Describe a patient-safety issue within your organization, comparing the way your organization addresses the issue with the concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.

Directions

As you construct this assessment, address each point as completely as possible:

1. Describe a patient-safety issue within your organization, comparing the way your organization addresses the issue with the concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.

2. Analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing the issue.

3. Recommend evidence-based interventions, including technology, to address the patient-safety issue.

4. Describe strategies to overcome specific organizational barriers to change, based on your knowledge of the organization.

SAMPLE SOLUTION

Safety, Quality, and Informatics

Healthcare facilities are designed to address health problems for individuals by making them feel better and healthy. Various factors affect the outcome and healing process. When these factors are not worked on in a right manner chances are that the result of the treatment process may affect the safety of the patient (Makary & Daniel, 2016). The most common issues arise from healthcare-associated infections. Antibiotic resistance and adverse reaction with the patient’s body can also temper with safety. Personal protective tools protocol, hygiene, information technology systems, medical errors, care transition process, and workforce safety can also affect the outcome and safety of patients during and after treatment (Radley et al., 2013). The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss medication errors as the fundamental patient safety issue, its possible causes, effects and the processes applied in the attempt to solve the problem.

Medication Errors

Medication errors are preventable events in the healthcare provision processes that may cause inappropriate medication use while the drugs are under the control of a healthcare practitioner or the patients. Generally, medication errors result from the failure to use evidence-based treatment procedures, which in return affects patient safety. Other common causes common includes poor communication between healthcare professionals and patients, medical abbreviations, and drug names that sound or look alike (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Medication errors can be classified into different categories depending on the on the stages they occur in the medication use cycle. The steps include prescribing, dispensing and drug administration to the patient.

Prescribing errors emerge with the incorrect drug selection for treatment of a particular health issue. The wrong choice leads to incorrect dosage and quality. Prescribing errors are commonly caused by lack of enough knowledge about the prescribed medicine and inaccurate patient information.

Dispensing errors occur during the process of delivering the medication to the patient from the receipt of the prescription. The error arises when the medication prescribed is not the one administered. It can be tempered with by wrong information systems, contaminations and drug mix up during the delivery process. Administrative errors happen when discrepancy occurs between medication administered to the patient and the drug therapy intended by the healthcare provider (Makary & Daniel, 2016). The error arises because of the incorrect drug intake techniques and omission of administration. The correct medicine can be taken but will not play its useful function because of the incorrect timing of the medication process.

Causes of Medication Errors

Medication errors emerge as a result of distraction during the treatment process, patient overpopulation, lack of sufficient knowledge and understanding about an illness, incomplete information about a patient’s condition and systematic problem. Distractions affect the ability of medical practitioners to make the right decisions about the treatment procedures. It may lead to confusion between two drugs that may have names that looks similar. A medical practitioner may, therefore, end up administering the wrong medication which may adversely harm the patient (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Patient overpopulation is also a leading contributor to medical errors since it gives healthcare providers pressure to perform. In an attempt to handle cases of a large number of patients in a limited period, a doctor is prone to making medical errors. There are possibilities of mixing patient information hence administration of wrong medication. Pressure from the high population also does not provide the perfect opportunity to perform a proper analysis of a patient’s condition which may cause the improper prescription of a disease with similar symptoms.

Lack of enough skills and knowledge by the existing medical practitioners can also create an opportunity for the emergence of medical errors. Lack of proper understanding of a particular health condition leads to the administration of medication a medical practitioner is not sure if it is the correct treatment. Insufficient knowledge can also lead to incorrect medication administration procedure which may later affect the patient’s safety. Incomplete patient information leads to medical errors because the medical practitioner can go ahead to administer treatment procedures not compatible with the patient’s body (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Patient information should explain the history of medication, other available illnesses. There are different types of medical procedures which when administered together their reaction may cause devastating effects to the patient.

Lastly, systematic problems can also be contributors to the emergence of medical errors. System faults can lead to incorrect medicine labeling, storage of medication with nearly similar names close to each other, and communication difficulties. Creating procedures to handle the above-discussed issues is the best approach towards solving medication errors and ensuring the safety of patients during treatment.