When you treat a patient or give them medications, it is essential that you know the condition of the patient. Age, gender, vital stats, blood pressure, previous medications and others that are essential in making diagnosis or prescriptions. However, because of change of shifts and poor communication methods, medical errors happen. This is unfavourable especially if the patient has special circumstances that the physician must know about. This infographic will give effective ideas on how you can minimize or eliminate medical errors.
1. In a medical facility where changes of personnel happen, adopting a structure for handoff conversations is necessary. What happened during your shift, or what medicine has been taken and the schedule of the next should be properly endorsed to the next person in charge. Also, there must be no area that is left behind. Sometimes, information that you think are not important are actually significant. Miscommunication has been one of the reasons for serious injuries and deaths.
2. The physician will make his diagnosis and prescribed medications for the patient. But the pharmacist has more adept knowledge when it comes to drugs. By involving her, she can easily spot possible wrong dosages. They can give the doctors about which drugs are effective and harmful for the patient’s conditions. In this way, the doctor can change his prescribed medications.
3. Another cause of complication is hospital-acquired infections brought by the dirty facility. By following the guidelines set by the government when it comes to disinfecting patients, rooms, surgical tools and other areas. Nurses and other medical staff should also follow the best practices for hygiene. Germs can spread in the hospital if left not cleaned because of the different illnesses brought inside. Nurses and staff also often get in touch with different patients; hence, they must always have hand hygiene.
4. Avoid overdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis and partial diagnosis- diagnostic errors. Such mistakes can cost a life. The physician must practice with expertise and be bold whenever he sees any inconsistencies. When everybody has this kind of attitude medical errors can be avoided because someone will always be critical about the situation. You can’t be passive about errors, say it upfront so that it can be corrected immediately.
5. Maximize the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR). Sharing of information among staff and physicians are much easier with EHR. However, the system should depend on the organizations way of doing things. The design can be provided by the department head and the IT programmer can make hospitals information system aligned with their day to day operation.
6. Therefore, medical errors can be avoided if all of the parties involved in the case of a patient work hand in hand. From information gathering to sharing of information and making accurate diagnosis starts with the cooperation and coordination among hospital personnel. Checklists, tools, and other methods that are necessary to keep the flow of information efficient should be known to all members of the facility. A system can make all of this synchronized.
source: https://cme4life.com/uncategorized/strategies-prevent-medical-errors-infographic/
Comments
Download this infographic.
