The Effects of “To Err is Human” in Nursing Practice.

The Effects of “To Err is Human” in Nursing Practice

In my opinion, the development of information technology has addressed many concerns on patient safety over the years. In November 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) boldly brought the enormous amount of medical errors to the attention of the United States Healthcare system. The IOM revealed that many patients lost their lives due to preventable medical errors, and a minimum of 44,000 deaths resulted (Institute of Medicine, 1999, p. 1). Due to the high occurrence of errors within hospital settings, safety was established as a major concern and it became the main reason for providing implementation of safety systems in all health care organizations (Institute of Medicine, 1999, p. 4). The increase in medical errors and the need for patient safety has led to the development of information technology in the healthcare system today.

Information Technology

The development of information technology has greatly increase patient safety by developing electronic medical records that can be stored and provide a means of data collection and analysis. In my opinion, the development of electronic medical records offers healthcare providers access to pertinent records of the patient, in which the healthcare provider can collaborate with other healthcare providers to provide the highest quality of care to the patient. The use of electronic medical records also allows the nurse to chart in “real time”, which provides other healthcare providers the most up-to-date information to improve patient outcomes. Over the years, electronic medical records have drastically reduced the number of medication errors. Although medication errors still occur, my workplace made it mandatory for all nurses administering medication to scan the patient’s armband and the medication at the time of administration. If the medication does not match the patient, an error message will occur. The system will also chart the medication time on a MAR. This system has helped reduce the number of medication errors at my facility and provided a MAR that is user friendly for all healthcare providers.

In my opinion, before a problem can be corrected, one must first understand the factors that contributed to the error. The facility which I work for has an information system called “Good Catch”. This systems allows any employee of the facility to enter any occurrence that they might consider to be a safety risk to the patients. The reports are reviewed by individuals that are required to develop a plan to correct the safety issue. The benefit of this system is to research the factors that contributed to the occurrence, develop a plan to correct the errors, and implement the plan in a timely manner. This system complements one of the new rules as “safety as a system property” described in The Quality Chasm Series as opposed to an error being solely an individual’s responsibility (Wakefield, 2008, p. 11).

Improvement

In my opinion, the healthcare facility I work for needs further growth with the new rule of “continuous decrease in waste”. It appears to me that the facility is still in the mind-frame of seeking cost reduction supplies instead of being more efficient with the supplies we already have. Instead of buying cheaper products at a lower price, it makes more sense to me to simply be less wasteful of the better products to reduce the cost. The unit I work in has implemented a plan to be less wasteful and be more efficient. We created an admission cart that is to house supplies for patients being admitted to our unit. This allows us to only use what we need, instead of carrying supplies into the room and contaminating them. This system has greatly reduced the amount of wasteful supplies, but further education is still needed to make the plan more efficient.

It appears that the focus of health care practices has changed from diagnosis and treatment to screening and prevention techniques (Plawecki, & Amrhein, 2009, p. 29). Taking this into consideration, it is very important for healthcare providers to stay up-to-date with advanced technology in order to provide the highest quality of care to the patient. With healthcare providers staying up-to-date with technology, it allows nurses and physicians to provide patients with the highest quality of care that is backed by evidence-based practice.

References

Institute of Medicine. (1999). To err is human: Building a safer health system. Retrieved fromhttp://iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/1999/To-Err-is-Human/To%20Err%20is%20Human%201999%20%20report%20brief.pdf

Plawecki, L. H., & Amrhein, D. W. (2009). Clearing the err. Journal of Gerontological Nursing,35(11), 26–29.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Wakefield, M. K. (2008). The Quality Chasm series: Implications for nursing. In R. G. Hughes (Ed.), Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (Vol. 1, pp. 47–66). Rockville, MD: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.