Assignment task: Discussion post for reference:
Do you recommend criminalizing healthcare errors as an effective approach to holding healthcare providers accountable for their mistakes? Why or why not? Looking for Online Tutoring?
Notably, criminalizing healthcare errors refers to a legal approach that involves categorizing healthcare mistakes committed by healthcare providers as criminal events (American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), 2023). I do not think the criminalization of healthcare errors should be a solution to address the issue of accountability among healthcare providers. It is important to note that the criminalization of these errors can lead to a culture of punishment and fear among healthcare providers (ASA, 2023). On the same note, punishing mistakes means that most such incidents go unreported, and this does not enhance the culture of transparency that is required to improve the health situation of patients. Most medical mistakes are a perfect example of system flaws and not incompetence. Equally important, criminalizing these mistakes loses the systemic issues that may require intervention and instead turns its perpetrator against single suppliers. This approach could discourage healthcare workers from reporting or discussing their errors, which is key as the systems can be improved through learning from such issues (Townley et al., 2022). Understandably, a non-punitive approach, such as a just culture that seeks to ensure that the healthcare organizations take equal responsibility for accountability for adverse patient outcomes while at the same time seeking to understand the nature of the systems underlying the mistakes, is more likely to promote safer patient care and improved quality.
How can healthcare providers balance the goal of high-quality care with the potential risks and consequences of errors?
Healthcare providers can balance the goal of high-quality care with the potential risks and consequences of errors in numerous ways. They include;
Implementing Evidence-Based Practices This means that providers should adhere to the set guidelines and protocols based on research findings to minimize the rate of errors. Adhering to the required best practices entails minimizing variations in the delivery of health services, hence reducing the chances of the occurrence of an error (Rodziewicz et al., 2024).
Promoting a Culture of Safety: It is important to conduct an organization's culture issues that make it possible for the health care providers to report errors and near misses without much fear of being punished (Rodziewicz et al., 2024). These mistakes can be openly discussed, enabling the possibility of finding out the root causes that created such conditions in the first place.
Utilizing Technology and Decision Support Systems: Technology such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and Clinical Decision Support tools can assist the providers by alerting them to mistakes or potential mistakes, such as drug-drug interactions, allergies, or wrong dosages (Singh et al., 2024).
Are current legal and regulatory frameworks adequate to address healthcare errors? If so, why? If not, what changes are necessary to ensure the regulations best serve clients and providers?
It can be noted that the existing laws and regulations are still inadequate in handling healthcare errors comprehensively. Although there are numerous frameworks, including mandatory reporting systems and patient safety organizations, as initial and sustained structures to enhance patient safety, these frameworks are, at times, insufficient in providing protection to healthcare practitioners and do not always promote open disclosure and learning, especially from sentinel events.
To ensure that regulations best serve clients and providers, several changes are necessary:
Strengthening Protections for Reporting Errors: Policies on reporting of errors and near misses should provide better rights to the healthcare providers who have become victims (Singh et al., 2024). For example, increasing the coverage of safe harbor laws that free the providers from prosecution in case they willingly come forward to report their errors could improve reporting and disclosure.
Focusing on Systems-Based Approaches Regulatory and legislative bodies should stop using options that punish individuals who make mistakes but embrace systems that seek to establish why such mistakes happened. To achieve these, it could be possible to make routine safety audits compulsory, improve interdisciplinary collaboration, as well as promote the application of norms, prototypes, and lists (Rodziewicz et al., 2024).
Promoting Just Culture Policies: Ensuring that the health care organizations implement the 'just culture' that increases the willingness of the providers in any organization to report and discuss errors would be helpful in the organization.
1. Do you think the process in your current healthcare institution is adequate for reporting errors or do changes need to be made?