Nursing

Patient Safety/Quality Issue

Identify 1 patient safety/quality issue that you encountered in the clinical setting whether it was as a patient, as a family member of the patient, or at work in a clinical setting.

Describe the problem (patient safety/quality issue).
Identify at least 3 factors that contributed to the problem.
Based on the concepts that you’ve learned related to improving patient safety and quality what recommendations (minimum of 4) would you make to improve this issue?
Upload to Canvas to receive credit for this assignment. Please see rubric for additional details. This assignment should use scholarly, professional writing, in APA format.

Patient Safety Issues

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation

Patient Safety Issues

Patient safety is an integral part of healthcare systems and, as such, should be given priority. It is common in health centers and clinical facilities to identify safety issues and concerns resulting from negligence. Medical errors in hospitals are among the leading causes of deaths globally. I once fell ill and was admitted at CoxHealth, Missouri hospital. While admitted there, I was able to identify an error of medication.

The medication error was a concern with administering the wrong medication to a patient. The medication error was due to the failure of the treatment process as a physician chose a prescription that was inappropriate.  A woman with Liddle’s Syndrome at CoxHealth presented signs of symptomatic and severe hypokalemia, and her doctor prescribed a full dose of Spironolactone for several days (Nieva, & Sorra, 2003). The lady continued having symptoms of hypokalemia despite having taken medication as prescribed. After a few days, a senior doctor identified that the medication prescribed to her was not the best to solve the problem.

As I observed, several reasons could have contributed to such prescription errors. Lack of basic knowledge about medication can contribute to a physician offering the wrong medication to patients. Lack of knowledge about all facts about the case a doctor is dealing with is also a factor leading to medication errors. The doctor who first offered a dosage of Spironolactone was not aware that his patient was suffering from sodium depletion resulting from Liddle’s syndrome. Was the doctor aware of such facts, he would have known Spironolactone would not be able to cure.

Poor communication between doctors also contributed to prescription errors. The senior doctors who were also assigned this case did not advise their junior on which medication to offer. There were missing facts about the patient’s history and, as such, leading to errors of medication. Communication in a hospital is crucial and can impact patient safety significantly.

It is important to prevent such medical errors as they have far-reaching consequences. Wrong medication can possibly cause serious consequences on a patient other than being unable to solve the underlying health challenge (Hughes, 2008). Continuous uptake of wrong medication may have some serious side effects on a patient. The following recommendations are crucial in a bid to avoid such errors in such as a hospital.

Reinforce physician’s knowledge of medication

Knowledge will be a doctor’s best defense when trying to avoid such prescription errors. Such knowledge on medication needs to be reinforced through constant updates and studies. Institutions and hospitals need to foster learning for doctors by incorporating medications data in a system in which doctors can easily refer to when making prescriptions.

Reconciliation of medical

Hospitals should engage doctors in the reconciliation processes of medications on a regular basis. Doctors can also do medication reconciliation when treating patients, whereby they compare a list of medications that the patient has been taking to those available in the hospital. This kind of medical reconciliation enables doctors to offer prescription from an informed point of view.

Medical Consultation among doctors

A doctor who has doubts about the prescription he or she is about to offer a patient, it is only noble that they consult with other physicians. Another doctor is likely to offer different insights that may potentially lead to the avoidance of medication errors.

Double-check on medication procedures

Physicians in a clinical setting need to embrace a culture of double-checking the necessary procedures followed during prescription. This recommendation requires all attending nurses and doctors to always ensure that they have confirmed the medication needs of each patient.

References

Hughes, R. (Ed.). (2008). Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses

(Vol. 3). Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Nieva, V. F., & Sorra, J. (2003). Safety culture assessment: a tool for improving patient safety in

Healthcare organizations. BMJ Quality & Safety, 12(suppl 2), ii17-ii23.