This may seem like a given, but a healthcare professional must first and foremost make sure that all the services are being given to the right patient. As stated in 2016 Hospital National Patient Safety Goals (2016), there needs to be at least two different ways to identify the patient. For example, the patient’s name and date of birth or perhaps even their address. This will ensure that the appropriate patient gets the correct medication as well as the precise treatment. National Patient Safety Goals (2016, para 2), states that making sure that the appropriate patient gets the correct blood during a blood transfusion. The hospital needs to share the patient data between the blood bank and itself to ensure all data is relevant. With new technology such as electronic records and documentation of vitals, healthcare professionals need to make sure everything aligns with the patient to help guarantee the safest blood transfusion. There needs to be a set of checks and balances for every …show more content…
“The action plans resulting from the root cause analysis often consists of retaining or implementing a new policy or form as opposed to addressing the underlying system issues,” (Ebright, Patterson, & Render, 2002, pg. 248). According to Teaching the Culture of Safety, (Barnsteiner, 2001, table 2) having the proper understanding of causes of errors and allocation of responsibility will help healthcare professionals appropriately analyze errors and designing system improvements all while engaging in root cause analysis instead of the blaming game when errors happen. Knowledge, skills, and attitudes all go hand by hand with the root cause analysis. By identifying the problem and solving it will increase safety barriers in the healthcare environment, all while ensuring patient safety and health. In the long term, everyone in the healthcare profession is responsible for making sure the patient has the safest patient care. This is not only a nationwide but also a worldwide issue that will never be fully resolved because medical error is always likely to happen but as healthcare professional, we need to make sure we are taking all the proper actions to limit the amount of mistakes that will put patients at risk. By learning from previous mistakes and ensuring they are properly handled, will help patient