Many people get admitted to hospitals every year. According to Statista, there were 36.2 million hospital admissions in 2019. Ensuring the safety of these patients is the responsibility of every individual working in the healthcare sector. To ensure this, some preventive measures need to be taken care of by all.
This article will discuss how hospitals can create an environment that prevents errors and accidents from occurring and focuses on patient safety.
Table of Contents
Establish a Safety and Health Management System
Establishing a safety and health management system is an important step in ensuring the maximum safety of patients. This system should include policies, procedures, and protocols designed to reduce the risk of injury or illness to patients, visitors, and staff. It should also include regular safety training and education for all personnel and a system to monitor and evaluate safety performance.
Additionally, the system should include a reporting system to ensure that potential safety issues are addressed and corrected promptly. By having a comprehensive safety and health management system, healthcare organizations can provide maximum patient safety.
A reporting system can help analyze and identify severe events, such as complications. A study was conducted to analyze how positive such reporting can be. Published in the PLOS ONE journal, the study indicates that in-hospital reporting can help identify events by complaints or questions of patients or their family members. Likewise, national-level reporting can help identify problematic cases arising from the staff’s behavior toward the patient.
Ensure Hospital Staff Have the Skills to Serve the Patients
To ensure that patients are given the utmost care, it is necessary that hospital staff possess several skills. This may include basic medical knowledge and the ability to communicate in a manner that is easy for patients to understand. Hospital staff should also be able to deal with emergencies, such as heart attacks or severe falls from heights.
The best hospitals will train their staff to handle these types of incidents and other emergencies that arise in a hospital setting. Although there is no guarantee that every emergency can be prevented, having well-trained staff who know what they’re doing can ensure patient safety overall.
Besides the treatment, your staff should also have soft skills like empathy. A study published on the NCBI website shows that empathy plays a vital role in developing healthcare professionals and patient bonding, which is crucial for better treatment. It also says that empathy skills should be a part of the education given to healthcare professionals.
Have the Right Cleanrooms for Medical Analysis
While you are running your laboratory, it is essential to have the right cleanrooms for medical analysis. This will ensure that your patients’ samples are not contaminated or compromised.
Cleanrooms are a critical part of the laboratory process because they ensure that your equipment is working properly and that the results you get from testing are accurate. Cleanrooms also keep out dust and other contaminants, which could interfere with tests or cause false readings on equipment. When designing your cleanroom, there are several things to consider:
- How well do you want to be able to control airflow? The answer will depend on how many people will use the room. If it’s just one person experimenting alone, this isn’t as big of a concern. However, if multiple people need access at once or if sensitive equipment is used there, ventilation becomes vital.
- Are there any chemicals used within? If so, ensure those chemicals don’t leave a residue when washed off later. You might want them gone forever, so plan accordingly.
If you have multiple medical devices you use in the labs or for diagnosis, it is also advised to have a medical device cleanroom. Medical devices need to work accurately, and sample contamination can prevent that. Having medical device cleanrooms can help ensure accuracy and that your medical equipment is working correctly. Additionally, you can also use medical device cleanrooms to create device parts that might be malfunctioning.
Improve Medication Management
Improving medication management is a critical part of ensuring patient safety. The importance of this preventive measure cannot be overstated, as the improper use or misuse of medications is one of the leading causes of preventable hospitalizations and patient harm.
Medication management, which includes taking into account patient preferences and tolerances as well as allergies, is a continuous process that can help facilitate positive clinical outcomes while reducing costs associated with adverse events.
In addition to caregivers and pharmacists, patients also play an essential role in improving medication management within their care environments. This is done by communicating concerns about their medications to their providers so they can receive appropriate treatment.
This communication helps ensure that safe practices are established early when prescribing new medications or changing doses for existing ones. It also enables patients to feel more comfortable throughout each step in their course of treatment because they understand what steps need to happen before they get their next dose.
Prevent Infection
Hospital patients are vulnerable to several nosocomial infections, also called healthcare-associated infections. These can include surgical site infections, ventilator-associated pneumonia, catheter-related urinary tract infections, etc.
The consequences of these infections can be severe. In fact, they can also be fatal, as studies show 30-day mortality in around 10% of patients who develop them.
It is important to keep the patients safe from infections. Infection prevention and control (IPC) is a systematic process aiming to prevent, detect, treat and control pathogens in healthcare settings. Standard precautions can be used as part of infection control to reduce the risk of transmission for all pathogens according to their infectious potential.
The objective of standard precautions is to protect healthcare workers and patients from the transmission of microorganisms that can be spread through direct or indirect contact with infected secretions or excretions from any route.
Standard precautions include the following:
- Hand hygiene using soap and water
- Disinfection with an appropriate chemical product
- Use of personal protective equipment (PPE) when indicated
- Isolation or Cohorting, if indicated
- Respiratory protection where necessary
- Good environmental cleaning practices, such as sterilization or disinfection after treating contaminated objects or surfaces
Conclusion
It is important to remember that safety is not just a matter of the hospital. It requires the participation of all healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses. Preventive measures should be taken at every level from the administration to ensure that patients are given maximum care. Also, ensure that there are no adverse events at any time so that patients can be safe in your hands.