DNP 835 Reflecting on the “IHI Module PS 101: Introduction to Patient Safety,” summarize why it is essential to improve patient safety

 

Patient safety is the practice of preventing mistakes in medical care. It is essential to the quality of treatment that patients receive because even minor errors can negatively affect their general well-being. Patient safety requires a dedication to ongoing development and an emphasis on reducing risks and averting potential harm (Lawati et al., 2018). Patient safety is crucial because it protects patients from injury and raises the standard of care in general. Patients are more likely to experience better health outcomes when they receive safe care. As a result, it is crucial for healthcare professionals to put patient safety first and strive tirelessly to increase the security of the treatment they deliver. This essay describes the use of checklists in the perioperative care pathway to improve surgery patients’ safety and outcomes.

According to Storesund et al. (2020), the study aimed to determine the impact of the World Health Organization surgical safety checklist (WHO SSC) and the Surgical Patient Safety System (SURPASS) checklists on patient treatment results such as illness, death, and hospitalization length. The research design involved introducing the pre-and post-operative SURPASS checklists to the intraoperative surgical safety checklist in surgery departments at a tertiary hospital in Norway using a nonrandomized clinical trial approach. The primary purpose of these checklists was to improve patient outcomes by consistently following key safety steps throughout the perioperative care pathway.

My focus is to assess the incidence of complications during hospitalization, unplanned repeat surgeries, unplanned return visits within thirty days of being discharged, and death within thirty days. These outcomes were chosen because they are all indicators of patient safety and have the potential to have a significant impact on patient outcomes. The study aimed to improve patient outcomes overall by lowering the occurrence of complications, reoperations, and readmissions, as well as improving survival rates. This study used the length of hospital stay (LOS) as a secondary outcome measure. While LOS is not directly related to patient safety, it can be an important indicator of the perioperative care pathway’s efficiency and effectiveness. The study aimed to improve the overall efficiency of the perioperative care pathway by lowering the LOS, which could lead to cost savings and improved patient satisfaction (Storesund et al., 2020). The identified outcome measures were generally aligned with the improvement project, as they were chosen to assess the impact of the checklists on key indicators of patient safety and efficiency in the perioperative care pathway.

The joint application of the two checklists was linked to decreased adverse events while in the hospital, unplanned repeat surgeries, and rehospitalization rates. According to Storesund et al. (2020), this finding raises the possibility that using these checklists could help identify and prevent mistakes or unintended events in the perioperative care pathway, improving patient outcomes.

References

Lawati, M. H., Dennis, S., Short, S. D., & Abdulhadi, N. N. (2018). Patient safety and safety culture in primary health care: A systematic review. BMC Family Practice, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-018-0793-7

Storesund, A., Haugen, A. S., Flaatten, H., Nortvedt, M. W., Eide, G. E., Boermeester, M. A., Sevdalis, N., Tveiten, Ø., Mahesparan, R., Hjallen, B. M., Fevang, J. M., Størksen, C. H., Thornhill, H. F., Sjøen, G. H., Kolseth, S. M., Haaverstad, R., Sandli, O. K., & Søfteland, E. (2020). Clinical efficacy of Combined Surgical Patient Safety System and the World Health Organization’s checklists in surgery. JAMA Surgery, 155(7), 562. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2020.0989