NSG 4029 W3 Project Patient Care Problem

NSG 4029 W3 Project Patient Care Problem

Operational efficiency is an objective that healthcare organizations strive to achieve in their service provision. Operational efficiency enhances the performance and competitiveness of health organizations due to resource optimization in service provision. Strategies such as the use of health information technologies, evidence-based practices, and effective human resource management contribute to operational efficiency in healthcare. Safety events such as medication errors in practice however affect the financial performance and efficiency in health organizations. It also affects the financial stability, marketability, and viability of the organization’s operations in its markets. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of medication errors in practice on the budget of an organization and the role of the nurse in the problem.

Patient Care Problem

The selected patient care problem is medication errors. According to Chen et al., (2017), medication errors refer to mistakes that occur during the process of medication use. The errors can occur in processes such as transcription, prescription, dispensing, monitoring, or administration. Medication errors may contribute to unintended harm to patients. As shown by Walsh et al., (2017), medication errors result in adverse drug events that are associated with considerable effects on patient health, healthcare institutions and the economy of a state. Medication errors have notable health effects. They include the emergence of a new health problem such as skin disfigurement, rashes, itching, or organ damage and death in severe cases.

Medication errors also have economic impacts that may affect the financial status of a health institution, patients, and the state as a whole. According to Chen et al., (2017), adverse drug events contributes to prolonged hospital stays ranging between 2.2 and 4.6 days as well as costs of care between a range of US$2595 and US$4685. Other studies report that medication errors contribute to an increase in hospital stay by 1.91 days and cost of US$2262. The risk of mortalities due to adverse drug events rises by 1.88 times among hospitalized patients (Chen et al., 2017). Economics data shows that approximately $20 billion is spent on medication errors on an annual basis in the USA. In addition, about 100000 people die from medication errors on an annual basis (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). Healthcare organizations also suffer from the effects of medication errors. Accordingly, medication errors increase the utilization of the scarce resources in addressing the care needs of the patients. It also results in increased workload as well as tainted image of the institution (Formica et al., 2018). Medication errors also predispose institutions to lawsuits. For example, a family in Chicago was awarded $7 million for a medical error lawsuit in 2013 (chhlaw.com, 2014). Lawsuits affect the reputation as well as the financial performance of healthcare institutions.

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Role of the Nurse

Nurse leaders have a critical role in mitigating medication errors in patient care. Nurse leaders act as agents of change that drive transformational practices to minimize the risk and rate of medication errors in their institutions. Nurse leaders play a proactive role in implementing procedures that will ensure safety in medication processes. They advocate the adoption of innovative practices such as the use of bar code systems of medication administration to prevent and minimize the risk of medication errors (Jember et al., 2018). Nurse leaders also ensure the utilization of evidence-based practices in medication processes. For example, they ensure nurses adhere to the five rights of medication administration that include right drug, patient, dose, time and route. Institutional factors such as high workload facing the nurses and shortage of nurses have been implicated in medication errors. In this case, nurse leaders have the role of ensuring that the work conditions in their institutions minimize the predisposition of nurses to committing medication errors (Rutledge et al., 2018). For example, nurse leaders advocate the provision of conditions that meet the needs of the nurses as well as the creation of patient safety culture in their organizations.

Nurse leaders also encourage the culture of reporting of adverse and near miss events in their organizations to addre