Capella NURS-FPX4020 Assessment 1 Enhancing Quality and Safety Example 1 Enhancing Quality and Safety
Capella NURS-FPX4020 Assessment 1 Enhancing Quality and Safety Example 1
Enhancing Quality and Safety
Safety in healthcare is essential in ensuring quality services. Safety in healthcare services is a measure of quality in that safety issues in healthcare translate to poor quality services and vice versa. Various patient safety risks and concerns exist in healthcare settings, leading to poor outcomes, loss of trust in the healthcare system, increased costs, and increased hospital length of stay. Quality healthcare also entails patient-centered care, utilization of evidence-based practice, clinical guidelines, and implementation of patient safety initiatives.
This paper examines Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI), a safety quality issue affecting my healthcare setting, and provides evidence-based solutions to address the issue. Additionally, the paper will explore the factors leading to patient safety risks in the healthcare setting, the evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety and reduce costs, explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety and reduce costs, and finally, identifies stakeholders with whom nurses would coordinate to drive safety enhancements with the safety quality issue.
Factors Leading to HAI in a healthcare Setting
Hospital-associated infections are infections that patients acquire while receiving healthcare services in a healthcare setting, including inpatient and outpatient settings. Various factors lead to HAIs in a healthcare setting. A major factor contributing to HAIs is poor maintenance and use of medical devices. Medical devices such as catheters and ventilators cause infections when not used and maintained appropriately. The other factor is the failure to maintain adequate infection control practices. According to Ripa et al. (2021), failure to adhere to recommended infection control measures significantly contributes to hospital-acquired infections.
Furthermore, patient factors may lead to HIAs in a healthcare setting. Ripa et al. (2021) note that some patients have a high risk of contracting HAIs. These include patients with compromised immune systems, underlying conditions prone to infections, and prolonged hospital stays. Understaffing and high workloads are other issues leading to HIAs. In understaffed settings, care providers have high patient-to-staff ratios, which increases the workload, potentially leading to lapses in infection control practices.
Evidence-based and Best-Practice Solutions to Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Costs
The World Health Organization (2021) developed a patient safety action plan to eliminate harm in healthcare settings, emphasizing the essence of infection prevention and control practices. Every healthcare setting should adhere to strict infection prevention and control measures and develop policies customized to the institution’s needs. Infection control measures include appropriate use of personal protective equipment for the care providers, disinfection of surfaces, environmental cleaning, and adherence to isolation precautions.
The other best-practice solution to improve patient safety and reduce costs is surveillance and monitoring patient safety issues. According to Duarte et al. (2020), healthcare institutions can reduce patient safety issues by creating robust surveillance systems to monitor patient safety issues, including tracking antimicrobial resistance patterns and identifying outbreaks, which allows for early detection and prompt response to prevent further infection transmission. Additionally, educating care providers on infection control practices, guidelines, and protocols is vital in improving patient safety and reducing costs.
Care Coordination to Improve Patient Safety and Reduce Costs
Nurses significantly help in coordinating care to improve patient safety and reduce costs. As among the care team leaders, nurses can mobilize other healthcare providers in initiatives aimed at improving patient safety and reducing care costs (Vaismoradi et al., 2020). For example, nurses can lead in infection prevention and control staff education and programs, ensuring all care providers are aware of the practices, policies, and protocols, thus improving patient safety and reducing costs.
Nurses also coordinate care by ensuring seamless communication among the care team, preventing gaps in care that would lead to patient safety issues such as medication errors, thus promoting patient safety. For instance, nurses can communicate with other care team members on the infection prevention and control protocols currently used to enhance patient safety and reduce costs related to HAIs.
Stakeholder Identification to Drive Safety Enhancements with HAIs
There are various stakeholders with whom nurses would need to coordinate in driving safety enhancements to prevent HAIs. Institution leaders and administrators are among the relevant stakeholders whom nurses need to involve in driving quality initiatives to enhance safety. The leaders allocate resources for the various initiatives and programs in institutions. Therefore, coordinating them in driving safety enhancements is crucial. Additionally, getting their buy-in and support for the initiative is vital, thus promoting success.
Other stakeholders include the clinical support staff, patients, and families, as well as other members of the interdisciplinary team. Simsekler et al. (2020) note that clinical support staff, such as lab technicians, play a major role in minimizing and preventing HAIs. Therefore, they are relevant stakeholders in safety enhancements.
Patients and their families should also be involved in enhancing safety since they also participate in self-management and home care. These stakeholders can also help provide feedback on safety issues, thus improving the initiatives. The interdisciplinary team is also vital in safety enhancements since it takes part in patient care planning, treatment, and care continuity (Simsekler et al., 2020).
Conclusion
Hospital Associated Infections are a major patient safety risk in healthcare institutions. Patient safety issues such as HAIs compromise care quality and increase the costs to the individual patient and the system. However, as discussed above, a wide array of evidence-based and best-practice solutions exist to address the issues. Nurses can also coordinate care to improve patient safety and reduce costs. Identifying relevant stakeholders in safety enhancement initiatives is crucial to improve their success.
References
Duarte, S. D. C. M., Azevedo, S. S., Muinck, G. D. C., Costa, T. F. D., Cardoso, M. M. V. N., & Moraes, J. R. M. M. (2020). Best Safety Practices in Nursing Care in Neonatal Intensive Therapy. Brazilian Journal of Nursing 73(2), e20180482. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2018-0482
