3025963_enhancing_quality_and_safety
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Enhancing Quality and Safety
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Antioch University Santa Barbara
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Enhancing Quality and Safety
Introduction
Medical professionals are expected to enhance the quality of life of those seeking
professional assistance, yet medical errors are fatal. According to McMains (2016), medical
errors account for up to 10 percent of all deaths in America, and this means that medical errors
are ranked third in the overall causes of death. All medical personnel must ensure that the health
of their patients is enhanced by limiting the risks leading to this outcome. Therefore, this paper
will provide a substantial discussion of the possible quality improvement actions to reduce
medical errors in the healthcare setting.
Factors Leading To Medical Errors
Medical errors may be fatal for the patient by causing multiple health conditions. In this
case, administering the wrong medical intervention may lead to respiratory failure, multiple
organ dysfunction, respiratory failure, and allergic reactions (Reddy & Guzman, 2016). In
addition to these devastating effects of medical errors, the other effects include lengthening
hospital admission and reducing overall patient satisfaction. Research indicates that medical
errors were possible where the proper safety protocols were not followed (Reddy & Guzman,
2016). Therefore, adherence to the established safety protocols may limit errors associated with
medical errors. In research to investigate the efficacy of implementing vasoactive drug protocols
as a solution to the correct management of high alert medication, there was a 55 percent decrease
in medical prescription errors, 68 percent in validation errors, and 78 percent in medical
administration errors (Cuesta López et al., 2016). These findings indicate that the lack of
adherence to the established medical administration safety protocols may increase the chances of
medical errors occurring. In addition to this, the presence of proper medication admission can be
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jeopardized by wrong prescription and administration of the medical intervention. Among the
many factors leading to medication administration errors, distractions may be an additional
factor. Medical administration requires high precision and accuracy to avoid its errors (Reddy &
Guzman, 2016). It is necessary to consider understanding the nature of these distructions to
effectively resolve them. Reddy and Guzman (2016) investigate the factors which may reduce
medical administration safety in the intensive care unit and most interviewed nurses indicate that
distractions primarily originate from family members and other medical personell. This factor
increases the chances of having medical errors in the healthcare setting. Therefore, it is necessary
to reduce the occurrence of such hindrances to enhance patient safety.
Analysis of Evidence-Based and Best Practice Solutions
Nursing students must be effectively equipped with the knowledge to handle various
challenges in the healthcare setting. Evidence-based and best practice solutions in decision-
making may improve the quality of services delivered in the healthcare setting (Li et al., 2019).
Reddy and Guzman (2016) indicate that nurses who felt distracted by other medical personnel
and family members were encouraged to raise this concern to reduce the chances of medical
errors. Raising concerns regarding such problems requires a multidisciplinary approach to
effectively explain the risks associated with distractions from family members and other medical
personnel. Reddy and Guzman (2016) further indicate that quality improvement initiatives must
be reliable, valid, feasible, interpretable, and responsive. To achieve this goal, communicating
the concerns of maintaining an environment free of distraction will require multiple individuals
and personnel. In this case, viable solutions to this problem presented by Reddy and Guzman
(2016) were obtained through interdepartmental discussion, which concluded that using
technology will reduce the chances of medical error through automation. Additional results to
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this initiative include an overall cost efficiency realized in the organization by reducing error-
related costs by 53 percent (Reddy & Guzman, 2016). In another study, the ability to identify
medical errors was tested among medical personnel. This study was conducted in a actual
hospital environment where participating patients were subjected to non-conforming medical
practices and systems (Daupin et al., 2016). Therefore, the findings indicate that around 67
percent of the patients observed these medical malpractices and were dissatisfied with the
service. Therefore, medical errors must be avoided by defining the role of a nurse in this
problem.
The Role of the Nurse in Combating Medical Errors
Nurses are at the helm of many primary medical administration initiatives in healthcare
facilities. This means that they must use their professionalism and judgment effectively to
identify and correct medical errors. From Daupin and colleagues' (2016) study and Reddy and
Guzman's (2016), nurses identified the medical errors early in the intervention. This means that
they can effectively reduce the rates of medical errors by enhancing their professional conduct
through communication and professionalism. Communication is associated with increased
efficiency to reduce medical errors (Reddy and Guzman, 2016). As improved communication
will increase efficiency through reducing medical errors, the overall cost of covering them will
be further reduced. This outcome is seen in Reddy and Guzman's (2016) study, reflecting a 53
percent cost reduction following improved communication. In addition to this, they may enhance
interprofessional collaboration, as seen in Reddy and Guzman (2016). The IT department was
used to automate certain essential services in medical administration, such as using a bar code.
The fundamental stakeholders that nurses may need to work with to actualize these needs for
improved medical administration safety include the organization's society, administration, and
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interdepartmental leaders. In this case, the administration is responsible for managing services
offered by the facility and assessing ways to improve its effectiveness. Therefore, they are
necessary to enhance this quality improvement initiative through initiating policies guiding its
actualization. In addition to this, interdepartmental leaders may contribute to the collaborative
communication between different departments. The essential role of this group of stakeholders
has been discussed in the collaboration of the IT department to develop effective communication
systems such as the bar code to improve medical administration efficiency (Reddy & Guzman,
2016). Therefore, this group ensures a smooth flow of communication between different
departments to collaborate in developing efficient tools and solutions to medical administration
problems. The society is the final group of stakeholders responsible for enhancing community-
wide communication about the importance of preventing medical errors. As the community
involves patients and their families, informing them about the necessity of preventing
distractions in cases where nurses are administering medical interventions may reduce errors.
Therefore, these initiatives may fundamentally solve this challenge through the involvement of a
nurse and the associated stakeholders who may guide the effective implementation of
recommended actions.
Conclusion
Medical errors account for one of the leading causes of hospital deaths, yet nurses are at
the center of the problem and the solution. Nurses are present in almost all situational medical
administration, thus making them liable when medical errors occur. While distractions may lead
to high administration errors, interprofessional collaboration and communication are the
fundamental best practices supported by evidence for their effectiveness in combating medical
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errors. As nurses are at the center of many medical administration services, their communication
and professionalism through interprofessional collaboration reduce these errors.
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References
Cuesta López, I., Sánchez Cuervo, M., Candela Toha, Á., Benedí González, J., & Bermejo
Vicedo, T. (2016). Impact of the implementation of vasoactive drug protocols on safety
and efficacy in the treatment of critically ill patients.
Journal of Clinical Pharmacy and
Therapeutics
,
41
(6), 703–710. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpt.12459
Daupin, J., Atkinson, S., Bédard, P., Pelchat, V., Lebel, D., & Bussières, J.-F. (2016). Medication
errors room: A simulation to assess the medical, nursing, and pharmacy staffs' ability to
identify errors related to the medication-use system: Simulation of medication errors.
Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice
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22
(6), 911–920.
https://doi.org/10.1111/jep.12558
Li, S., Cao, M., & Zhu, X. (2019). Evidence-based practice.
Medicine
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(39), e17209.
https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0000000000017209
McMains, V. (2016).
Study Suggests Medical Errors Now Third Leading Cause of Death in the
U.S. - 05/03/2016
.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/study_suggests_medical_errors_n
ow_third_leading_cause_of_death_in_the_us
Reddy, A. J., & Guzman, J. A. (2016). Quality improvement process in a large intensive care
unit: Structure and outcomes.
American Journal of Medical Quality
,
31
(6), 552–558.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1062860615593999