NUR 630 Overview of Quality in Health Care

NUR 630 Overview of Quality in Health Care

The primary role of patient safety is to reduce and prevent perils, errors, and maltreatment that may occur to patients during healthcare provision. In the US, the leading cause of death is medical errors. Unmasking and providing a consistent, viable solution to medical mistakes is challenging (Zhang et al., 2019). However, the government can enhance patient safety by distinguishing untoward events, learning from them, and implementing preventive measures to reduce occurrence rates. The purpose of this paper is to discuss medical errors as a safety concern in health care delivery.

The Issues and Associated Challenges

Medical errors are a serious public health problem that has been a leading cause of death in the US and other parts of the world. The challenge always exists in uncovering a consistent cause of the medical error. Besides, even if a consistent cause of the error is found, providing a viable solution always remains a challenge (Assiri et al., 2018). Health care professionals are human beings who are also prone to errors because they experience psychological effects such as depression, anger, and suicidal thoughts because of the perceived errors (Menon et al., 2020). The fear of punishment always makes these healthcare professionals refrain from reporting the errors making these errors persistent in health care delivery.

The increasing cases of medical errors in outpatient settings result from risky behaviors by healthcare workers. Most outpatient care providers lack time and resources for patient safety efforts. The risk behavior includes not double-checking high alert medications before dispensing and failure to check important patient information such as allergies, weight, and co-morbid conditions (Assiri et al., 2018). Medication errors also arise due to the failure to educate patients on the rational use of medications. Secondly, government efforts on patients’ safety are not relevant to outpatient care since they focus more on hospital issues (Assiri et al., 2018). Successful implementation of outpatient safety strategies requires the federal government to come up with clear policies regarding outpatients’ services and ensure outpatient health providers are skilled and with adequate resources to guarantee patient safety.

How EBP, Research, and QI would be Utilized to Address the Issue

Federal initiatives aim at improving patient safety by ratifying measures that can increase accountability among health care professionals. For instance, one of the federal initiatives implemented to prevent accidental death due to medication errors is TeamSTEPPS. It is an evidence-based practice whose primary objective is to improve the performance of health experts by enabling them to respond promptly and effectively in different situations (Tore et al., 2021). TeamSTEPPS program emphasizes four skills: communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support to improve team performance. The tools are one of the powerful tools used in developing evidence-based teamwork to improve communication among healthcare professionals. Increased human errors always arise from the communication system in healthcare. A delay in communication among professionals is enough to cause a patient’s life in health care centers. Therefore, TeamSTEPPS provides increased safety and quality of patient care by eliminating a barrier to safety and quality.

Research done on medical errors has been effective in solving the problem partially. The dynamic nature of the problem has been affecting the researcher’s ability to find a long-lasting solution for the problem. However, numerous scholars have contended that maintaining a culture that works towards realizing safety issues and ratifying viable solutions is significant in solving the issue of medical errors in healthcare. The culture of safety does not compare to that culture harboring blame, punishment, and shame (Assiri et al., 2018). The health care society needs to develop a culture of safety where both patients and nurses feel safe. Besides, the culture of safety would also focus on a system of improvement by viewing medical errors as challenges that can be approached and solved in a better and more effective manner. All healthcare professionals need to play a major role in making healthcare safe for patients and healthcare workers. Self-discipline and patience among health care workersare important in developing a strong professional team that effectively approaches a problem in solving medical errors.