Module 1 Flashcards
safety and quality (233 cards)
What should be done to avoid a medication error?
- Patient-Centered Care: Focus on individualized treatment plans considering patients’ unique risks and histories.
- Evidence-Based Practices: Utilize guidelines for medication dosages and monitoring protocols for patients with high-risk conditions.
- Transparency and Reporting: Encourage error reporting and learning from sentinel events to prevent recurrence.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Ensure open communication among nurses, physicians, and administrators.
- Proactive Risk Assessment: Evaluate individual patient risks (e.g., sleep apnea) before administering high-risk treatments.
- Continuous Monitoring after administering a medication
- Support Systems: Address systemic issues like understaffing, communication breakdowns, and lack of standardized protocols to minimize preventable errors.
Define healthcare quality
Healthcare quality is the measure of how well healthcare services for individuals and populations:
- Increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes.
- Align with current professional knowledge (IOM, 2001).
Characteristics of High Qualtiy Care
Characteristics of High-Quality Care (**STEEEP **Framework)
* Safe: Avoid harm to patients from the care intended to help them.
* Timely: Reduce delays in receiving care.
* Effective: Provide services based on scientific knowledge to all who could benefit.
* Efficient: Avoid waste of equipment, supplies, ideas, and energy.
* Equitable: Provide care that does not vary in quality due to personal characteristics, such as race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status.
* Patient-Centered: Care that respects and responds to individual patient preferences, needs, and values.
What is high quality health care defined is according to the AHRQ
Expanded Definition by AHRQ
Healthcare quality is doing “the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, to achieve the best possible results” (AHRQ, 2011).
Tell me the levels at which healthcare quality can be assessed
Patient Level:
* Focus on individual patient outcomes.
* Encourage patient engagement and shared decision-making.
Healthcare-Delivery “Microsystems” Level:
* Improve specific units or teams (e.g., surgical team, acute-care unit).
* Enhance coordination and teamwork at the frontline of care delivery.
Organizational Level:
* Strengthen hospitals and healthcare systems to adopt best practices.
* Develop policies and programs to standardize care delivery.
* Regulatory and Financial Environment Level:
* Create supportive environments through regulation and financing.
* Encourage adherence to safety and quality standards via incentives and penalties.
How are errors defined?
Errors are defined as “an act of commission (doing something wrong) or omission (failing to do the right thing) leading to an undesirable outcome or significant poten- tial for such an outcome”
What is an adverse event?
An adverse event is any undesirable experience in healthcare that results in:
- Harm to the patient requiring additional monitoring, treatment, or hospitalization.
- Death, disability, or loss of bodily function lasting beyond seven days or still present at discharge (IOM, 1999).
Explain preventable adverse events
- Reflect care below standard practices.
- Often involve errors that could have been avoided with proper safety measures.
What is the criteria for reporting adverse events?
Adverse events associated with medications or medical devices must be reported when they result in:
- Death.
- Life-threatening reactions.
- Initial or prolonged hospitalization.
- Significant, persistent, or permanent change in function.
- The need for medical or surgical intervention.
Where do you submit an adverse report after it has happened?
FAERS (FDA Adverse Event Reporting System): FDA FAERS Link
MedWatch: MedWatch Link
What is a sentinel event?
A sentinel event is any unexpected occurrence in healthcare that results in:
* Death.
* Permanent harm.
* Severe temporary harm requiring intervention to sustain life (TJC, 2017a).
What are examples of sentinel events?
- Surgery on the wrong patient or site.
- Suicide in a hospital or shortly after discharge.
- Retention of a surgical instrument or foreign object.
- Delays in treatment.
- Medication errors resulting in harm.
What are most common sentinel events reported?
The most commonly reported sentinel events include:
- Retention of foreign body (400 cases).
- Wrong-site surgery (325 cases).
- Falls and suicide (300 cases each).
- Delays in treatment (250 cases).
- Medication errors (100 cases).
Explain reporting of sentinel events
- Voluntary Reporting: Healthcare organizations are encouraged, but not required, to report sentinel events to The Joint Commission (TJC).
- Organizational Policy: Events must first be reported internally according to the institution’s protocols.
- Root Cause Analysis (RCA): Healthcare organizations are expected to conduct comprehensive analyses, implement risk-reduction strategies, and monitor outcomes.
What are causes of errors by humans?
- Incompetency or lack of training.
- Inexperience or insufficient education.
- Fatigue and burnout among clinicians.
What are causes of error because of systemic issues
- Poor communication among healthcare teams.
- Inaccurate documentation or failure to update patient records.
- Language and cultural barriers.
- Complex or new procedures and severe medical conditions.
What are causes of error due to environmental factors?
- High-stress or urgent conditions.
- Inadequate staffing or resource shortages.
What is the AHRQ
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
- Focus: Producing evidence to improve healthcare safety, quality, and accessibility.
Initiatives:
* Promoting research for better care models.
* Providing guidelines and tools for evidence-based practice.
What is CMS
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Focus: Promoting efficient healthcare delivery and outcomes.
Role: - Establishing quality benchmarks linked to reimbursement.
- Incentivizing safety through penalties for preventable harm (e.g., hospital-acquired infections).
What is the FDA
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
- Focus: Ensuring the safety and efficacy of drugs, medical devices, and food.
Role: - Monitoring adverse events through systems like FAERS and MedWatch.
- Partnering with healthcare providers to address risks.
What does the institute for safe medication practices do? (ISMP)
Prevents medication errors through:
* National Medication Errors Reporting Program.
* Collaboration with pharmaceutical companies to improve labeling and packaging.
What does the national academy of medicine do? (NAM)
- To Err is Human: Highlighted the prevalence of preventable harm.
- Crossing the Quality Chasm: Proposed systemic reforms for high-quality care.
- The Future of Nursing: Advocated for expanded nursing roles in complex healthcare systems.
What does the national quality forum do? (NQF)
Establishes standardized performance measures.
Promotes certified practices to reduce adverse events (e.g., reducing hospital readmissions).
What does the institute of healthcare improvement do? (IHI)
Motivates change through innovative care models.
Campaigns like:
* 5 Million Lives Campaign: Focused on preventing harm.
* Triple Aim Initiative: Aims for improved health, better care, and reduced costs.