Enhancing Quality and Safety
Capella University
Nurs-FPX4020:Improving Quality Care and Patient Safety
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Tom Dalesandro
January,2024
Safety Quality Issue in a Healthcare Setting
Factors that Cause Patient Identification Errors in Health Setting
Patient identification errors can lead to major problems in healthcare. They can reduce
patient safety and negatively affect their recovery. Various factors cause identification errors an
a proper understanding is important for mitigation. One of the obvious causes is identical patient
information. Mistakes are possible when dealing with similar data through common names, or
medical histories. Dealing with many patients in a big healthcare organization increases the
chances of patient identification errors (Adams-McGavin et al., 2021). Another possible cause is
incomplete patient data or information. Any medical practitioner who comes across inaccurate
records of a patient can experience confusion and make identification errors. A faulty health
record (EHR) increases patient identification errors among medical practitioners. Wrong entries
in the electronic health record can cause a mix-up among nurses and physicians as they interact
with patients. Language barriers can also contribute to patient identification errors. The
difference in language between the healthcare providers and patients including communication
problems can cause identification problems. A medical practitioner can easily misinterpret and
fail to capture certain details because of language issues. This can easily cause patient
identification errors. Additionally, fatigue and burnout among healthcare workers can affect
focus and concentration. It increases the chances of patient identification errors due to problems
like extended working hours and high-pressure environments (Adams-McGavin et al., 2021).
Evidence-Based and Best-Practice Solutions to Enhance Patient Safety and Reduce Costs
Abbe & O’Keeffe (2021) in their study propose the use of continuous video monitoring
to improve patient safety and reduce costs in the healthcare setting. They provide an extensive
evidence-based approach and practices for enhancing patient safety and cost reduction through
a continuous video monitoring strategy. The study highlights the need for policies and
procedures that have been clearly defined. They mention that inclusion and exclusion strategies,
backed by algorithms increase understanding among medical practitioners. The focus on a twohour trial indicated a balance between nursing judgment and allocation of resources.
To enhance best practices in the healthcare setting, healthcare organizations should offer
reliable education that involves specialists and promoters of clinical nursing including
continuous learning opportunities. Successful implementation of continuous education including
communication and feedback encourages best practices among practitioners. According to
Abbe& O’Keeffe (2021), the implementation of lean management strategies, mainly Leader
Standard work enhanced continuous improvement in healthcare settings that had reported high
patient risks and costs. The Leader Standard Work is a strategy that helps leadership in the
nursing sector to observe and enhance the continuous video monitoring exercises, a process that
is known to encourage a culture of safety in healthcare.
Moreover, the study highlights the innovative utilization of continuous video monitoring
for safety enhancement, prevention of violence, and patient-behavior prediction. It has been
reported that the technology helps nursing professionals follow protocols, use proactive
approaches to patient care, and help the leaders understand whether certain practitioners need
upskilling and training to provide safe services and avoid patient identification errors.
How Nurses can Coordinate Care to Increase Patient Safety and Reduce Costs
To ensure that nurses have the right skills and techniques to avoid patient identification
errors, there is a need for continuous quality improvement. Healthcare should facilitate routine
audits, responses, and performance evaluations that lead to the identification of areas for
improvement among the professionals. Therefore, through the reduction of inefficiencies, nurses
can improve care services, and patient safety and recognize opportunities that can lead to costs
reduction within the system (Dang et al., 2021). Moreover, interdisciplinary collaboration is also
important. Nurses contribute immensely to enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration through
effective communication with healthcare team members in the organization. Routine
interdisciplinary forums with other medical practitioners such as physicians, support staff, and
specialists facilitate an extensive exchange of ideas. The collaborative process limits patient
identification errors and promotes continuity of quality care and patient safety.
As a way of reducing costs and at the same time ensuring accurate patient identification,
incorporation of effective technologies into care services is key. Technologies such as Electronic
Health Records (EHRs), nurse call systems, and telehealth improve real-time sharing of
information, effective communication, and reliable medical interventions (Dang et al., 2021).
This will reduce redundancy, resource optimization and utilization, reduction of errors, and
related costs.
Stakeholder-Nurse Coordination to Drive Safety Enhancement with Patient Identification
Errors
Nurses are influential in coordinating attempts to encourage safety improvement with
patient identification errors. Through collaboration with different stakeholders, nurses can create
and exercise reliable approaches during interactions with patients. Through collaboration and
coordination with physicians, a common care approach that puts the safety of patients first can be
developed. Collaboratively, physicians and nurses can facilitate patient identification that follows
established protocols and is in sync with the general care approaches. Nurses and physicians can
also create and utilize consistent patient identification protocols (Li et al., 2018). This can be
achieved through defined plans such as identification bands, thorough verification, and
confirmation to bring down cases of errors.
Nurses coordinate with pharmacists to ensure patient safety during medication. Regular
and clear communication about drug interactions, adjustment of doses, and supervision approaches
is important for the prevention of negative effects. To ensure proper identification,
nurses should similarly collaborate with pharmacists to verify patient identification before
medication. This will reduce medication errors related to identification problems. They should
also coordinate with the individual patients and their families through involvement in the
identification processes and active engagement in the care services. The nurses should always
communicate with the specific patients to confirm their identity and enable verification of critical
details. Involving patients and their families in safety plans increases empowerment as well as a
strict focus on safety protocols (Li et al., 2018).
Conclusion
In conclusion, everyone that works in healthcare works closely together to ensure patient
safety is conducted. Every person has their own role; however, each role is equally important as
the next. Nurses are the middleman for all medication administrations and are to provide best
practices in medication administration to prevent errors. Errors in medication administration can
occur easily, especially in high patient to low nurse areas, however patient safety is top priority
and all protocols and procedures to prevent errors should be implemented. This in turn
decreases error, increasing patient safety and quality of care, and reduces healthcare cost.
References
Abbe, J. R., & O'Keeffe, C. (2021). Continuous video monitoring: Implementation strategies
for safe patient care and identified best practices. Journal of Nursing Care Quality,
36(2), 137.
Adams-McGavin, R. C., Jung, J. J., van Dalen, A. S., Grantcharov, T. P., & Schijven, M. P.
(2021). System factors affecting patient safety in the OR: an analysis of safety threats and
resiliency. Annals of Surgery, 274(1), 114-119.
Dang, D., Dearholt, S. L., Bissett, K., Ascenzi, J., & Whalen, M. (2021). Johns Hopkins
evidence-based practice for nurses and healthcare professionals: Model and guidelines.
Sigma Theta Tau.
Li, J., Talari, P., Kelly, A., Latham, B., Dotson, S., Manning, K., ... & Williams, M. V. (2018).
Interprofessional Teamwork Innovation Model (ITIM) to promote communication and
patient-centered, coordinated care. BMJ Quality & Safety.