Unit 4 Assignment 2 – Key Assessment – Cost Saving Safety Initiatives

Assignment Purpose:

Develop an action plan to handle a sentinel event.

Assignment Description:

Scenario: You are called to an urgent meeting by the Risk Management committee and upon arriving, you find out that the hospital had incomplete information on a child and subsequently prescribed the wrong medication to which the patient was severely allergic causing the young child to be a coma with a grave prognosis.

Does this scenario meet the definition of a sentinel event? If so, why?

From the committee’s perspective, develop a corrective action plan and identify the roles and functions of each committee member in regards to this event. The committee consists of the following:

Faye – HIM Data Manager in charge of the record with incorrect information
Bob – Compliance Officer
Dr. Jones – Attending physician
Lou – Facility attorney
Mary – The public relations officer
John – The corporate CEO
Lisa – Risk Manager
Beth – Pharmacist
Steve – IT Manager

Create a 2-page APA formatted action plan for an incident response to a sentinel event. Within your action plan include the following:

Explain a sentinel event
Identify the role and purpose of each committee member
Identify data, tools, and techniques used to identify incidents
Identify the function or action to be taken by each committee member
Explain how identification and/or prevention of incidents can be cost-saving.

Submit your paper for grading. You should have at least one peer-reviewed reference.