Throughout the last few decades, healthcare customers have benefited from a better awareness of some of the challenges involved in providing the best possible treatment in health and care facilities. They have also profited from realizing what they can always do to prepare for and learn about the difficulties. Nurses, doctors, and other professionals devote their lives to caring for patients at nursing homes. But, in most circumstances, offering the best care services may be fraught with challenges. There are numerous steps involved in a health care visit. A number of the medical staff may get themselves involved in taking care of a single patient during his or her visit. The patients may in some cases get confused with some unfamiliar words and the technical language used. Although nurses, doctors, and other medical professional have always made it their responsibility to keep their patients safe, medical errors can happen. Often, medical errors, which can be referred to as adverse events happen when there is a single misstep in the chain of activities during activities. In line with this understanding, a recent research carried out at GOBB care medical facility identifies a very crucial health safety challenge that is going to be discussed in the report. Also, the report will focus on the certain measure that can be taken to find solutions from the safety complications.
Patients’ safety issues
GOBBS healthcare facility has heard in the past three years medical complications as a result of health-care acquired infection (HAI). It is an infection that one gets while being undertaking through certain medical conditions. HAIs may occur to the patients who are treated at the care facilities r just right at their home (Burwell, 2015). An infection is considered to be healthcare-acquired when it occurs immediately a treatment begins. According to the chief medical staff at GOBBS, HAIs are in most cases discovered within 48 hours after admitting their patients at the healthcare facilities. Other infections may also be considered as HAIs. One of the most common causes of HAIs at GOBBS is the surgical sites related infections. Most of the patients are reported to have other infections after they have just been taken through a surgery process in part of their bodies. In most cases, the surgical infections have involved patients' skins. However, in some rare cases, other patients have been reported to have the infection in some other body tissues under the skin, the body organs or implanted materials such as the knee and the hip replacement.
Measure and Principles to Curb the Health Safety Risks
The rates at which the infections have increased among the inpatient and outpatient being served at the GOBBS medical center, the management is determined to reduce the incidence of infections at the hospital. It is clear the patients everywhere require sensible principles to manage their health care services and become very active in the health care terms (Carayon et al. 2014). Due to the fact that the related surgical infections occur as a result of the misstep in the surgical procedures, there are several principles and concepts that have been put in place to prevent them. The following are the set of principles for both the patients and medical professional.
Patients Concerned Measures- Planning Ahead of surgery
The patients are advised not to be afraid to ask certain questions in the care facilities. It is important for them to understand the treatment plan that has been put in place and the expected outcomes. When patients understand all the necessary facts about the kind of the treatment that he or she is going to be taken through, him or herself or other closed people around them can be in a better position to help them facilitate their recovery (Carayon, 2016). For example, a patient who has diabetes should be sure that him or herself and the responsible doctor for her surgery discusses on how to control the blood sugar before and after surgery or in the hospital stay. This is because high blood sugar may increase the rate of infection due to increasing pain and can rarely be noticed if a keen look is not taken. Also, overweight patients after sharing thier4 concerns with the doctor can be advised on how losing weight can reduce the risk of getting other infection after surgery. Patients who are smokers or drug addicts, when given info ration about their treatment procedures can consider adopting a smoking cessation program (Carayon et al. 2014). This helps in the reduction of the caches of developing lung infections while in the hospital and may also the healing abilities after the process of surgery. GOBBS through its management has made the effort of ensuring that patients are well prepared before undergoing their intended treatment processes. As a result, the care facility has managed to reduce the number of incidences in the care facilities by 10%.
Health-Care Settings measures
GOBBS has made concerned of certain principles that should be followed in the care facilities to facilitate patient safety and avoid unnecessary cases of infections. First, the management has placed measures that require the entire medical professional to wash their hands carefully before handling any form of soiled material. This is mostly important particularly after a one has visited the washroom, food cafes or after attending to another patient. The patients are also viewed as part of the healthcare team. They play a hue3g role since all the caring process revolved around their health (Excellence, 2013). They are therefore advised to not hesitate in remaining the doctors and the nurses about washing their hands before doing any form of treatment to them. In a case where a person may have an intravenous catheter, the skin around should be dressed clean and dry. And the patient should remind nurses promptly id the dressing are becoming loose or are getting wet. The patients should also follow all the doctors’ instruction relating to the treatment measure and getting out of bed after surgery treatment. The patients are also advised not top hesitate to ask for help, advice in case there are sufficient pains after medications. In addition, GOBBS has always maintained a good relationship between the patient and medical professional (Excellence, 2013). This has made the patient feel comfortable to ask questions to fully get all the necessary information about their expected outcomes from surgery and even other treatment. It has made patients recover more easily and reduce the level of HAIs.
Ethical and Legal Consequences of not Addressing Issues
Imbalance in Care Quality and Efficiency
Failing to deal with health safety issues can bring certain adverse ethical consequences to care facilities. For example, the main expectation of all patient attending the health care is always to get quality services and effective solutions to their problems. In the case where one gets treated and instead of the getting solution to the infection, he or she acquires more serious problem that adds more pain in the body, then he or she will lose trust to the care facilities. When patient losses faith on the services and service provider from care facilities, it, therefore, meant that the facility had not reached the expectations of its clients, which is very unethical to the requirements and ethics that govern health care. It is a requirement that there should be a balance between quality and efficiency in the healthcare services. HAIs are as a result of poor quality treatment and lack of effectiveness in offering treatment. This can be very Unethical to GOBBS care facility and should be taken care of for future sustainability.
Tort Charges
On the other hand, failure to take care of the issues may lead to some legal consequences. In cases where one may acquire some healthcare-related infections immediately after receiving treatment, it can be treated as a tort offense. Either the medical professional can be sued to court by the patient for intentional or negligence of duties or the employer be charged for negligence and failure to supervise his or her employees. As a tort offense, the medical professional may be forced to compensate the patient for the damages made to him or her during the treatment process. This can make the care facility incur a lot of expenses and cost-related issues causing a fall in downshift in performance. Also, the court may render the care facility as very irresponsible as per the expectations and demands of the health care act. This can lead to the permanent closure of temporary closure of the health care. The issues of HAIs should be addressed to avoid all unforeseen consequences since they can be destructive in the long run of the care facilities.
Recommendations to Address Patients’ Issues
Make Commitment
GOBBS having undergone a series of complaints and the management is much aware of all the possible cause, and consequences of neglecting patients care should put much effort in commitment to maintaining patient safety in their facility. This can be done by creating easy and more flexible policies around the health care that ensure that all the services given are of high quality and effective. The management should also be commite3d in supervising all the activities taking place in the care facilities over to be able to make corrections at any point a mistake is identified. This will ensure that all the medical practitioners are on toes and service provision improved extensively and the value of better patient handling recognized. The management should also be ready to organize a research team that can carry out research about all work practices and the unsafe working environment in the facilities. It will promote easy recognition of the conditions and respond to them in time. It is important to show commitment to solving such issues to win the trust of clients and earn a sustainable future of working.
Organize Mentorship Program
The mentorship programs are very important in addressing the health safety issues that patients t are expected to undertake. Through the mentorship programs, medical professional and nurses will be able to learn about the precautions that they should undertake to ensure that they provide quality services to patients. Patients will also be able to learn what is expected of them as part of the healthcare. In this manner, every stakeholder will have a wide understanding of their role in the care facilities and how they can achieve a better result by coordination. It also makes stakeholder very responsible as everyone knows what is expected of him or her from what he or she has leaned. The increased responsibility and desire to achieve the goal provides better working conditions with that is effective for all members of an organization.
How Technology can Improve the Issue
Technology can play a big role in the providing solutions to the health problems. The issue of healthcare-acquired infections is due to the lack of informed decision among the patients and health care providers on the patient being treated. Introducing electronic health system website can be very effective in this area. First, the patients who are afraid of facing medical practitioners with some crucial problems can contact them through the website and get to explain their problems very perfectly and get the solution that they need before treatment. It can also be possible for the patient to read all about the facts related to their kinds of infection and get to have the clue of what is expected of them to during the treatment process. The electronic health system can also be used in the diagnosis of the patient to identify all the possible infection in their body before undertaking on some forms of treatment. GOBBS can also consider introducing electronic health record system in the care facility. This will help improve the patient care even at the event where the patient has to move among different medical practitioners before getting the final treatment. The medical practitioners will have an easy time in reviewing all the diseases that and medical complications that have been undergone by the patient before offering any medical instruction and prescription. This can ensure that patients leave the care facilities if all their problems are solved with no risk to be expected at all. Health electronic record system can make it possible for any medical practitioner to attend to any patient since all the patients' records are in the facility health system.
Possible Organization Barrier to Change
GOBBS can only do two things to sort the health safety issue on the patient. It can choose to change and accept new reforms and recommendations or to stay in the same situation. However, implementing change is not easy, the ability to change has become one of the biggest differences between organizations. It is the main reason why some companies can carry out innovation as some stuck endlessly in old patterns of operations (Murdoch and Detsky, 2013). There are several barriers involved in dragging behind the change in the GOBBS healthcare. First, is the resistance of staff to change. According to the chiefs of staff at GOBB, It is evident that medical practitioners are not ready to accept change. As a matter of fact, some have even chosen to accept lower pay from other care facilities that maintain the status quo (Murdoch and Detsky, 2013). Also, some staff members have the perceptions that introduction of technology and other reforms in then normal operation will make their life worse. The second barrier to change in GOBBS care facility is the problem of integration. It is believed that creating change is not a process since it requires structuring of the organization entirely. Change is a moving target. The moment change is introduced in a healthcare facility, it is important for the business process to support the change and move with it. The process of changing the structure of the organization may lead to some employees stopping to work a situation that can increase employee turnover. The barriers are a problem for any organization in the process of in initiating change. It is important for every organization to identify them before coming up with the change implementation strategy.
Strategies to Overcome the Barriers
There are many strategies for overcoming resistance and integrations as barriers to change. First, it is better to understand resistance and its root cause. The team implementing change should have a moment to think about the reason why some people may be against the change that is to be implemented in the organization. It is a sole responsibility of the leader to convince all those that are resistant to change on the impotence and of the change and why they should accept it. Everyone should be brought to light and understand that the change is needed and that it should be implemented (Shekelle et al. 2013). After that, it is important to communicate change and state how it will change the structure of the organization. This will help to solve the problem that may arise due to implications. The change should be designed that it will not interfere with the structure of the organization but rather realign them into better and inclusive structure for the betterment of all stakeholder. Finally, on the strategies, it is important to give much focus on the needs of the employees and address them before implementing change. It makes it possible to avoid conflicts and unnecessary opposition to change.
Conclusion
In summary, it is hospitals and care facilities are associated with several problems in the line of medication and other patients' services. Since it is a quality and efficiency industry, it is important that all stakeholders take a sole responsibility in designing ways of improving health care. Several types of research should be conducted to identify all rising problems and solutions given to them as soon as possible. Taking all the concerns into account can see the betterment of the healthcare facilities and improvement in patient handling procedures.
Reference
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Excellence, B. P. (2013). The Joint Commission announces 2014 national patient safety goal. Joint Commission Perspectives.
Burwell, S. M. (2015). Setting value-based payment goals—HHS efforts to improve US health care. N Engl J Med, 372(10), 897-899.
Shekelle, P. G., Wachter, R. M., Pronovost, P. J., Schoelles, K., McDonald, K. M., Dy, S. M., ... & Larkin, J. W. (2013). Making health care safer II: an updated critical analysis of the evidence for patient safety practices. Evidence report/technology assessment, (211), 1.
Murdoch, T. B., & Detsky, A. S. (2013). The inevitable application of big data to health care. Jama, 309(13), 1351-1352.
