Risk management is vital in every healthcare institution. The eighth chapter reveals that it is through the process that medical hazards and injuries are prevented. Healthcare providers should develop a risk management plan to identify and assess potential risks, which enable them to develop feasible solutions and preventative strategies prior to risk occurrence. Risk management also promotes the identification and definition of reimbursable conditions. For instance, any injury or health condition acquired during admission, such as the retention of foreign objects after surgery, falls, trauma and catheter-based infections are reimbursable since they occur as a result of the negligence and incompetence of the medical staffs. It is imperative for medical staffs to develop effective communication skills. Through communication, patients are persuaded from filing lawsuits against their healthcare providers. Additionally, the patient’s informed consent is obtained after they have acquired comprehensive knowledge of the positive and negative outcomes of various treatment options.
The Ninth chapter reveals that medical hazards result from negligence and medical malpractice. The former is the primary cause of injuries due to the lack of knowledge, skills, and experiences that are required to perform certain procedures in the profession. Incompetent medical practitioners fail to seek the informed consent of patients before they offer care. Furthermore, they do not provide reasonable care and make sound judgments in their practice. It is obligatory for these professionals to meet the required professional standards, adhere to government statutes and regulations, as well as the rules of practice imposed by the medical facility. Moreover, risk managers should undergo extensive training to impart in them the knowledge and skills to recognize both professional and institutional liabilities. They should further develop reasonable policies and procedures as well as ensure that they are strictly followed to minimize malpractice liability. Concurrently, health risks and hazards would be minimized.
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Medical malpractice is the major cause for most legal claims. Messano et al. (2013) define risk management as the development of tools, approaches, and procedures that enable health providers to measure health risks and subsequently devise effective solutions for them. This paper gives three recommendations for safe surgery. The first is “time-out” or “surgical pause.” According to Messano et al. (2013), the surgical pause should be adopted as standard practice during surgical operations. “Time out” refers to a brief pause which usually occurs in a minute or less, at which time the physicians, anesthetics, and nurses, who make up the surgical team, make verbal confirmations of the patient’s identity, the operative site, and the procedure. The surgical pause fosters effective communication between medical staffs, preventing errors such as operating on the wrong patient and the wrong site. Even though this approach is mandatory in most medical institutions in countries such as the US, it is often ignored during surgery, leading to vast mistakes, such as leaving surgical sponges in patients’ stomachs. It is imperative for risk managers to ensure that the surgical pause is observed to prevent any negative outcomes that can decrease the quality of life in patients.
The studies reviewed in the research by Messano et al. (2013) advocate for the extended pause, which fosters the adoption of more protective measures. Aside from just checking the patient’s identity and the right surgical site, the extended pause enables the surgical team to discuss critical details of the forthcoming operation comprehensively. As a result, effective communication and a significant team spirit are encouraged. The results of vast studies indicate that the extended pause is highly effective in reducing medical risks and hazards. In detail, the procedure increases patient safety and improves the overall health of patients as opposed to jeopardizing it, preventing legal actions which are detrimental to the attainment of health care goals.
Bicaj, Zejnullahu, and Hamza (2017) posit that eighty-eight percent of retained surgical bodies (RSB) consists of cases where sponges have been left in a patient’s body. Nurses are responsible for counting surgical materials that are used during operations. In detail, this should be done in several phases such as before the beginning of the procedure, when extra materials are used during the operation, prior to closing the body cavity, when stitching starts, and after the process is completed. The articles scrutinized by Zejnullahu et al. (2017) confirms that only seventy-seven percent of nurses perform the required numbers of sponge counts. Furthermore, only eighty-point six percent of the initial count is often correct.
Sponge counts should be performed by at least two to three nurses to confirm the actual number of sponges that are present before, during, and after operations. Furthermore, hospitals such as Three Rivers Medical Center should invest significant amounts of capital in Sponge detection technology to prevent such errors. The radiofrequency identification sponge detector, for instance, should be employed to confirm if any such materials have been left in the body of the patient after surgery. The device should only be used to supplement manual counting, as opposed to completely replacing it. It can aid medical staffs to detect incongruities in sponge counts, improving the process. Assistive technologies have great potential to minimize lawsuit expenses, surgical delays, and unreimbursed treatments in healthcare organizations. It is therefore imperative for the sponge identification technology to be employed, to detect any fragments of sponges that may be retained in patients’ bodies.
Aside from this, other patient-centered approaches should be used to protect medical institutions from incurring great losses due to malpractice-based lawsuits. First, it is crucial for practitioners to seek the informed consent of patients before they undergo surgery. Furthermore, patient education should be offered as a preventative strategy against legal action. Through these two approaches, medical professionals effectively communicate with patients and inform them of the pros and cons of medical procedures. Taking these courses of actions fosters a healthy and professional relationship between patients and healthcare providers. It becomes easy for the two parties to communicate and negotiate in the event of undesired outcomes such as the presence of retained sponges in a patient’s body. Communication is, therefore, a crucial, not only in preventing medical errors in the operating rooms, but also persuading patients from filing lawsuits when these errors occur. Irrefutably, patients who are more knowledgeable on these matters understand the risks involved and are unlikely to take legal action when medical errors occur.
I think that negligence among medical staffs id the leading cause of medical errors. Furthermore, I strongly agree that other reasons, such as errors in counting surgical materials, significantly contribute to such medical errors. However, based on the information in the information in the two chapters analyzed in this paper, the lack of effective communication and the failure of medical staffs to seek the informed consent of the patients is the major reasons for the increase in legal actions taken against medical institutions. I believe that such adverse outcomes can be prevented when healthcare providers prioritize informed consent and patient education. Providing patients with detailed information about the pros and cons of various medical procedures prior to their execution is one of the best ways to prevent lawsuits that cost organizations vast amounts of capital.
References
Messano, G. A., Spaziani, E., Turchetta, F., Ceci, F., Corelli, S., Casciaro, G., ... & Nicodemi, S. (2013). Risk management in surgery. Il Giornale di chirurgia , 34 (7-8), 231.
Zejnullahu, V. A., Bicaj, B. X., Zejnullahu, V. A., & Hamza, A. R. (2017). Retained surgical foreign bodies after surgery. Open access Macedonian journal of medical sciences , 5 (1), 97.
