Errors in healthcare practice occur far too often and have a negative impact on patients and employees. For instance, medication errors due to incorrect administration or dispensation of drugs to patients may lead to serious complications for patients and could place them in severe danger. Patients rely on healthcare providers to make the appropriate decisions on their behalf and to provide them with treatments that will contribute to improved health outcomes. When patients receive the wrong medication or dosage, regardless of the cause, it poses a potentially serious danger to their quality of life and in some cases, their mortality. Therefore, it is the responsibility of healthcare workers to strive for quality-based improvements that will positively impact medication administration within their organizations, using dashboards and other techniques to minimize medication errors and improve quality of care (Strome, 2013). One strategy is to establish a handoff procedure for nurses that will be used to discuss and evaluate reports and charting at shift change, and this will be designed to facilitate discussion regarding the importance of monitoring medical records and medication administration more closely to minimize errors and improve patient safety (Starmer et al., 2014).
Main Body
A handoff strategy to prevent medical errors offers an important opportunity for nurses to communicate regarding their assigned patients, to review charts at the same time, and to be cognizant of any possible transposition and/or dosing errors that could ultimately put patients at risk. Quality management within a healthcare facility is a critical step in minimizing errors and in providing patients with the best possible experience while under the care of its providers. This process is also necessary so that nurses fully understand their responsibility to focus on the needs of their patients, to refrain from rushing through medication administration, and in recognizing the importance of communication and accuracy in nursing documentation under all conditions (Starmer et.al, 2014).
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"Culture of Safety and Medical Errors".
Nurses who work collaboratively during shift changes will likely contribute to quality improvement efforts because they will examine charts and determine if any errors in medication administration. This will also encourage the team to understand the critical nature of administering the correct medications to patients with accurate dosing. Quality improvement must begin from the top down; therefore, management must support this program and provide the time and resources that are necessary to administer medications appropriately on a continuous basis (Spath, 2013). If a medication error is identified in the patient chart or record, it must be addressed as quickly as possible and patient monitoring of vital signs and other risks must take place as needed. This will not only help the patient in question, but will also demonstrate a commitment to preventing similar errors with this patient and other patients in the future. If the patient is not harmed and it is realized that the wrong information was input into the chart, this must also be addressed with steps to prevent this same complication in the future.
Conclusion
Healthcare providers must be properly trained and prepared to improve quality of care and minimize errors as best as possible. This is accomplished through a handoff program that is designed to facilitate communication between nurses during shift changes and to identify any medication errors that are recorded in the chart. It is anticipated that this effort will reduce the number of medication administration errors that occur, will identify the source and nature of these errors, and demonstrate the importance of communication and accurate charting methods in reducing the risk of harm to all patients. These efforts also enable nurses to meet quality improvement standards and to play a role in expanding quality control within the practice setting.
- Spath, P.L. (2013). Introduction to Healthcare Quality Management, 2nd Edition. Chicago: Health Administration Press.
- Starmer, A. J., Spector, N. D., Srivastava, R., West, D. C., Rosenbluth, G., Allen, A. D., … & Lipsitz, S. R. (2014). Changes in medical errors after implementation of a handoff program. New England Journal of Medicine, 371(19), 1803-1812.
- Strome, T.L. (2013). Healthcare Analytics for Quality and Performance Improvement. Wiley.
