Quality and Safety Gap Analysis Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay (Essay Sample)

Quality and Safety Gap Analysis: Medical Errors
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Medical Errors as a Systemic Problem
Medical errors are major contributing factors to high cases of morbidity and mortality in healthcare. Given that these errors are avoidable, having qualified healthcare staff, infrastructure and appropriate systems have the capacity of reducing the occurrence of these errors. An increase in medical errors in these healthcare institutions often leads to poor healthcare quality and risk patients’ safety. In this regard, some of the causative factors of medical errors include poor documentation, inadequate staff, and inefficient caregiver-to-patient interaction. In addition, prescription errors are also quite common, whereby a patient is given the wrong medication, which can lead to adverse effects. In addition, there are cases, whereby patients can be exposed to permanent conditions such as skin problems. In some severe cases, patients can even die, which is preventable. Caregivers who are at fault of committing these medical errors are faced with guilt and shame in their workplace. Mostly, caregivers do not openly admit to their mistakes, which makes it difficult for reconciliatory efforts, which prevents the mistakes from occurring in the future. A solution for minimizing these errors from occurring is the use of electronic health records (Rodziewicz & Hipskind, 2020).
Proposition of Practice Change to Bridge Gap
The use of electronic health records is an essential strategy for reducing medical errors in healthcare settings through the implementation of policies, training of staff, and actual training. The situation such as understaffing is quite problematic, especially due to the rise of chronic diseases from an aging population. The adoption of healthcare informatics and electronic health records systems is an important strategy for reducing delays as well as missed appointments, which are reasons for poor health outcomes. Having electronic systems is an initiative that ensures that patient records are safe and easier to access. As such, the caregivers are in a position to conduct their duties with minimal errors, especially in filling out prescriptions. Further, the use of health informatics in a healthcare institution is imperative in enhancing communication between different healthcare providers without the necessity of physical meetings. Patients suffering from chronic health conditions are also in a position to engage in self-management in regard to their health conditions, whereby they report unusual changes in their health to practitioners. Therefore, the change from manual practices into electronic platforms is essential in bridging the gap that exists in regard to healthcare outcomes (Goldhall & Riehl, 2018).