...The National Patient Safety Goal(NSPG) that interests me is regarding medication labeling. The NSPG says "Label all medications, medication containers, and other solutions on and off the sterile field in perioperative and other procedural settings." (National Patient Safety Goals) I am appealed by this goal because if medication isn't labeled properly or even at all it can result in a patients illness or even death. Proper labeling is crucial to avoid a mishap. As stated above NPSG 03.04.01 is labeling all medications, medication containers and other solutions on and off the sterile field. (Joint Commission) In the elements section, it is described that an medication may not be administered until it has been labeled. In element 3, it specifies...
Words: 348 - Pages: 2
...National Patient Safety Goals in Acute Care Modified for Behavioral Health Nursing (Dr. Deb) Goal: - Explore impact of national patient safety standards on an acute care unit. - Utilize national patient safety standards to evaluate patient safety in acute care. - Value application of national patient safety standards in an acute care environment. Clinical Objective: - Utilize the 2013 National Patient Safety Goals for hospital care to identify safety concerns on the clinical unit throughout the clinical day. - Apply the nursing process to prevent environmental safety hazards in an acute care facility. Instructions: - During the clinical day, note your observations. - List recommendations for nursing practice based on your observations. -Type and submit this activity sheet in Mental Health Dropbox by assigned date. National Patient Safety Goal Selected Examples Goal met or not met? -Describe observations Recommendations Goal #1 Improve the accuracy of patient identification -Use at least two client identifiers when providing care, treatment and services. -Use 2 identifiers per facility policy when administering medication, blood components or collecting specimens for clinical testing. -Acceptable identifiers may include the individual’s name, ID number, or other person-specific identifier. -Focus on how medication administration differs on an acute behavioral health unit. Goal # 2 Improve the effectiveness of communication...
Words: 496 - Pages: 2
...important patient, individual, or resident care and organization functions that are essential to providing safe, high quality care. The standards set expectations for organization performance that are reasonable, achievable and rational. Each standard is developed with input from healthcare professionals, providers, employers, consumers, and government agencies like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. New standards are added only if they are in relation to patient safety or quality of care, have a positive impact on health outcomes, meet or surpass law and regulation, and can be accurately and readily measured. The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) have become a critical vocal point by which The Joint Commission promotes and enforces major changes in patient safety and quality of care. The criteria used for determining the value of these goals, and required revisions to them, are based on the merit of their impact, cost, and effectiveness (AHRQ, 2013). Recent changes have focused on preventing hospital-acquired infections and medication errors, in addition to existing goals promoting surgical safety, correct patient identification, communication between staff, and identifying patients at risk for suicide. The most recent update in 2014 added improving the safety of hospital alarm systems as an NPSG. The purpose of the National Hospital Patient Safety Goals is to improve patient safety. The goals focus on problems in health care safety and how...
Words: 1209 - Pages: 5
...Advancements in technology have allowed organizations to become more productive and more cost effective. Informatics has helped organizations in reducing their staff needs, ultimately saving them money. As healthcare IT continues to advance, patient safety, quality of care, and costs will continue to improve, and privacy and security will continue to be the goal for all electronic information. The use of electronic health information to improve the quality of care requires the exchange of electronic health records, which increases the need for security and privacy. Because of this, it was essential to establish collaborative governance guiding health information technology infrastructure (Rundio & Wilson, 2010) . The Health IT Patient Safety Action and Surveillance Plan addresses the role of healthcare informatics within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services promise to patient safety. The objective of the plan is to use healthcare informatics to make care safer and to continuously improve the safety of health IT (“HealthIT”, n.d.). The Health IT Safety Plan lays out actions that can be taken to improve the safety of health IT. The plan highlights improving knowledge of health IT safety, establishing and advancing health IT patient safety priorities, supporting research and development of tools and best practices, investigating and taking corrective...
Words: 1877 - Pages: 8
...interdisciplinary study of the design, development, adoption, and application of IT-based innovations in healthcare services delivery, management, and planning.” Healthcare informatics is used to gather, analyze, and interpret data and information about patients and treatments. This information, along with business and management information, is used to interpret how things are and to develop a better, more efficient and more cost effective method of operation. The big question is, how does healthcare informatics and technology effect or impact the development and implementation of healthcare law? One of the most effective technologies that has been widely adopted already is electronic health records. EHR are systems that track and record patient information. It also makes them more accessible and easier to share and communicate between doctors, patients and insurance companies. Electronic health records help control costs effectiveness of an organization by communicating information in a timely manner and helps secure payments more effectively than paper billing. With all of the changes and easier access to a patient’s confidential records, obviously healthcare laws and regulations would change in order to protect patient safety. With the positive effects of EHR, it also...
Words: 1608 - Pages: 7
...SUPPORT@WISEAMERICAN.US HLT 313V WEEK 3 COMPLETE LATEST HLT-313v Week 3 Topic 3 Discussion 1 Looking ahead to 2020, pick one area of the current National Patient Safety Goals program and make a prediction of what might change in that area based on technological or other advancements. Consider patient identification standards, communication processes, and infection control protocols, among others. You are required to use and cite a minimum of two references to support your response. HLT-313v Week 3 Topic 3 Discussion 2 The Joint Commission launched the National Patient Safety Goals in 2003. Many years have now passed since the inception of these goals. How has the overall focus of the goals changed in the intervening years? What conditions in the health care marketplace have driven the need for change? You are required to use and cite a minimum of two references to support your response HLT-313v Week 3 Assignment – The Joint Commission Workplace Violation PowerPoint Perform an Internet search to identify and research and a situation where a health care organization or individual provider in your field of allied health was sanctioned by The Joint Commission or other regulatory body for a violation of one or more of The Joint Commission workplace safety, risk management, and quality care requirements. Taking the role of the Chief Safety or Risk Management Officer in the organization or a provider’s office who now must deliver an accounting of the incident to the board of directors...
Words: 1672 - Pages: 7
...organizations has an enormous duty to enhance the quality of care for its internal and external customers. Gwinnett Medical Center is one of many healthcare organizations that embraces change along with enhancing the quality of care their patients receive. The executive summary assessment will describe details of Gwinnett Medical Center, the risk, and quality management department policies, and how the risk and quality management determines the quality outcome for the goals the hospitals. Gwinnett Medical Center Gwinnett Medical Center (GMC), also known as Gwinnett Hospital System, Inc. (GHS), was established in the early 70s and is a not-for-profit health care network. The hospital is a 553-bed facility, which includes 464-inpatient and 89-skilled licensed nursing and long-term facility. Gwinnett Medical Center has two acute-care hospitals, and facilities in different cities and the metro Atlanta area. The facility in Lawrenceville, Georgia is recognized as a national leader in single incision laparoscopic surgery, advanced cardiovascular services and a Level II Trauma Center. The medical center in Duluth, Georgia has specialty services, such as the Center for Weight Management and the Diabetes & Nutrition Education Center, and has received national recognition for achieving clinical excellence. In addition, this...
Words: 2174 - Pages: 9
...part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, has specific laws pertaining to healthcare records. Healthcare records includes any record that contains patient data, social security information, date of birth, name etc. (HITECH Act Enforcement Interim Final Rule) Part of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), involved an aspect called Administrative Simplification. These were provisions that we set that were going to simplify and standardize various identifiers, codes etc. While the thought is good, the rush to meet these standards contained its own set up challenges. HIPAA regulations cover many policies, patients, hospitals, vendors, financial departments, what use to be an acceptable way of business and communicating is now a new thought process for many. The abbreviations E.H.R. (Electronic Health Record) and E.M.R. (Electronic Medical Record) are used interchangeably throughout this paper. Some would agree they are the same, however the term EMR seems to refer more to the “Medical” field, clinical data, the term E.H.R. is Health record, involving all aspects of the health care fields and technologies. Table of Contents: Topic Page Introduction 4 Systems and Conversions 4-5 Public Health Benefits 5-7 National Patient Safety Goals 7 Meaningful Use 7-9 Introduction: These regulations impact all levels of healthcare, private, public, federal, state and local. They have effected how client...
Words: 1663 - Pages: 7
...will help develop a culture of safety throughout the hospital. This Plan will provide guidelines and methods that will monitor administrative and clinical activities. These monitors will be used to reduce losses associated with employee or visitor injuries, or property loss or damage. The plan will use standards related to the 2010 national Patient Safety Goals. After a recent visit by the Joint Commission, the following issues were identified: • There is no specific plan on how Little Falls Hospital will address and achieve these goals. This has been handled on a department by department basis. • Recently, there has been a significant plaintiff settlement paid by the hospital's insurance carrier, which involved a patient death related to the incorrect medication being administered. • The costs of the hospital's professional liability insurance continue to escalate, and the policy is due to expire in 6 months. Little Falls Hospital has had the same health professional liability insurance policy for 10 years. • The hospital is facing financial constraints and does not have a significant amount of cash on hand to invest in new technologies. To address these issues, the risk management plan will provide a way for collaboration among departments with the organization. Key players from multiple departments were asked their thoughts. Taking into consideration their successes and failures, we will adopt a few National Patient Safety Goals set forth by the Joint Commission...
Words: 570 - Pages: 3
... We were only in 100% compliance in December throughout the year in one of the priority focus areas of the Joint Commission standard: Communication; Standard: UP.01.03.01; A time out is performed before the procedure. See chart below: This is the universal protocol for preventing wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong Patient Surgeries. In evaluating this, I must review all standards that go hand in hand with the time-out standard; per Nightingale Community Hospital policy, Site Identification and Verification (Universal Protocol). I will address the elements of performance for all three: UP.01.01.01; Conduct a preprocedure verification process. UP.01.02.01; Mark the procedure site, and UP.01.03.01; A time-out is performed before the procedure. I will then address the items that are not addressed in Nightingale's policy in my corrective action plan and add any updates. (Commission, 2012) Standard UP.01.01.01; Conduct a preprocedure verification process to improve the accuracy of patient identification. This is a preprocedure process to verify the correct procedure, for the correct patient, at the correct site. This is met by using at least two patient identifiers when providing care, treatment and services. Acceptable identifiers are; patient's name, birth date, phone number, ID...
Words: 3313 - Pages: 14
...is defined as policies and procedures put in place to enhance infection control, patient safety, and quality of service. In healthcare there is always the risk of something getting out of hand and hurting a patient or even the staff of the facility. My facility is a Nursing Home/ Long-Term Care Facility about 2/3 of the residents are just elderly people suffering from ailing health, dementia, or Alzheimer’s. The other 1/3 is post-op recovery patients that need some where to recover before they head home; the average recovery time is 6-8 weeks. My facility has no one person dedicated to Risk Management. The closest we have is an Infection Control Nurse who is responsible for ensuring that no outbreaks of any sort happen and if it does happen it is her responsibility to ensure that the outbreak is contained as well. The Infection Control Nurse is also tasked with administering and keeping updated all records of TB tests. Upon asking her, I was informed that the current standards and policies were given to us during our initial employee orientation. My role as a Respiratory Therapist it falls to me to assist all the new patients as they come into our facility to determine their respiratory needs. Also in case of any code situation, it is the responsibility of the on-duty RT to take charge and stabilize the patient until Emergency Medical Services arrives and then transfer custody of the patient to EMS to deliver them to Emergency Department. The next is the responsibility and...
Words: 844 - Pages: 4
...cancer, and AIDS. Medical errors can be defined as the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended or the use of a wrong plan to achieve an aim. Among the problems that commonly occur during the course of providing health care are adverse drug events and improper transfusions, surgical injuries and wrong-site surgery, suicides, restraint-related injuries or death, falls, burns, pressure ulcers, and mistaken patient identities. High error rates with serious consequences are most likely to occur in intensive care units, operating rooms, and emergency departments. Beyond their cost in human lives, preventable medical errors exact other significant tolls. They have been estimated to result in total costs (in cluding the expense of additional care necessitated by the errors, lost income and household productivity, and disability) of between $17 billion and $29 billion per year in hospitals nationwide. Errors also are costly in terms of loss of trust in the health care system by patients and diminished satisfaction by both patients and health professionals. Patients who experience a long hospi tal stay or disability as a result of errors pay with physical and psychological discomfort. Health professionals pay with loss of morale and frustration at not being able to provide the best care possible....
Words: 3171 - Pages: 13
...Changes Introduction Nursing hand-offs rank high in situations where errors occur, often due to how shift changes are structured as much as mistakes by individual nurses (Halm, 2013). Wooldridge Place, for example, has a number of systemic deficiencies that contribute to communication breakdown between shifts and compromise patient care. It is anticipated that switching to a bedside handoff and addressing factors that contribute to negative outcomes from shift changes will allow Wooldridge to increase its patient safety and standards of care, and to meet National Patient Safety Goals and reduce overall costs to the organization. Background Significance While medical record-keeping is vital to patient care, nurses also...
Words: 1005 - Pages: 5
...Case Example: Falls James Brown Measuring Performance Standards/HCS/588 July 10, 2013 Professor Mean Jeans Case Example Falls Patient falls during inpatient hospitalization has become a top safety issue for long term care facilities and hospitals. Inpatient falls have a major impact of length of stay (LOS) especially when fall-related injuries require additional tests (head trauma), surgical interventions (hip fractures), and therapy (physical and rehabilitation therapy). Reducing falls among inpatient (hospitalized patients) is a growing patient safety concern for health care organization. Today, health care organizations are being more proactive in reviewing, evaluating and implementing fall prevention program and strategies. Collecting and analyzing data are vital components for measuring, monitoring, and revising quality and improvement programs. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the case example Falls and examine the data collection methods used to monitor and revise quality improvement programs. Measures to Monitor and Revise Quality Program Implementation According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2010), falls are the leading cause of injury among individuals 65 years and older. Falls can result in severe injuries such as hip fractures and head trauma. The economic impact for medically treating and managing fall and fall-related injuries are astronomical. In 200, the U. S health care system spent over $23 billion dollars on falls...
Words: 1374 - Pages: 6
...Healthcare Law and IT Brittany Technology is constantly evolving and advancing. As the healthcare industry becomes more electronic the laws protecting patient health information also need to evolve to cover the ever changing technologic advances. The concerns of protecting patients’ private healthcare information have grown as the use of electronic medical records has become more prevalent throughout the industry. In the 1960s computers began being used for generalizing human behavior. A physician established the idea of the Electronic Medical Record (Srinivasan, 2013). Unfortunately, the usage of electronic medical records did not become more mainstream until two decades later. (Srinivasan, 2013). As the use of EMRs became more prevalent healthcare information technology has played a “pivotal role in improving healthcare quality, cost, effectiveness, and efficiency,” (Srinivasan, 2013). However, the use of healthcare information technology has brought up concerns about privacy and protection of patient health information. In 1996, the Health Information Privacy and Accountability Act also known as HIPAA was passed. This was the first federal law regulating the privacy of health information. HIPAA was “designed primarily to modernize the flow of health information” (Solove, 2013). While at this time medical records were still in paper form, it was clear that health records would become digital in the future. (Solove, 2013). In the early years of HIPAA...
Words: 1984 - Pages: 8
