NURS 6053 WEEK 3 ASSIGNMENT

5

Analysis of A Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Student's Name

Institutional Affiliation

Analysis of A Pertinent Healthcare Issue

In the last decade, the United States government has taken vast measures to manage and enhance healthcare and patient's experience. Despite these several measures, the public perception of the healthcare system has not changed. Americans believe that the current care system still requires several changes to attain better health outcomes. According to the Commonwealth Fund, U.S healthcare scores high in patient-center care but falls short in safe and coordinated care, thus driving the country's quality score down. That being said, one of the major issues currently affecting healthcare is preventable medical errors.

Preventable medical errors have deterred the efforts to build a safer system in the country. A substantial body of research indicates that the medical errors problem is one of the leading causes of injuries and deaths. According to Makary & Daniel (2016), this issue is the third leading cause of increased death rates in the U.S. The researchers also note that one in seven patients receiving care in health institutions, specifically hospitals are victims of medical errors. In this light of this, healthcare stakeholders and professionals must devise effective prevention measures. There are several underlying factors facilitating the increase in medical harms in today's healthcare. These factors can include poor communication breakdowns, inadequate information flow in healthcare settings, poor documentation, and patient-related issues. Patient-related issues can include poor patient assessment and inadequate patient education, and failure to obtain consent.

Based on the provided records, my organization also seems to be affected by this issue. The records show that the organization has documented at least six medical-related error cases within the last two years. Three of these cases are related to catheter care. The rest are either due to miscommunication of test results, technical errors, or poor coordination of medication orders among the healthcare provider teams. The organization will have to assess these common root causes in-depth to avoid litigation claims and financial burdens in the future.

Review of the Identified Articles

Several scholars have tried to document a body of evidence about this health stressor to explain its intensity, financial implications, and impact on care delivery. One excellent example of such research is the article authored by Gorgich et al. (2016). The article analyses the common causes of medical errors from a nurse's viewpoint and presents strategies that can be employed to combat this problem. To support their arguments, the researchers conducted a study in which 327 nursing staff and 62 student nurses in nursing and midwifery schools participated. Based on the response they got from the participants, the article noted that the most prevailing causes of medical errors include burnout, a large number of critically ill patients, unreadable orders, doctor's damage, and low patient; nurse ratio. The study also points out that medical errors have undesirable consequences for patients. Due to these errors, patients have to deal with readmissions, an increased period of hospitalization, and increased costs of hospitalizations and possible disabilities.

The second article authored by Da Silva & Krishnamurthy (2016) points out the severity of medication errors. This article discusses factors facilitating errors in hospitals, correction measures and presents statistics and data concerning this issue. According to Da Silva & Krishnamurthy (2016), United States spends at least $3.5 billion annually due to medication errors. They further note that preventable medication errors affect 7 million patients and cost approximately $21 billion yearly across all care settings. Therefore, whether preventable or non-preventable, medication errors such as prescribing, administration, and dispensing will always cause a financial burden to organizations and the nation.

Strategies to Address Organization Impact of Medical Errors

Most healthcare organizations have opted to use modern or technological equipment to prevent medical errors. For example, Gorgich et al. (2016) noted that one of the participants pointed out that other hospitals preferred using electronic cards to discourage preventable errors. Da Silva & Krishnamurthy (2016) did point out that other organizations prefer educational and training programs related to preventing human errors. Nonetheless, different strategies can be effective depending on the organization's goal, mission, culture, and commitment.

An organization can effectively address medical errors by streamlining communication links in the patent care chain. By doing so, the institution can foster effective communication as well as promote interdisciplinary collaboration. To achieve this goal, managers may have to position pharmacists as permanent resources, especially in acute/ vulnerable departments. For example, the hospital can rotate them regularly between these vulnerable departments to provide valuable insight across the organization. The second strategy can involve engaging patients in safety programs. Patients can also take an active role in decreasing medical errors as they are the most affected population (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Therefore, an organization can empower patients to be their own advocates by increasing patient's interface with pharmacists and physicians who are best equipped to answer their concerns about medication plans.

Lastly, an organization can encourage a high-reliability culture where accountability is prioritized in patient care to prevent future errors. The critical leaders of the institution will need to make sure that staff members are comfortable enough to report medical errors. Another tactic to ascertain this goal is to simplify reporting systems to make it easy for care providers to report errors immediately and worry about collecting secondary evidence later.

Reference

Da Silva, B. A., & Krishnamurthy, M. (2016). The alarming reality of medication error: a patient case and review of Pennsylvania and National data. Journal of community hospital internal medicine perspectives, 6(4), 31758.

Gorgich, E. A. C., Barfroshan, S., Ghoreishi, G., & Yaghoobi, M. (2016). Investigating the causes of medication errors and strategies to prevention of them from nurses and nursing student viewpoint. Global journal of health science, 8(8), 220. Retrieved from; https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5016359/.

Makary, M. A., & Daniel, M. (2016). Medical error—the third leading cause of death in the U.S. Bmj, 353.

The Commonwealth Fund. (2014). How the Performance of the U.S. Health Care System Compares Internationally. Retrieved from; https://www.commonwealthfund.org/sites/default/files/documents/___media_files_publications_fund_report_2014_jun_1755_davis_mirror_mirror_2014.pdf.