Patient Safety

Words: 580
Pages: 3

Quality and Safety Paper
What is patient safety? According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) patient safety is more than prevention of harm, it is “freedom from accidental or preventable injuries produced by medical care” (2018). Patient safety is an important and fundamental element of quality nursing care. Patient outcomes are affected by nursing care quality because nurses spend most time with patients performing assessments and caring for the patients; therefore, improvements in patient safety can be achieved by improving nurse performance. Nurses play significant role in ensuring patient safety by monitoring patients for physical retrogression, identifying errors, understanding care processes, and performing numerous
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344). Effective on January 1, 2018, TJC came up with new ways to improve the care of hospital and provided Safety regulations to be followed. Throughout this section focus will be on Goal 3-Improve the safety of using medications; and NPSG.03.06.01, which states to maintain and communicate accurate patient medication information (TJC, 2017, p. 5). Medication errors are common in healthcare settings given the large and increasing quantity of mediation use. Patients often receive new medications or have changes made to their existing medications at times of receiving health care at the hospitals. Failure to maintain and communicating these medication discrepancies can lead to preventable medication errors and adverse drug events (ADE) including drug-drug interactions, lack of efficacy, allergic reaction, overdoses and poor quality of life. ADEs effect about 2 million hospital stays each year and prolong hospital stays by 1.7 to 4.6 days; also accounts for probable 1 million ER visits and roughly 125,000 hospital admissions (health.gov, n.d.). Many ADEs are preventable by medication reconciliation. Medication reconciliation refers to the process of avoiding unintended discrepancies across transitions in care by reviewing the patient's complete medication routine at the time of admission and comparing it with the regimen being considered for the current care (TJC, 2017,