Risk Evaluation and Patient Safety. The Week 3 assignment looked at an existing problem or issue related to quality and patient safety and strategies to improve the outcome related to that issue. This week’s assignment will focus on assessing a potential risk to the organization and developing a strategy to reduce this risk.
Those who are affected by the risk include staff, patients, and the organization as a whole. Not only do organizations need to protect patients and staff, they also need to strive for excellence so that risks are reduced. When conducting the risk assessment, it is important to understand the population that the organization is serving. Not all states, cities, or even neighborhoods are alike. Keep these helpful tips in mind while beginning this assignment and reach out to your instructor if you have questions on your topic.
The Week 5 Assignment is due at the end of Week 5, Sunday at 11:59 p.m. MT. The rubric and guidelines for this assignment are located and listed below.
Week 5: Risk Evaluation and Patient SafetyLinks to an external site.
Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to (a) provide examples of a potential risk concern in your organization, (b) apply basic principles of risk management and risk reporting to a healthcare risk management concern, (c) demonstrate an understanding of risk management tools by correctly choosing and using them in specific cases, (d) recognize the extent of problems in patient safety in medical care, and (e) explore the contributing factors for this adverse medical outcome.
Course Outcomes
Through this assessment, the student will demonstrate the ability to do the following.
- Analyze the effects of regulation, legislation, and accreditation on healthcare quality improvement. (CO 2)
- Use critical inquiry to evaluate the design, implementation, and outcomes of quality and safety improvement strategies. (CO 3)
- Advance knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for the continuous improvement of quality and safety in healthcare. (CO 5)
Due Date: Submit by Sunday, 11:59 p.m. MT at the end of Week 5.
Students are given the opportunity to request an extension on assignments for emergent situations. Supporting documentation must be submitted to the assigned faculty. If the student’s request is not approved, the assignment is graded and a late penalty is applied as follows:
- Monday = 10% of total possible point reduction
- Tuesday = 20% of total possible point reduction
- Wednesday = 30% of total possible point reduction
If the student’s request is approved, the student will be informed of the revised due date. Should the student fail to meet the revised due date, the assignment is graded and a late penalty is applied as follows:
- Monday = 10% of total possible point reduction
- Tuesday = 20% of total possible point reduction
- Wednesday = 30% of total possible point reduction
Total Points Possible: 220
Requirements
Assignment Criteria for the Paper
1. Identify a potential risk within a healthcare organization and provide the rationale for choosing this issue.
2. Discuss the risk management elements and patient safety strategies in this issue.
3. Complete a literature review related to this issue.
4. Discuss the risk assessment measures related to internal and external environmental factors, and mechanism.
5. Discuss use of human factors, engineering, and other factors to improve patient safety.
6. Use a risk theory and apply it to the patient safety issue.
7. Integrate two QSEN competencies within your plan to mitigate this risk-related issue.
8. The body of the scholarly paper is to be 3–5 pages in length, excluding title and reference pages.
9. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations are consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the current edition.
10. Include a minimum of four references published within the past 5 years, not including your textbook. References may include scholarly websites of organizations or government agencies and must be presented using APA current edition format for electronic media. Link to week 6
Answer Guide:Risk Evaluation and Patient Safety
Considering that healthcare facilities are high-risk environments, risk evaluation is important to help prevent any potential safety issues. Medication errors are common risks and safety issues in healthcare with the potential to cause serious patient harm (including deaths) and other repercussions, including litigation issues, financial losses, poor patient outcomes (including increased hospitalization period, adverse effects, readmissions, emergency department use, loss of patient trust, poor patient satisfaction, morbidity, etc.) (Ambwani et al., 2019). Chiewchantanakit et al. (2020) describe MEs as failures that lead to improper use of medication and potential or actual harm to the patient. MEs affects about 7 million American patients annually. They are also responsible for about 3.5 million doctor’s office visits and 1 million ED visits (Rasool et al., 2020). According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the annual national cost of MEs is approximately $42 billion (FDA, 2019). This paper will discuss patient safety strategies for MEs, provide a literature review, factors that contribute to MEs, risk theory, and related QSEN competencies.
Patient Safety Strategies
Evidence-based patient safety strategies to prevent MEs must be adopted in each of the medication processes. When prescribing medication, healthcare providers should comply with drug prescription principles, reconcile patient drugs, use the computerized provider order entry (CPOE), consult clinical decision support systems (CDSS), double-check medications against medication administration records (MARs), and coordinate with other providers and the patient to detect and prevent any possible prescription errors (Ambwani et al., 2019). When dispensing, the provider should double-check prescription entry for correctness, communicate with the prescriber to confirm prescription accuracy and correctness (e.g. abbreviations,