Improving Patient Safety

The first aim for improvement listed in the article was Safety, this is also probably the most important when it comes to saving patients’ lives and coincide the most with the Joint Commission’s safety goals. The “safe” aim for improvement is to avoid injuries from care (Wolfe 2001). This can be done by making sure to identify patients correctly using two identifiers. It can also be done by using medicines safely. Medication safety is improved by using the three checks when administering medications to patients, and by the six rights of patient medication administration. Making sure to use alarms safely was another patient safety goal and could be improved by ensuring bed alarms are consistently used on fall risk patients, as well as making monitor noises loud and clearly audible for rhythm changes and necessary alerts on monitors. The fifth patient safety goal was to prevent infection. To prevent this, medical professionals should wear the proper protective equipment and wash their hands upon entering and exiting the room. Taking care to use sterile equipment during surgeries is also important. The seventh patient safety goal was to prevent mistakes in surgery. This can be done by reading the chart right before the surgery and checking patients’ armbands to make sure it …show more content…
This can be achieved in part by improving staff communication which is also a patient safety goal. By improving staff communication in ways such as bed side reporting and also improving communication between nurses and physicians, patient beliefs may be more understood by the entire care team. Medical staff should understand that the patient has the right to refuse any treatment or medication that is provided to them. It is also important to not discriminate against patients based on these values and beliefs. One way to ensure this happens is to hire many different cultures into the