Patient safety has been defined as the “prevention of harm to patients”. Patient safety can also be viewed as being free from any and all injuries that may emanate from medical care that are accidental or preventable. It embodies a system which has its main focus on preventing errors, creating a learning culture from the errors that do take place and builds a safety culture which comprises all healthcare organizations, professionals and, patients (Mitchell, 2008). This means that patient safety practices have the sole aim of minimizing the risk of serious events connected to being exposed to medical care when being diagnosed or treated for a condition. The role of patient safety is connected with three main objectives; reduce infection rates, having checks within the system that prevent occurrence of mistakes, and making sure that there are effective communication lines between patients, their families and the hospital staff (The Leapfrog Group, n.d).
Patient safety has its role defined in the prevention of unintentional deaths. Statistics already show that more than 400,000 people die each year from injuries, accidents, infections, and errors that occurred in the hospital. This is supported by the fact that every 1 in 25 patients will develop an infection while in the hospital that was avoidable (The Leapfrog Group, n.d). These show that the hospital can turn to a dangerous place if there remains no system to ensure that the lives of patients are protected from both the expected and the avoidable harm that they may face while receiving medical attention.
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The level of patient safety can be used as a gauge of quality healthcare that an organization or hospital provides. This is proved because hospital errors have been linked to non-commitment to following standard procedures. Already it is known that Medicare patients have a 25% chance of being injured, harmed or dying upon admission in a hospital because of this (The Leapfrog Group, n.d). Other quality aspects such as leadership, effective teamwork and communication and lack of focus on health objectives also affect the level of patient safety and hence the mortality and morbidity rates in a healthcare system.
The broad scope within which patient safety falls has caused the Federal Government to put laws in place as well as institute about eleven divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to manage this important area. The government is also concerned about patient safety because of its direct connection with the preservation of life and the quality of it. The principal agency that is concerned is the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The divisions from the HHS are system-focused while some are people focused. An example is the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which focuses on errors that may occur in the process of drug development and medical practices. Agencies like the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are more focused on patient safety research, quality standards of care, Health Systems Reporting, Analysis, and Safety Improvement and developing centers of excellence when it comes to evaluation and research about patient safety (Lenert, Burstin, Connell, Gosbee, & Phillips, 2002).
Laws have also been put in place as Federal initiatives to aid the improvement of patient safety. They include;
Concurrent and retrospective review which is done by insurance providers to confirm the validity of claims made by clients.
Medical necessity law which sets minimum healthcare standards to be met before a patient is viable to make claims from an insurance provider.
Recovery audit contractors who look into medical records data in order to dispute claims.
The Readmissions reduction program
Quality improvement organizations which help health practitioners improve on best practices.
Patient safety initiatives which help healthcare facilities develop specific annual goals to be achieved in patient safety (Brooks, 2016).
Patient safety is at the core of healthcare provision and dissemination. Having the law as a supporting factor is, therefore, in addition to the efforts in improving its levels and awareness among all healthcare stakeholders.
References
Brooks, A. (2016, May 30). Ashley Brooks. Retrieved May 21, 2018, from http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/health-sciences/blog/federal-healthcare-laws/
Lenert, L. a., Burstin, H., Connell, L., Gosbee, J., & Phillips, G. (2002). Federal Patient Safety Initiatives Panel Summary. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 9 , s8–s10. https://doi.org/10.1197/jamia.M1217.Introduction
Mitchell, P. H. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality Care. In Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses (pp. 1–5). https://doi.org/NBK2681 [bookaccession]
The Leapfrog Group. (n.d.). What is Patient Safety? Retrieved May 21, 2018, from http://www.hospitalsafetygrade.org/what-is-patient-safety_m
