Harvey 1 Shanquilla Harvey English 101 Professor Alicia Bolton November 12, 2013

Patient Safety and Care 101 A job in the medical field comes with many responsibilities and duties. There is very little room for errors or mistakes but we are humans and sometimes errors can happen, as in Steven Casey story Double Vision. A radiologist, Dr. Barbara Zador, was viewing an x-ray on a patient leg to determine his diagnosis. Once she reached her diagnosis and announced to a group of interns, another doctor, Mark Anderson noticed that there was a problem with the x-rays. He pointed and out and they looked at it together. If Dr. Anderson didnt point out what he saw was wrong then the patient would have been given unneeded surgery. In order to prevent medical errors there are things that can be done. Medical errors can involve medicines, surgery, diagnosis, equipment, or lab reports. According to the book 20 tips to help prevent Medical Errors: Patient Fact Sheet, one in seven Medicare patients in hospitals experience a medical error. Most errors result from problems created by today complex health care system. Doctors and nurses may argue that there is nothing wrong with their system. But errors can also happen when doctors and patients have problems communicating. With that being said, it is very important for patients to have a good relationship with their doctor and nurses. That means patients should ask questions or any concern they may have about their condition. Health care providers want patients to ask questions so they can understand their condition and what is needed to be done to improve it. In the Patient Safety film it stated that patients should be expected to communicate clearly and frequently. Patients need to learn as much as they can about their condition. In order for them to learn they can look up their condition on medical websites and learn about symptoms and things they

Harvey 2 can do on their own at home to improve their condition. Patients that are having surgery should make sure that their primary doctor has all their important health information. Half of human errors reported are medical staff personal were caused by failures in transferring medical information. Thats why patients should make sure their doctor have their correct medical information. Patients should expect their surgeon, anesthesiologist and nurse to have washed their hands immediately before interacting with them. If the patient is unsure, they should feel free to ask. If there is an option for patients to have their surgery done at a hospital of their personal choice, they should choose one that many other patients have had the same surgery or procedure done. That way they would feel comfortable and secure about their surgery and the hospital that is performing it. Research has shown that patients tend to have better results when they are treated in hospitals that have a great deal of experience with their condition. Patients can also, bring a family member or trusted friend with them to help make tough decisions about their health care. Patients that have to take medication, have things they can do to prevent any errors with their medication. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality, patients should make sure that all of their doctors know about every medicine they are taking. This includes over the counter medication and prescriptions and dietary supplements, such as vitamins and herbs. They are many cases were patients are prescribed a medication that can cause problems or affect a current medication they are taking. So thats why its important for patients to let their doctor know about all their medication. Patients can bring their medication with them to their doctor so they can see for themselves what their patients are taking. Patients that have had any adverse reactions or allergies to any medicine need to let their doctor know about that as well. This can help to avoid getting a medicine that can harm them. Also patients, especially older patients, should make sure when their doctor writes them a prescription they can read it. If the patient cant read the prescription they should ask the doctor or nurse to rewrite it so they can understand. If the patient is unable to read the prescription, the pharmacist might not be able to either. Patients should also know and understand who is providing their medical care. With that being said, patients should know who their physician is, including nurses and assistants. They should also, know the

Harvey 3 training, education, degree, clinical and licensure experience of each person. If the patient is aware of this valuable information they are well positioned to make the best decision for their care. Recently in Texas, legislation requires health care providers to wear badges clearly identifying themselves in the interest of improving patient safety. The badges had to be labeled and may even be color-coded; nurses may have to wear red badges, while physicians may wear green badges. Similar legislation has been enacted in twelve other states. . For example, an anesthesia Care Team consists of a physician anesthesiologist, anesthesiologist assistants and nurse anesthetists. To assure the most optimal care a physician anesthesiologist should always look over other members of the Anesthesia Care Team. According to the American Society of Anesthesiologist. If patients dont know who is providing their care and something goes wrong they wont know who is responsible. Knowing who is on their care team and what education and training they have, helps assure patients that they are well prepared to achieve the most optimal care. Health care professionals also play a very important role and assuring patient care and safety, not just the patients. Health care professional have responsibilities in duties to make sure the patient is safe and prevent medical errors. Health care professionals should report injuries, and near misses safe from blame, retaliation and humiliation. By reporting, not only is the physician protecting themselves but also the patients. Reporting is a key in creating an environment that is safe for patients. They should be adequately prepared physically and mentally to carry out their responsibilities. They need to be aware of the environment in which they practice and seek to eliminate distractions that can be avoided. Health professionals need to be vigilant in identifying hazardous situations and able to respond to these situations if they occur. Some hospitals have a patient safety program which is the involvement of patients and their families in the process. According to Kizer, a former physician from India, a culture of safety can be defined as an integrated pattern of individual and organization behavior based on shard beliefs and values, that continuously seeks to minimize patient harm that may result from the process of care delivery. Medical care professionals now recognize the importance of learning from potential adverse events as a

Harvey 4 means of limiting medical errors and improving patient safety. Potential adverse events(AE) are errors with adverse outcome or errors corrected before an AE could occur. Health care professionals should establish programs for themselves and practice things they can do to prevent errors. The program should initially be for new physicians, nurses and assistants but should also be for the much experience doctors and nurses because, they can forget things and they learn new things to do to care for their patients. Older doctors may feel like they dont need any extra training but the health care system has changed and th ey need to learn the new techniques as well as everybody else. In Steven Casey story Double Vision the medical error was a diagnostic error; diagnostic error means a diagnosis that was missed, wrong or unintentionally delayed. According to the Israel Journal of Health Policy, medical information is a critical element in the patient care process, as incomplete medical information can lead to wrong diagnosis and incorrect procedures. Diagnostic errors can also result from system-related problems such as flaws in communication or as in Double Vision equipment failure. A wrong diagnosis may also occur when the physician relies on common symptoms, and choosing an obvious answer, without looking any further into what may cause them. There are certain things patients and doctors can do to help prevent a diagnostic error from occurring. Doctors should ask the patient about their illness and medical history; perform a physical exam and other test that may need to be done depending on their illness or condition. Also come up with a list of possible diagnosis and recommend treatments. Patients can ask what else can be done about their illness or condition; also ask their nurse or doctors to think about other possibilities for their illness. The health care professionals in Double Vision were radiologists, radiologist are medical doctors that technology, medical imaging and medical equipment, like ultrasounds , Computed tomography(CT) scans and magnetic reasoning imaging(MRIs) to assist other doctors in figuring out issues related to their patients medical conditions. Radiologist must obtain information from the patients attending physician in order to perform the correct test and reach a diagnosis. A patient arriving at a radiology department passes through a process of registration, appointment setting, examination, one or more radiology procedures

Harvey 5 from a simply x-ray to complicated invasive procedures and finally a diagnosis is reached. In each of these stages, of the process there are many practitioners involved and each stage there is a potential opportunity for human error, like a typographical error in a patients name or an erroneous diagnosis. Humans make mistakes, but in the medical field there is very little for any. In order for these things not to happen patients need to be informed in things they should do and the medical care team have things they are required to do in order to protect the patient and reduce any errors. At the end of the day it is about the patient!