BHA FPX 4004 Assessment 1 Address a Patient Safety Issue

Addressing Patient Safety Issues

In this paper, I will talk about a patient safety issue and how it affects patient safety.  Second, I will look at the risks that this problem poses to healthcare organizations if it is not fixed.  Lastly, I will look at what patient safety officers do and how suggestions from regulatory agencies help make patient safety better.

Identifying and Describing the Issue

The safety issue I want to talk about is making a mistake when identifying a patient.  This threat puts patients in situations that could hurt their treatment, medication, or recovery that could have been avoided.  Kyra Dailey, the Patient Safety Officer, makes rounds every day in different parts of the hospital. She makes sure that patient care policies are always followed to lower the number of safety incidents and make sure that patients get the best care possible.  Kyra saw two patients with the same name in rooms on the same unit while she was making her rounds. This made it more likely that a patient identification mistake would happen.  Even with things like separate nursing assignments and documentation, the risk is still high (Thomas & Evans, 2004).

Applying Safety Measures

To reduce mistakes in identifying patients, healthcare facilities should involve patients in their care and make changes to staff training every year (Leape et al., 2009).  Staff should check the identities of patients using more than one way, like wristbands, charts, medication bags, or labels.  Also, talking to patients about their information and keeping them busy during their stay can help avoid mistakes.  The Joint Commission (TJC) and other regulatory bodies stress the need to make patient identification processes better. They suggest using two patient identifiers as standard practice (Clancy, 2005).

Role of Regulatory Agencies

Every three years, TJC checks to make sure that organizations are following safety rules and encourages them to do their best to provide good care (Clancy, 2005).  Their focus on making it easier to identify patients is in line with lowering medical errors and making patients safer.  Regulatory bodies are very important for encouraging healthcare organizations to start quality improvement programs (Clancy, 2005).

Patient Safety Officer’s Role

Patient Safety Officers (PSOs) are very important for finding and fixing safety problems in healthcare organizations.  They work as middlemen between frontline staff, patients, and management to help create and carry out policies that make patients safer (Denham, 2007).  As a PSO, you need to work with management to come up with action plans and hospital-wide policies to stop patients from being misidentified.

Conclusion

Patient Safety Officers are very important for making sure that healthcare settings are safe.  Healthcare organizations can make care safer and better by following safety guidelines and working with regulatory agencies.  To stop mistakes in identifying patients, you need to do a lot of different things, like training staff, keeping an eye on things, and putting policies into place.

BHA FPX 4004 Assessment 1: Address a Patient Safety Issue

De Rezende, H., Melleiro, M., & Shimoda, G. (2019).  Steps to Take to Lower Patient Identification Errors in the Hospital.  JBI Database of Systematic Reviews and Implementation Reports, 17(1), 37–42. doi: 10.11124/JBISRIR-2017-003895.

 Denham, C. R. (2007).  The New Officer for Patient Safety.  Journal of Patient Safety, 3(1), 43–54. doi: 10.1097/PTS.0b013e318036bae9.

 Nedved, P., Chaudhry, R., Pilipczuk, D., & Shah, S. (2012).  The Effect of the Unit-Based Patient Safety Officer.  The Journal of Nursing Administration, 42(9), 431–434. doi: 10.1097/NNA.0b013e318266810e.

 Pysyk, C. L. (2018).  A modification of the Surgical Safety Checklist to mitigate patient identification errors.  Canadian Journal of Anesthesia, 65(2), 219–220. 

BHA FPX 4004 Assessment 1: Address a Patient Safety Issue

Thomas, P., & Evans, C. (2004). An Identity Crisis? Aspects of Patient Misidentification. Clinical Risk, 10(1), 18–22. https://doi.org/10.1258/135626204322756556