Based on all of these findings, the guidelines recommend on…
Precautions will be taken to minimize these risks as much as possible, with flowsheets listed in patients’ EHRs to help guide the CLT…
4. Clarity of Presentation (element 15-17 consist of readily identifiable recommendations, clear presentation of management options for the heath condition(s)). 5. Applicability (element 18-21 consists of auditing criteria, advise on how to put recommendations into practice, and description of the barriers and facilitators to the application of the guidelines). 6.…
Anticoagulants are blood thinning medications that are used for the treatment and prevention of blood clots. They act mainly by slowing blood clot formation and thus preventing associated complications1.Their approved Food and Drug Administration (FDA) indications include prophylaxis and treatment of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE) and preventing complications associated with atrial fibrillation such as stroke2. For the past years, vitamin-k antagonist (warfarin) has been the primary treatment for a wide range of coagulation related indications3. However, limitations of warfarin have led to the discovery of a new generation of anticoagulants.…
If I were the hospital administrator, chief of the medical staff or the chief of nursing, I would implement stringent standards to follow that provide maximum protection which would ensure that the administering of medication is performed safely and efficiently. The most common errors reported by healthcare providers, are those that have to do with medication errors. The fact that nurses are often front line providers who are required to administer medication to patients (at the direction of doctors), it is imperative that instructions be followed to the letter and practices and procedures carefully executed to avoid medication errors, serious injury or loss of life. Some of the following practices could be seen as causes of medication errors; failure to notate an order change, negligence with giving injections, failure to administer the appropriate medication, medications with similar sounding names, the wrong dosage, the failure to cease or discontinue medication and administering medication to the wrong patient. According to Showalter (2017), Negligence occurs when a person fails to live up to accepted standards of behavior.…
The Joint Commission determines and sets goals for each year, which traditionally mirror federal expectations for healthcare. These goals generally highlight specific safety concerns that are problematic and affect healthcare systems nationwide. For 2016, hospital goals include patient identification, communication, medication safety, alarm safety, healthcare associated infection, falls, pressure ulcers, risk management and universal protocol (TJC, 2016). Within each goal are sub-goals that further address the concerns and identify evidence based practices to ensure success in the prevention of patient harm in each of these areas. During tracers, the auditors focus on these goals and are looking to validate that each of these goals is achieved through implementation of policies and procedures and they will review the processes in which these policies and procedures were implemented and checked for continuous…
Patient safety is an important issue in today’s healthcare. The Joint Commission (2015) has always developed yearly patient safety goals increasing the importance this concept has (The Joint Commission, 2015). Patient safety it is considered a discipline in the health care sector. It is used to apply safety science methods to achieve a reliable and responsible system of health care delivery. It is also a feature of the health care systems.…
Which one will kill you faster? Being a hemophiliac, or having a deep vein thrombose? It all just depends on the situation. My patient was experiencing hemorrhage and a possibility to form clots. She was very fortunate to have a medical team surrounding her that had all they needed to take care of her bleeding.…
The Joint Commission (TJC) is an independent, nonprofit organization that evaluates and accredits health care organizations in the United States. Their purpose is to improve general health care by evaluating these organizations and making sure they provide safe and effective care of the highest quality (The Joint Commission, 2017). The Joint Commission created the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) in 2002 to help recognize areas of concern in patient safety. The NPSG is developed and updated by a panel of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, risk managers, clinical engineers, and other professionals who have experience in dealing with patient safety issues in a variety of settings (The Joint Commission, 2016). This panel works with TJC to find…
In reviewing current policies and protocols, it was found that the use of VTE prophylaxis is considerably less than expected. Nursing staff in general are not fully educated on how to utilize the protocol and have a lack of understanding of the benefits of VTE prophylaxis. The protocol is not clearly defined and many nurses leave the decision up to the physician to order a VTE set, essentially if the MD didn’t order it then the MD didn’t want it. Also, nursing staff fail to adhere to current orders and do not act progressively to reapply mechanical prophylaxis…
Warfarin is the most greatly used anticoagulant in the UK. It is taken orally, and works by inhibiting the production of vitamin K dependent prothrombin, Factor VII and Factor X [29]. This means there is less Factor VII available to bind with tissue factor so not as many tissue factor complexes form [30]. The reduction in Factor X means less Thrombin can be converted from Prothrombin, leading to fewer blood clots forming. Although extremely effective in reducing VTE, warfarin can lead to some side effects such as Hemorrhage, Osteoporosis and Purple toe syndrome [31].…
Patient Safety in Medication Error “Five Rights” Patient safety is what the health care system needs to uphold at all times. This is especially important when it comes to administering medication. Medication error is a very serious mistake that a nurse can commit and effect consequently the patient's stability. It is a nurse's duty to follow protocols and be responsible for what they're doing each step of their clinical care.…
Abstract Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care and considered the cornerstone of high-quality health care. Nurses play an important role in that vital care. Nurses need to know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes.…
In the attempt to call the attention to the importance of improving the quality and health care outcomes, in 1999 the Institute of Medicine had submitted a report called To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Although more than ten years ago, this report stressed the need of a redesign in the process of the patient’s care, little progress in the improvement of quality and safety has been achieved (Clark, 2013). Even though there were some important initiatives in the implementation of quality and safety after the report, only in 2013 The Joint Commission made a significant contribution in order to accelerate the process and enforced quality and safety through standards such as National Patient Safety Goals and Core Measures of nursing…
Drug administration is an integral part of a nurse’s role. Responsibility for correct administration of medication rest with the nurse, yet medication errors are a persistent problem associated with the nurse practice act. Medication errors are a multidisciplinary problem and multidisciplinary approach is required in order to reduce the incidence of errors. Drug administration forms a major part of the of a process that also involves doctors and pharmacist (Betz & Levy, 1985). Medicines are prescribed by the doctor and dispensed by the pharmacist, but responsibility for the correct administration rests with the registered nurse and student nurse.…