE 3 One patient was admitted in Medical ward, was having low sodium level in the blood. And doctor...
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...It is zascsanecessary for nurses to stay up to date on clinical practices so that they can provide the best care possible to their patients. “The nurse assumes responsibility and accountability for individual nursing judgments and actions.”(ANA, 2001, p. 1) This paper will discuss evidence-based patient safety practices, focusing on the safety practice of: Prevention of Intravascular Catheter-Associated Infection by use of maximum sterile barrier precautions. There are pros and cons to the short-term use of central venous catheters (CVC) in the hospital. The benefit of having an intravascular catheter is that it allows you to give large volumes and high concentrations of fluids to patients. It also prevents a patient on long-term antibiotics from having multiple IV starts. However, there are also serious complications with the most common being infection.(Shonjania et al., 2001) According to AHRQ, the use of maximum sterile barrier precautions decreases the risk of catheter related infections since many catheter-related infections are caused by contamination during insertion. Maximum sterile barriers consist of sterile gowns, sterile gloves, sterile drapes, non sterile mask, and non sterile cap. Since the nurses are at the bedside to assist with CVC insertions, they are responsible for implementing the guidelines set forth by these safety practices. To do this,...
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...hospital’s labor and delivery unit. It had not been difficult to mount support for the project. POE systems had been demonstrated to reduce error rates, and medical errors were widely recognized as a large and serious problem in health care. A landmark study published in 19911 estimated that 1.3 million injuries occurred annually in U.S. hospitals, 69% of which were at last partially due to errors in patient management. The study found that 13% of injuries resulted in patient death, ‚a rate that if extrapolated to the United States as a whole suggested that approximately 180,000 deaths a year were, at least partly, the result of injuries received during the course of care.‛2 This study also found that adverse drug events (ADEs) accounted for nearly 20% of total injuries (making them the largest injury category) and that 45% of ADEs were the result of errors. A later study at two Boston hospitals found that 6.5% of admitted patients suffered an ADE, and that 28% of these were due to errors.3 1 L.L. Leape, T. A. Brennan, et al., ‚The nature of adverse events in hospitalized patients: results of the Harvard Medical Practice Study II,‛ New England Journal of Medicine 324 (1991):...
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...The primary article for this paper is title Patients Safety Threats and Solution by McCaughan & Kaufman, the article constitutes of nursing standards for safe health care practice. “The article provides great insight of what patient safety is in the health care facility. The article explains that “Many of the harms associated with health care are preventable” (McCaughan & Kaufman 48).The articles provides statistics of accidents that could have been prevented in the healthcare facility. It also explains the importance of using safety methods such as good hygiene, using gloves, washing hands to prevent the spread of disease and contamination. It also emphasizes that “in hospital, medication errors are common” (McCaughan, & Kaufman 50). It refers to medication errors as unacceptable mistakes that can be 100% preventable. Some of the errors are related to malpractice for example, administering wrong dose, administering wrong medication etc. It is inexcusable to see this kind of faults in the health care facility as it can deteriorate one’s health or even end with an individual’s life. The article also emphasizes the importance of communication between individuals in the health care facility. As stated by the article the “Lack of communication can result in family members not receiving necessary information in a timely fashion and a lack of continuity of care from community services, both of which can have serious consequences for patient outcomes”( McCaughan & Kaufman 51). The health...
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...PART A SWOT Analysis As Director of Information Management, I have been task to implement a new clinical information system for the pharmacy at this hospital. The hospital wants a pharmacy that will enable the physicians to have the capability of doing an automatic order through Computerized Physicians Order Entry (CPOE) in hope of reducing order delays, improving the legibility of orders, streamline operations, and ultimately improve patient safety by reducing medical errors. STRENGTH • Strong leadership and executive support • Focus on improved clinical practiced • Physician support • Leading technological hospital in the metropolitan area • Current hospital focus on patient safety • Wide-ranging: various professional groups will be impacted • Highly knowledgeable information system staff • Currently a pleasant and comfortable work environment for staff WEAKNESSES • Rising cost of resources • Limited budget constraints due to previous commitments • Lack of time for user training • New technology and staff attitude towards changes • Physician and clinical staff level of comfort with technology • Some hospitals already have CPOE OPPORTUNITIES • Desire to significantly reduce medication errors • Interest in standardizing medication ordering processes • Concerns of adequate training and assistance available for all involved clinical staff • Need for improved workflow processes in pharmacy services • Must have a positive impact on hospital efficiency ...
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...elaborate explanation on managing change. Julie Morath, who was the chief operating officer at the children’s Hospital brought in administration change in the hospital after an incident of medical errors on a patient. Patient safety became her priority. Morath attended some training that gave her a lot of impetus and skills to bring out effective management in the children’s hospital. This brought change and improved the performance of the hospital. Morath started by putting a core team of personnel in place to help in designing and launching the patient safety initiative. She took charge in the hospital and by August 1999, she had sought assistance of many people who were highly respected in the organization. Morath partnered with the hospital’s medical director to get his input and support so that she could make him understand her strategy for enhancing patient safety since she believed that leadership of the medical director would be very instrumental in creating support for the doctors and nurses in the children’s hospital. She then set out to accomplish major tasks which include making presentations to hospital staff about research on medical errors, conducted focus groups to learn more on patient safety and then developed a detailed strategic plan for the patient safety initiative (Edmundson, Roberto & Tucker, 2007). Morath provided the hospital staff with evidence on the size and scope of medical problem of medical errors in USA. She presented data from Harvard medical practice...
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...Benefits of Technology in Medicine In APA STYLE Abstract Thousands of people die each year as a result of medication errors. Medication errors can be attributed to faults in both humans and medication use systems. Therefore, it is necessary to address resolutions to both of these predicaments. The anticoagulant heparin is amongst the most implicated medications. Thus, it has been documented in the top five high-alert medications. Two notable events that triggered recent interest in this topic are the heparin overdoses that occurred in California, associated with actor Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins, and those affecting neonates in an Indiana hospital. The Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA) is a proactive approach to error prevention. Implementation of an FMEA system would serve as a crucial method that will help to recognize potential failures of a product or process before adverse events occur. FMEA can help identify where the use of technology can be implemented to facilitate the reduction of medication errors, especially pertaining to heparin as in this case. Studies have shown how technology, such as computerized heparin nomagram system (HepCare), smart pump infusion technology, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and the bar coding system, can reduce medication errors. Expanding nationwide awareness of these methods should result in a significant decline of medication errors...
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...using the Google search engine. The purpose of this website is to enhance and provide guidelines for clinicians, impacts on health care, and knowledge of where products and tools are used. This site also lists tools of improving patient care. A credible website also provides quality of journals, peer-reviewed articles and systematic reviews. I chose this data base for best practice information on current issues. Analysis The ARHQ is a website with a search engine database that is owned and published by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. It provides information on evidenced-based practice, provides continuing education opportunities, explores treatment options and gives up to date information on latest news and events. ARHQ is not limited to healthcare providers but is also available to consumers and patients and is labeled for simple navigation. Additionally the website provides a link in Spanish. The website in Spanish is identical for the website in English. The category link for patients and consumers provides information such as “Questions To Ask Your Doctor.” (AHRQ, 2015) The category for professionals provided sources and additional links for furthering education and training, prevention and improving care, and safety. Further evaluation of this website provided a privacy policy notice. It discusses information in regards to what other website collect such as the type of operating systems you are using, the dates, times and amount of times...
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...the occurrence of the accident where Matthew was overdosed with morphine. Julie Morath, bringing with her 25 years of experience in patient care administration to the hospital, her main aim was to highlight patient safety and to create a culture where the concept of ‘do no harm’ was explicit rather than implicit. It was very tough to implement as doctors and nurses were not open to discuss any “accidents”. It is an example of classical conditioning as the doctors and nurses used to get defensive when they were broached on the topic of safety. To them, talking about safety implied that that they were doing something wrong. To introduce the idea of enhancing the patient safety, she had to take the doctors and the nurses into confidence. This could only have happened when this plan was implemented slowly. To achieve this she spent time making presentations to hospital staff about national research on medical errors. Then she conducted focus groups to learn more about patient safety issues. Finally she developed a detailed strategic plan for the Patient Safety Initiative. Many problems arised when she tried to present medical accident data to the nurses and the doctors. They were sceptical of the applicability of the national data. To this problem, Morath asked the staff to examine their own experience that week regarding patient safety and was it satisfactory? After discussion they realised that most of their colleagues had experienced similar medical accidental events and...
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...Practice Standard – Safety and Quality Patient safety is a high-priority issue for all professionals including pharmacists. Patient safety is defined as ‘the prevention of harm to patients, including through errors of commission and omission’. The role of pharmacists has been clinically proven to improve many outcomes regarding patient health, including greater patient safety, improved disease and drug therapy management, effective healthcare spending, improved adherence and improved quality of life (Canadian Pharmacists Association, 2008). The focus on patient care stemmed from a 1999 US report by the institute of Medicine titled, ‘To Err is Human: Building a safer Health System’. This report detailed the costs of medical errors to the US economy and how medical errors numbered higher than deaths due to AIDS, motor vehicle accidents, and breast cancer, combined. The report went on to descried how errors can be reduced (Institute of Medicine,1999). For centuries, pharmacists have been the guardians/safeguards against "poisons" those substances which could cause harm to the public. Now more than ever pharmacists are charged with the responsibility to ensure that when a patient receives a medicine, it will not cause harm. As highlighted in a report produced in November 2009 "Pharmacy Intervention in the Medication-use Process - the role of pharmacists in improving patient safety", the involvement of pharmacists in patient safety can be as early at the prescribing phase and...
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...Patient Safety in Healthcare Joyce Kimeu Chamberlain College of Nursing NR101: Transition in Nursing June 04, 2015 Patient Safety in Healthcare Many errors can be avoided by having safety measures in place. Sign up to Safety campaign reveals that a million people use the services of the National Health Services (NHS) every 36 hours, with the majority being given care that is both safe and of high quality (NHS England, 2014). However, sometimes mistakes occur and patients are harmed as a result. Sign up to safe campaign shows that between 2011 and 2012, a total of 326 ’never events’ were reported to strategic health authorities (Glasper, 2014).This number can be reduced by addressing different safety measures, such as building a safety culture, leading and supporting staff, promote reporting, learning and sharing safety lessons and implementing solution to prevent harm (Glasper, 2014). Building Safety Culture An important component of a successful strategy to address these kinds of safety problems is the encouragement of personnel to be more forthcoming in reporting and disclosing errors, actual harm, and fear of being bullied. This instance will apply to all staff members, and everyone involved in caring for patient will know that their voices will be heard. For instance, where the leadership is concerned by being proactive, gaining input from the staffs about the improvements needed and addressing them with efficiency and urgency. Leading and Supporting Staff One...
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...Deysi Serrano Outline: Patient Safety in Hospitals Chamberlain College of Nursing Outline: Patient Safety and Medical Errors General Purpose: To inform nurses and the general public about programs and policies in place to further decline the rates in medial errors and keep patients safe. Specific Purpose: To provide examples of why implementing proper procedures and having an open communication within the staff can prevent minor medical incidents and potential fatal medical accidents from happening. I. Introduction A. Attention Getter: Present the story of Josie King, a two-year-old girl who died because of a medical error at a renowned hospital. B. Thesis Statement: Extensive research has shown that training programs for health care workers, policies and proven protocols and communication result in an overall decrease in medical error rates. Because implementation of protocols and standardized patient safety procedures have been shown to be effective, there is good reason to expect that by continuing these medical practices, the risk of unwanted medical errors and patient harm will be significantly reduced. II. Body A. Main Point # 1: To express how medical staff and nurses in particular are the voice of concern and advocates for patients who should express open communication with both the families and doctors. 1a. Explain how break down in communication affects the quality in patient care. 2a. Describe some of the implementations hospitals...
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...WALDEN UNIVERSITY NURSING PROGRAM NURSE – 8210- TRANSFORMING NURSING PAPER: MEANINGFUL USE PREPARED BY: ZAIDA RUIZ PROFESSOR: MURIELLE BEENE November 11, 2015 The health care system needed some structure. Needed to speak the same language and have a common goal, “the Patient.” The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) invested a large amount of money for promotion and use of the informatics technology. Today Medicare and Medicaid are following the same footsteps. They are awarding incentives for the use of Electronic Health Records. However, what is the urgency? Why are they even willing to penalize the non-participant? Patient safety is the answer. The meaningful use was created seeking the quality of care safety and reduction of disparity. The meaningful use wants patient information to be electronically documented in a database system that interconnects to any other health database regardless geographical location. Meaningful use recognizes that making such a drastic change from paper to electronic documentation is very costly. There are many Issues still present that prevent some institutions from implementing EHR. One of these issues is the financial part that entails. It cost too much to implement EHR’s this is the voice of hundreds of owners of health institutions. Removing the old system from every floor, every station and every office is very costly. On top of that having the employers and employees train on how to use the EHR system...
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