Medical Errors

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Pages: 5
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Medical Errors in our Health System
Charmaine Henry
DeVry University of New York
HSM541
Health Service Management
Professor John Cutspec
October 8, 2017 Abstract

Medical Errors occur in hospitals and it’s the most fearful word to hear. But we have to ask our selves, what exactly is considered a medical error, how offer does it have to occur to be considered a threat. Without preventing the frequency of medical errors, what can we do to prevent medical errors?

Medical Errors in our Health System

To begin with, lets define what medical error is and where it can occur. Medical
Error involves equipment, diagnosis and most of all communication error. Medical error can occur in hospitals, nursing homes, and surgical diagnosis, wrong …show more content…
Wrong site occur when verification was not made with the patient as to what site the surgery is to conduct on, surgeon did not mark the site with initials, and medical staff did not confirm the surgical site. To prevent such incident we can implement a system called “Time Out surgical safety checklist.” With the time out checklist, this program will assure surgical errors do not happen. There are three phases to this checklist; first phase is before the induction of anesthesia, patient confirms name, site of surgery and give verbal consent. The second phase of the time out is before the skin incision, the entire surgical team listens to the surgeon read the medical record number; confirm the patient name, type of surgery and other important events that will occur. The third phase of the time out is before the patient leaves the operating room, confirmation that all surgical instrument and sponges are accounted for and reconfirmation of any specimen is recorded. ("WHO Surgical Safety Checklist and Implementation Manual," p. 3)
Another medical error that is common is the distribution of medicine. At times the workload can be over whelming that only the room number and bed number is verified to administer medication. To prevent this type of error the five rights should be utilized, the right patient, drug, dose, route and time. This practice should be utilized at all time. ("5 Medication Rights," p. …show more content…
The benefits of a hospital being accredited speak to the community I serves that that put forth the effort to provide the highest quality services. The risk management will decrease possible will decrease liability cost. The attraction of highly qualifies staff members with all certification on new and high innovative equipment such as robotics surgical procedure. ("Joint Commission," October 10, 2017, p. 5)
The overall efforts to eliminate or significantly reduce medical errors are a grand effort and all hospital staff. This of course will be challenging but the ultimate goal is patient safety.
Prevention protocol to put in place would be; all staff members washing there hands prior and after each patient care, that would prevent nosocomial infection. Verify the patient prior to and after a procedure, check the wristband, ask the patient his/her name. During the surgical procedure, verify if all equipment is available and in working condition, if a new equipment is been utilized assure the sales representative is in the surgical suite to answer all questions and give assemble
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