Unit 1 Lesson 2: Patient Safety Flashcards
The main dangers to look for in a healthcare environment include:
The main dangers to look for in a healthcare environment include potential for falls, safe operation of equipment, fires and electrical hazards, exposure to toxins or poisoning, and biological hazards such as the spread of infections.
Safety Hazards: Physical Hazards
Wet floors, equipment blocking hallways, cords running across rooms: these are some of the physical hazards that could cause a fall or other injury. Physical hazards also include any situation that requires workers to perform actions that are unsafe—like lifting something too heavy, positioning equipment so that workers must bend or stoop to use it, and any other hazard to the physical safety of staff or patients. Keeping the work area free from physical hazards is part of the job.
Safety Hazards: Infectious Agents
Diseases agents are all around us every day. Whether in a medical lab, a dental office, or any other healthcare setting, workers must take very specific precautions to avoid spreading disease. Workers also need to use protective equipment like gloves and masks to avoid coming into contact with potentially infectious surfaces, like those that have had contact with any body fluid. Cleaning of spaces and equipment is done with special procedures to lower the risk of transmitting infectious agents to people. Precautions are used around patients with known diseases that are highly contagious.
Safety Hazards: Chemical Hazards
Chemical used to clean or operate equipment may be toxic, but so are the chemicals that we call medications. The wrong drug given to the wrong person can be fatal. Securing all medicines and other chemicals so that they cannot be accessed by unauthorized persons is a routine practice in all healthcare settings. Mercury, which is found in some medical devices, is an especially toxic and difficult chemical to deal with—follow facility protocols.
Safety Hazards: Equipment, Electricity, and Fire
Modern medicine involves lots of advanced equipment, which must be operating properly so as not to cause a danger. Maintaining and operating equipment safely is part of every healthcare job, and insuring that electricity is handled safely is also a concern. The danger from fire is another hazard that workers must monitor. Learning safety procedures for equipment and the spaces you work in will be your responsibility.
What does the joint commission do
Every year, The Joint Commission, an accrediting agency for healthcare facilities in the United States, publishes a set of National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG)
What are National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG)
National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG), which are actions that healthcare agencies should take to improve the safety and quality of care for patients.
What is the point of NPSG
These goals help to improve safety for patients by identifying actions that will help to prevent medical error, mitigate hazards in healthcare settings, and eliminate unsafe practices.
What happens when NPSG become a standard procedure
As the healthcare industry institutes these goals and makes them standard procedure, The Joint Commission will retire goals and create new goals.
The NPSG for 2019 includes seven goals for hospitals:
dentify patients correctly; improve staff communication; use medicines safely; use alarms safely; prevent infection; identify patient safety risks; and prevent mistakes in surgery.
Right at the top of the list, you will notice that the Joint Commission talks about patient identification. Why is this important?
What if the surgeon takes out the appendix of a patient who was meant to have heart surgery? Well, that is a real problem. It is also important for more minor actions, such as getting the right medication, determining the correct blood for a transfusion, and avoiding allergens.
To correctly identify patients, healthcare workers are now required to use two pieces of information to identify each and every patient. What are Person-specific identifiers
Person-specific identifiers—information directly associated with an individual that reliably identifies the individual as the person for whom the service or treatment is intended—may include patient name, patient date of birth, telephone number, or assigned identification number.
Where can person-specific identifers be found
This information may be on a wristband if the patient is in the hospital, but it may also be verbally asked before treating a patient.
When does the two-idenfifeir rule apply
The two-identifier rule applies to every action related to a patient: serving them meals, writing information in their chart, or giving them medication or tests.
