Assignment task: Enhancing Quality and Safety
For this assessment, you will develop a 4-page paper that examines a following safety quality issue in a health care setting. You will analyze the issue and examine potential evidence-based and best-practice solutions from the literature as well as the role of nurses and other stakeholders in addressing the issue.
Patient Identification Errors in Healthcare:
Ensuring the correct identification of patients is a foundational aspect of safe healthcare delivery. When errors occur in this basic step, the ripple effects can be catastrophic. Here's why understanding and preventing patient identification errors is essential:
1. Patient Safety and Well-being: The most immediate and alarming consequence of patient identification errors is the potential harm to the patient. Administering the wrong medication, performing surgery on the wrong site, or providing inappropriate treatments can lead to severe complications, prolonged recovery, or even death.
2. Loss of Trust: When patients or their families experience or witness identification errors, their trust in the healthcare system can be severely eroded.
This loss of trust can make patients hesitant to seek care in the future or follow medical advice, potentially compromising their health.
3. Professional Reputation: For healthcare professionals, being involved in an identification error can have lasting implications on their reputation. Such errors can lead to disciplinary actions, loss of licensure, or legal consequences.
4. Legal and Financial Implications: Patient identification errors can result in lawsuits, leading to significant financial penalties for healthcare institutions.
Beyond the direct costs of litigation, there's the potential for increased insurance premiums and the costs associated with implementing corrective measures.
5. Operational Disruptions: Identification errors can disrupt the normal flow of operations in a healthcare setting. They may necessitate additional tests, procedures, or interventions to correct the error, leading to delays and inefficiencies.
6. Emotional Toll on Healthcare Providers: Realizing that one has been involved in an identification error can be emotionally devastating for healthcare providers.
Feelings of guilt, anxiety, and doubt can lead to burnout and may even cause some professionals to question their career choice.
7. Increased Healthcare Costs: Beyond the direct costs associated with correcting the error, there are indirect costs to consider. These might include extended hospital stays, additional treatments, and the long-term care needs of patients who experience complications due to the error.
8. Regulatory and Accreditation Implications: Healthcare facilities are subject to regulations and standards set by accrediting bodies. Identification errors can lead to penalties, increased scrutiny, and potential challenges in maintaining accreditation
Instructions:
For this assessment, you will analyze a safety quality issue in a health care setting and identify a quality improvement (QI) initiative.
Be sure that your plan addresses the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so that you know what is needed for a distinguished score.
- Explain factors leading to a specific patient-safety risk in a health care setting.
- Explain evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety and reduce costs.
- Explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety and reduce costs.
- Identify stakeholders with whom nurses would coordinate to drive safety enhancements with a specific safety quality issue.
- Communicate using writing that is clear, logical, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.
Additional Requirements:
- Length of submission: 4 pages, plus title and reference pages.
- Number of references: Cite a minimum of 4 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your findings and considerations. Resources should be no more than 5 years old.
- APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style.
Competencies Measured:
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 1: Analyze the elements of a successful quality improvement initiative.
o Explain evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety and reduce costs.
Competency 2: Analyze factors that lead to patient safety risks.
o Explain factors leading to a specific patient-safety risk in a health care setting.
Competency 4: Explain the nurse's role in coordinating care to enhance quality and reduce costs.
o Explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety and reduce costs.
o Identify stakeholders with whom nurses would coordinate to drive safety enhancements with a specific safety quality issue.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based strategies to communicate in a manner that supports safe and effective patient care.
o Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar or punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
o Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.