Capella NURS-FPX4020 Assessment 1 Enhancing Quality and Safety Example 1 Enhancing Quality and Safety

Safety in healthcare is essential in ensuring quality services. Safety in healthcare services is a measure of quality in that safety issues in healthcare translate to poor quality services and vice versa. Various patient safety risks and concerns exist in healthcare settings, leading to poor outcomes, loss of trust in the healthcare system, increased costs, and increased hospital length of stay. Quality healthcare also entails patient-centered care, utilization of evidence-based practice, clinical guidelines, and implementation of patient safety initiatives.

This paper examines Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI), a safety quality issue affecting my healthcare setting, and provides evidence-based solutions to address the issue. Additionally, the paper will explore the factors leading to patient safety risks in the healthcare setting, the evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety and reduce costs, explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety and reduce costs, and finally, identifies stakeholders with whom nurses would coordinate to drive safety enhancements with the safety quality issue.

Factors Leading to HAI in a healthcare Setting

Hospital-associated infections are infections that patients acquire while receiving healthcare services in a healthcare setting, including inpatient and outpatient settings. Various factors lead to HAIs in a healthcare setting. A major factor contributing to HAIs is poor maintenance and use of medical devices. Medical devices such as catheters and ventilators cause infections when not used and maintained appropriately. The other factor is the failure to maintain adequate infection control practices. According to Ripa et al. (2021), failure to adhere to recommended infection control measures significantly contributes to hospital-acquired infections.

Furthermore, patient factors may lead to HIAs in a healthcare setting. Ripa et al. (2021) note that some patients have a high risk of contracting HAIs. These include patients with compromised immune systems, underlying conditions prone to infections, and prolonged hospital stays. Understaffing and high workloads are other issues leading to HIAs. In understaffed settings, care providers have high patient-to-staff ratios, which increases the workload, potentially leading to lapses in infection control practices.