Patient Safety Issues and Solutions
Health care quality has become one of the major concerns in the recent years in the United States as well as many other countries around the world. Avoiding health care harm is one of the primary tasks for the healthcare system due to the fact that adverse consequences of patient treatment are common for all institutions in the country. It is stated by the Institute of Medicine that patient safety is an intrinsic part of quality health care practices in the country (Erickson et al., 2004). It is necessary to articulate the definition of patient safety, which is the vital element of quality in health care system. The Hughes gives a general definition for patient safety identifying it as the practice of prevention potential harm to patients (2008). Practically, patient safety presupposes activities to prevent various types of errors, to obtain experience from the errors made in the past and to create a culture of safety in the intercommunication environment between medical workers, patients and health care institutions (Erickson et al., 2004).
In such a way patient safety becomes a separate area of research and improvement within the United States and other countries in the world focusing on the issue of error. Many implementations of patient safety measures have proven to be effective in diminishing the health care quality problems. The measures have improved the state of patient safety of many institutions. However, some patient safety management systems have introduced new errors in this sphere of services and the use of these systems displayed the impossibility of universal approach applicable for every health care institution based on a unique set of patient safety issues (Hughes, 2008). Hence, specific patient safety issues need to be identified separately for every health care institution and the most efficient and effective up-to-date solutions need to be applied to a certain institution in order to produce the most favorable impact on the patient care and nursing practices within the health care establishment.
Evaluation of Major Patient Safety Issues
The patient safety issues within the Healthcare organizations in the United States were first introduced to the wide public in 1999, when the Institute of Medicine released the report “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” (Hughes, 2008). The citizens became aware about the relevant statistics, in which it was estimated that the annual rate of deaths caused by medical errors was around 100 000. This ultimately impressive number made a significant resonance in the society putting the emphasis of healthcare development concerning the issues of patient safety. The major set of patient safety concerns has been undergoing metamorphosis in the course of time. According to the report of ECRI Institute, the major patient safety issues for the year 2015 were identified as follows: medical care connected infections; personal protection of healthcare professionals; IT issues of health care institutions, medication related errors, diagnostic related errors; and engagement of patients in the health care process (ECRI …
