Essay Example: Patient's Safety and Factors Influencing Their Safety

Individual patients accessing healthcare facilities always have a safety expectations. Besides, the hopes and desires of healthcare providers ensure that patients in treatment have the maximum safety possible. However, medical errors are prone to occurrence, curtailing the primary mission of healthcare organizations. According to the review by Gaffney et al. (2016), over 98000 deaths that occurred in 2000 in the United States were direct association with medical errors. With such a significant figure, healthcare practitioners seem to be an essential element in eliminating these issues. Several aspects are critical in ensuring that patient safety is achievable; therefore, care providers must always be alert to such observations. Thus, this paper will provide an analysis of how technology, communication, collaboration, shared decision-making, and policies are significant in addressing patient safety.

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Factors Influencing Quality, Safety, and Patient-Centered Care

Technology

Technological innovation and advancement have formed an integral aspect of today healthcare sector. Through the use of technology in healthcare facilities, three objectives are satisfied: quality improvement, efficiency increment, and cost reduction. By using these technologies, care providers ensure patient safety and quality through their ability to aid communication, access to information, upholding patient-centered care, and minimize errors. Since miscommunication between healthcare professionals has been highlighted as the most contributor to medical errors leading to adverse events, EHRs-tech provides a solution by compiling all relevant information about patients hence maintaining accessible records (Queally, 2017). Traditionally, medical prescriptions are done manually with a higher possibility of errors in paperwork. Wrong prescriptions are not limited to putting the patient at risk of overdosing or underdoing but also expose them to much more safety concerns associated with these errors. Therefore, the use of technology in prescribing patient drugs and medicine is critical in eliminating such a possibility. Besides, the prescriptions subjected to the individual patient can be traced easily in case the patient has reported safety concerns. Queally (2017) suggested that because healthcare providers tend to commit more errors when they don't have sufficient knowledge about drugs or patients they are interacting with. However, by feeding patients' information in the healthcare database, they can learn and judge correctly. Accordingly, Queally (2017) pointed out that individual patients tend to be empowered by being allowed to be involved in personal care. Therefore, technological advancement, including mails, use of websites, and messaging enable them to interact with care providers concerning their conditions hence fostering patient-centered care.

Communication

Healthcare provision is based on proper communication. It is the cornerstone of the healthcare system. Appropriate means of communication paves the way to not only the patient's improvement but also the key to the attainment of quality, safe, and patient-centered services. For communication to be effective within the intended framework, conveyance of information must also be understood. Because interaction within a healthcare facility is essential for the provision of care, communication provides the path through which this can be possible. Mwerlino (2017) pointed out that improper communication between patients and caregivers brings out confusion and misinterpretation of facts that further may translate to safety concerns. However, effective communication, which includes timely dispatch of information, has seen to have a positive outcome on the quality and safety of patients.

Collaboration

The culture within a healthcare setup provides a way through which collaborations are achievable. To address the need of patients, information must be first extracted to carry on with the diagnosis process. Assessment of this information by healthcare providers demands implementations and design necessary (Busari, Moll, & Duit, 2017). Interviews and consultations have been the best design in ensuring information is relayed from patients to healthcare professionals. In such, collaborative networks must be built to achieve their success. Collaboration networks are also essential to upholding patient-centered care between nurses and patients.

Shared Decision Making

Principally, decision-sharing puts the patient in a proactive state of management. By allowing patients to give their views decisions concerning their conditions, they tend to be empowered and thereby improving their health quality. The process of sharing decision is possible through collaborative engagement like gaming, education, and activities that upholds the patient's health.

Policies and Regulations

Although attention has been given to improving the quality and safety of patients, errors constantly have which prompts regulating policies. Based on the review by El-Jardali and Fadlallah (2017), healthcare organizations' adoption of various strategies is evident. Some of these strategies have included the revision of legal frameworks that depicts the safety guidelines of patients. All healthcare providers must adhere to these guidelines making sure that the quality and safety of patients are upheld.

Technological Change and Effects

The review by Pazokian and Borhani (2017) suggested that hospital facilities and equipment are essential in maintaining patients' safety and quality standards. In line with these, disoriented equipment and facilities extended patient safety risks. Technological devices, as some of the equipment, minimize the risk associated with human errors. Therefore, the default in any of these devices can equally put the patient to harm. For instance, if a prescription machine is not well calibrated, it might end up delivering wrong information to the pharmacy may where the patient is supposed to pick the drugs or medicine hence harming them.

References

Busari, J. O., Moll, F. M., & Duits, A. J. (2017). Understanding the impact of interprofessional collaboration on the quality of care: a case report from a small-scale resource-limited health care environment. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 10, 227. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5472431/

El-Jardali, F., & Fadlallah, R. (2017). A case study from Lebanon and Jordan is a review of national policies and strategies to improve the quality of health care and patient safety. BMC health services research, 17(1), 568. Retrieved from https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-017-2528-1

Gaffney, T. A., Hatcher, B. J., Milligan, R., & Trickey, A. (2016). Enhancing patient safety: factors influencing medical error recovery among medical-surgical nurses. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 21(3), 1-13. Retrieved from https://ojin.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol-21-2016/No3-Sept-2016/Enhancing-Patient-Safety.html

Merlino, J. (2017). Communication: A critical healthcare competency. Patient Saf. Qual. HealthCare. Retrieved from https://www.psqh.com/analysis/communication-critical-healthcare-competency/

Pazokian, M., & Borhani, F. (2017). Nurses' perspectives on factors affecting patient safety: A qualitative study. Evidence-Based. Retrieved from http://ebcj.mums.ac.ir/article_9382.html

Queally, C. (2017). Four ways technology is improving patient safety. Health outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.healthitoutcomes.com/doc/ways-technology-improving-patient-safety-0