NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay

NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay

Even the best of us can make mistakes. We are all human.  Although in health care, mistakes can prove to be devastating, costly and in many cases deadly.  In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) published To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System which called for a change in the practice of health care in the prevention of medical errors.  The study stunned the nation with its grim statistic estimating that up to 98,000 patients died per year from preventable medical errors in hospitals (Plawecki and Amrhein, 2009).  Medical errors as defined by IOM 1999 report, “is the use of a wrong plan of care to achieve an outcome or the failure of a planned action to be completed as intended” (Plawecki and Amrhein, p. 27, 2009). NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay. The landmark study also exposed that a major barrier to patient safety is the lack of awareness of how extensive medical errors are in the health care setting and how often they occur (Wakefield, 2008).  As Plawecki and Amrhein acknowledged, it doesn’t matter how many times a procedure has been performed or a medication given, there is always the potential of a preventable error (2009).  Faulty systems and processes have been shown to be the cause of most mistakes versus an individual’s behavior (IOM, 1999).  As health care providers, one of our biggest fear is that we can be fallible.  The IOM’s report although distressing, brought awareness and understanding about the weakness in our country’s health care system.  In response to this pivotal publication, the IOM proposed methods to transform the health care setting.  A call for action among all responsible parties in the health care system is needed to prevent the continual rise in medical errors.  The series known as Crossing the Quality Chasm was developed to redesign how health care settings operate (Wakefield, 2008).  Wakefield discussed in the Quality Chasm Series the simple rules with the 21st Century (2008) NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay.  It challenged the system to implement the major actions for achieving a safer, more effective, and efficient health care (Wakefield, 2008).

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To achieve the recommended goals, there are enormous potential for transforming health care using Health Information Technology (Cipriano & Murphy, 2011).  Additionally, web-based information has considerable potential to enhance patient knowledge and stimulate healthy behavior (Cipriano & Murphy, 2011).  According to new rule four from the Quality Chasm Series, the sharing of knowledge and access to information, increased communication and encourage shared ideas with all participant of health care. The Magnet hospital that I work for utilizes electronic medical record (EMR) known as Cerner in all outpatient and inpatient units.  Through access of clinical information and data collection, communication improved among providers, and other health care members thus reducing errors.  Not only are the health care team members employing EMR but patients are also encouraged to sign up to access their own clinical records through the patient portal from the Internet or an application through their cell phones.  NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay. They can also communicate to their health care team, keep track of their appointments, or request appointments and medication refills.  Thus, allowing patients to be proactive in their own care.  The EMR also allowed providers to enter their own orders through the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems, therefore alleviating nurses from having to decipher handwritten orders or taking verbal ones which could lead to errors and misunderstanding.  Health information technology is constantly growing and improving, whether it’s in the design interface or increasing user friendliness or management of data.  One area of growth that is needed is through the management of chronic conditions remotely to patients who have difficulty traveling such as nursing home or homebound patients.  Implementation of virtual care and remote monitoring tools are still not widely utilized in critical populations.  Telehealth is limited to a select few.  In my hospital, it is available only to prisoners in a set location. NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay.  This is mainly due to issues with how to charge for services and the financial burden it poses to increase access to outside rural areas.

Overall information technology (IT) is a wonderful tool.  It has made advances in health care, improved the safety of patients, and the efficiency for effective care for better health outcomes for patients.  IT has enormous potential and growth.  It has the ability to provide critical information with ease of access and reduce miscommunication and delay in care if properly implemented, maintained, and updated.  The future of health informatics is exponential. NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay.

References:

Cipriano, P. F., & Murphy, J. (2011). Nursing informatics. The future of nursing and health IT: The quality elixir. Nursing Economic$,  29(5), 282, 286–289.

Institute of Medicine. (1999). To err is human:  Building a safer health system.  Retrieved from the National Academies Press website:  http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9728

Plawecki, L. H., & Amrhein, D. W. (2009). Clearing the err. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 35(11), 26–29. Retrieved from the Walden Library database.

Wakefield, M. K. (2008). The Quality Chasm series: Implications for nursing. In R. G. Hughes (Ed.), Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (Vol. 1, pp. 47–66). Rockville, MD: U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.

NURS 6051 Week 1 Discussion – To err is human essay.