Importance of Standardization&Documentation of Procedures in Healthcare (Essay Sample)

Legal Aspects of U.S Health Care System Administration
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Legal Aspects of U.S Health Care System Administration
The United States health care system is complex and highly integrated with other systems and sectors of the State. The field of health care administration is not purely restricted to matters of health but it involves interactions with other professionals from other fields other than the medical field. This has made it necessary for the health care administrators to be familiar with the various laws that regulate the health care system in the U.S. There are many health laws in the U.S and which include Federal laws, State laws, and local laws all aiming to streamline health care and promote healthcare system administration. The U.S health care system administrators should be conversant with the various laws governing the medical practice and ensure compliance by medical professionals to the standard practices and take responsibility for any legal risks resulting from negligence in the delivery of health care services.
Importance of Standardization and Documentation of Procedures in the Healthcare
Standardization and documentation in healthcare procedures reduces medical errors, ensures uniformity in carrying out medical procedures, and promotes professionalism. A report released by the United States’ Institute of Medicine revealed that many deaths in hospitals were as a result of errors that could have been prevented (Vardaman, Cornell, Gondo, Amis, Townsend-Gervis, & Thetford, 2012). These findings sparked an urge from all quarters on the need for improvement in the medical practices to ensure the safety of patients. Medical practices are performed in a well-defined step by step procedures which have been tested and proven to be correct without errors. There is a need to ensure that the steps for performing a particular medical operation are the universal in all health care institutions and that all healthcare practitioners follow common procedures. These steps should, therefore, be recorded in standard operating procedures (SOPs) for distribution and reference whenever need arises. This helps in ensuring that there is a commonly agreed way of doing things in matters of health practices.
Additionally, standardization and appropriate documentation practices ensure professionalism among health practitioners by fostering shred global vision, promote evidence-based health care administration, and enhances collaboration and good will for better clinical outcomes (Lavelle, Schast, & Keren, 2015). By adopting these practices, health care professionals can adapt their environments and behaviors to standardize care processes in wide range of hospital settings. Overall, from a healthcare manager's viewpoint, standardization assists in fostering an environment of quality patient care and reduces the risk for medical errors, while also improving patient safety. Besides, health care professionals like nurses and physicians tend to believe that standardization promotes patient safety, efficiency, and cost savings (Vardaman et al., 2012). These practices promote collaboration while emphasizing the role of health care team as opposed to individuals.
Major Ramification when the Health Care Team Fails to Save the Life of a Patient
One of the major ramifications in the event the health care team fails to save a life is that the healthcare organization/facility and the medical professionals can be sued in a court of law for the death of the patient. Sometimes a patient may die during treatment in a health care institution in circumstances that could have been prevented. Such deaths may be a result of the carelessness of the health professionals or the