The Patient Safety Movement
The Patient Safety Movement
Florida Institute of Technology
According to patientsafetymovement.org (2013), over 200,000 patients die each year due to preventable causes. This is more than the number of deaths from lung, breast and prostate cancer combined. With such a high number of patients at risk of preventable death, the idea of patient safety moved to the forefront of medical discussions in the early 1990’s with the release of the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err is Human. The report brought to light the issues of patient safety and the errors occurring every day in medical facilities across the country. Patient safety as defined by the Institute of Medicine is simply stated as having “freedom from accidental injury” (ahrq.gov). Patient safety is now considered a healthcare discipline concerned with reporting, preventing and analyzing adverse events in an effort to reduce or eliminate errors leading to undesirable patient outcomes.
Some of the most common medical errors affecting patient safety are wrong site surgery, medication errors, and health care acquired infections. Other causes of medical errors are not directly related to “touching” the patient. These errors include hand-off communications, illegible handwriting, and poor coordination of care.
Wrong site surgeries include operating on the wrong part of the body, performing the wrong operation, or operating on the wrong patient. While wrong site surgery is rare, (from 1995-2010, the Joint Commission received reports of 956 wrong site surgeries), it is probably one of the most preventable injuries affecting patient safety (National Patient Safety Foundation, 2014).
Medication errors occur if a patient receives the wrong medication or if the patient receives the right medication in the wrong dose or wrong form. One of the most common errors facing the patient safety movement today, the Institute of Medicine estimates medication errors affect over 1.5 million Americans
Florida Institute of Technology
According to patientsafetymovement.org (2013), over 200,000 patients die each year due to preventable causes. This is more than the number of deaths from lung, breast and prostate cancer combined. With such a high number of patients at risk of preventable death, the idea of patient safety moved to the forefront of medical discussions in the early 1990’s with the release of the Institute of Medicine’s report To Err is Human. The report brought to light the issues of patient safety and the errors occurring every day in medical facilities across the country. Patient safety as defined by the Institute of Medicine is simply stated as having “freedom from accidental injury” (ahrq.gov). Patient safety is now considered a healthcare discipline concerned with reporting, preventing and analyzing adverse events in an effort to reduce or eliminate errors leading to undesirable patient outcomes.
Some of the most common medical errors affecting patient safety are wrong site surgery, medication errors, and health care acquired infections. Other causes of medical errors are not directly related to “touching” the patient. These errors include hand-off communications, illegible handwriting, and poor coordination of care.
Wrong site surgeries include operating on the wrong part of the body, performing the wrong operation, or operating on the wrong patient. While wrong site surgery is rare, (from 1995-2010, the Joint Commission received reports of 956 wrong site surgeries), it is probably one of the most preventable injuries affecting patient safety (National Patient Safety Foundation, 2014).
Medication errors occur if a patient receives the wrong medication or if the patient receives the right medication in the wrong dose or wrong form. One of the most common errors facing the patient safety movement today, the Institute of Medicine estimates medication errors affect over 1.5 million Americans
References: AHRQ. (2008). What Exactly Is Patient Safety? Retrieved from http://ahrq.gov Institute of Medicine. (2014). Retrieved from http://iom.edu/ Levin, A. A. (2005). Patient Safety- Rejecting the Status Quo. NC Med J March/April 2005, Volume 66, Number 2. Retrieved from http://ww.ncmedicaljournal.com National Patient Safety Foundation. (2014). Key Facts About Patient Safety. Retrieved from http://www.npsf.org/for-patients-for-consumers Pozgar, G.D. (2012). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration (11th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC The Patient Safety Movement. (2013). Challenges & Solutions. Retrieved from http://patientsafetymovement.org/challenges-&-solutions-/