Patient Safety Flashcards
What is patient safety?
The avoidance of unintended or unexpected harm of patients in healthcare
How much does the NHS spend on care costs a year?
100 million pounds
What is a mechanism put into place to improve patient safety?
Datix system
What is the datix system?
The reporting system, e.g. the wrong leg was amputated during surgery
What are the 2 foundations to improve patient safety?
A patient safety culture
A patient safety system
What 3 strategic aims will support the development of a patient safety culture and a patient safety system?
Use information about patient safety information from multiple sources (INSIGHT)
Equip patients and staff with the skill and opportunities to improve patient safety (INVOLVEMENT)
Design programmes that deliver effective and sustainable change (IMPROVEMENT)
What is the patient safety incident response framework?
The framework that supports the development of an effective patient safety incident response system
What are the 4 key aims of the patient safety incident response framework?
Compassionate engagement of those affected
Approaches to learn from patient safety incidents
Considered responses to patient safety incidents
Strengthening response systems
What are checklists used for?
They make sure that everyone knows their role within the community and what their role is if anything goes wrong
How do we use a checklist?
(3)
Ask all staff to challenge areas of concern before, during and after procedures
Audit the use of the checklist to check for accuracy
All staff involved in a procedure must be introduced to colleagues and know their role during a patient’s episode.
What does it mean to audit the checklist?
To make use that the checklist is doing what it’s meant to do- that it’s right
What are never events?
Serious, largely preventable patient safety situations that should not occur, e.g. amputating the wrong limb, using too high a dose of radiation, irradiating pregnant people, etc
What are examples of radiography errors?
(5)
Patient positioning
Processing errors
Image artefacts
Number of radiographic views
Type of radiographic views
What is our professional responsibility?
(6)
If you’re unsure about what to do, always speak up
Skills diminish so keep practicing
Make sure that every room you work in has passed a quality check that month
Verbalise information- it lets other hear if you’re making a mistake
Double check everything
Communication is key
What is information governance?
It’s our responsibility to keep people’s data confidential and private
