NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 2 Root Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan

 

 

The timeline for the proposed improvement plan will be about one year. In the first two months, the healthcare organization will assess current patient identification processes and areas for improvement. In months 3-4, administrative staff will procure and implement an advanced barcoding system for the identification of patients. This will be followed by developing and disseminating standardized protocols and initiation of training for healthcare staff and administrative personnel in the next two months to promote patient safety through correct patient identification. Lastly, the next four months will include monitoring and evaluating the efficacy of implemented changes and plans as needed based on feedback and outcomes (Vaismoradi et al., 2020).

Existing Organizational Resources

The carefully curated safety improvement plan can be efficiently improved by leveraging the existing organizational resources such as EHR systems. The IT professionals can be approached to assess the lagging features of currently used EHR, which can alarm the healthcare professionals in case of misidentification. Additionally, the administration and leadership team within the hospital can collaborate with Quality Improvement teams to monitor and assess the effectiveness of implemented strategies. The ongoing feedback from the QI team can contribute to continuous improvement in reducing identification errors and enhancing patient safety (Alomari et al., 2020). Apart from leveraging the currently available resources, the healthcare organization may need additional resources for the training department, such as brochures for educating and consultants to conduct specialized training programs on patient identification and safety concerns.

Additionally, healthcare administration will require vendor support for integrating the barcoding system. Financial resources will be needed to purchase and smoothly integrate the technology and training sessions (Riplinger et al., 2020). Given the central role of technology within the safety improvement plan, collaborating with the IT department is a high priority as it directly impacts the successful implementation of the barcoding system. Other priorities include QI team involvement and training and development resources for ensuring healthcare professionals are adept in patient safety through adequate knowledge of suggested protocols (Alomari et al., 2020).

Conclusion

The root-cause analysis was performed for two patients to address the patient identification errors for children within Arnold Palmer Hospital. The root causes were a lack of protocols for enhanced patient safety and identification of patients, communication breakdowns, inefficient technology, and human error. This required the application of evidence-based practices, utilizing which a safety improvement plan is crafted. This plan includes integrating a barcoding system, training staff, and enforcing protocols for better patient identification. It is essential to consider the readily available resources that can be strategically used to improve the efficiency of safety improvement plans. The required resources include financial and external resources such as vendors and consultants to implement the proposed plan for enhancing patient safety and reducing identification errors during patient encounters.

References

Alomari, A., Sheppard‐Law, S., Lewis, J., & Wilson, V. (2020). Effectiveness of clinical nurse’s interventions in reducing medication errors in a pediatric ward. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(17-18), 3403–3413. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15374