Managing Patient Safety Report Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managing Patient Safety Report - Research Paper Example This risked the life of a patient, and a subsequent cardiac event killed him as a result (Sullivan and Ferriter, 2008). The aim of this report is to examine this event in detail and determine what could have been changed to prevent this happen, and to decrease the likelihood of a similar event happening in the future. Patient Safety Advances in knowledge and technology have created a system of healthcare that is highly successful, and able to effectively treat a wide range of conditions. However, these factors have also led to the growth of the complexity of the healthcare system. This is an aspect of considerable concern, and the development of complexity brings considerable risk, and the potential of harm occurring to patients as the result of human or system factors (National Patient Safety Agency, 2004). There are many arguments for why the current systems of care are ineffective at preventing harm to patients, but one of these is that it has a strong reliance of systems and appr oaches that are outdated and based on previous techniques that are no longer relevant (Carayon, 2007). Whatever the driving factors, it has become clear that the safety of patients in healthcare is something that needs to be addressed, and preventable incidences of harm need to be minimised. There has been an increased interest and focus on health safety throughout the world, as well as in the scientific literature. Estimates suggest that approximately ten percent of all patients admitted into NHS hospitals experience at least one incident where patient safety is compromised. Furthermore, it would be possible to prevent a large number of these incidents (National Patient Safety Agency, 2004). Medical errors are a significant problem in the healthcare industry, and a 1999 report identified that up to 98,000 people die every year in hospitals as the result of medical errors that were preventable (Kohn et al., 1999). This report has become well known, and way one of the driving factors for the focus on patient safety. The interest in the area has generated many specific terms that are used to describe what is occurring within institutions, and the desire to prevent such incidents. Two prominent terms are patient safety and adverse events. The concept of patient safety is the prevention of any harm or adverse events occurring to the patient. In literature, the term is used prevalently, but defined rarely. For example, the 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine which spurred the focus on patient safety uses the term extensively throughout the paper, but the authors do not define what the phrase actually means (Kohn et al., 1999). It can be reasonably assumed that health safety is not explicitly defined, both because the term appears to have an intuitive definition and because this makes determining the exact meaning of the term difficult. However, understanding patient safety is a crucial aspect of effectively discussing or implementing this. Therefore, to approa ch this, we will first consider what an adverse event is, then examine how this definition can be used to help define patient safety. The National Patient Safety Agency defines an adverse event as â€Å"Any unintended or unexpected incident that could have or did lead to harm for one or more patients receiving NHS-funded healthcare†. This definition is also taken to apply to the terms patient safety incident and