Patient Safety and Cost. Lisa Anderson is a 74-year-old female with a history of osteoporosis. She is a widow and lives alone in a two-story home. Mrs. Anderson is retired and depends on her Social Security income. She takes pride in making all her own food from scratch. While she is walking at the hospital today, Mrs. Anderson falls and fractures her left hip. She is transported to the OR for immediate surgery.

Patient falls are a serious problem in hospitals, resulting in substantial morbidity, mortality, increased length of stay, and higher costs. It is estimated that high hospitalization rates in healthcare organizations result from patient falls. Fall rates in acute-care hospitals have been measured between 2.2 and 7 falls per 1,000 admissions. Injuries occur in approximately 30% of falls, and severe injuries occur in 4% to 6% of falls. Patient falls increase the cost of patient care. It was found that patients who fell and were injured as a result of a fall had $4,233 higher charges and a length of stay (LOS) of 12.3 days.

Provide an example of something in your current facility that is increasing the cost of care in your organization. How is it being controlled, or how could it be controlled? Make sure to provide some ideas of what could be done better to improve care and outcomes.

Answer Guide:Patient Safety and Cost

One thing in our organization that is increasing the cost of care is readmissions of patients with diabetes type 2 and hypertension. These readmissions mostly happen before 30-days of discharge and thus, we do not get reimbursements from the CMS. The key cause of these readmissions is medication errors at discharge and home by patients. During discharge, the nurses may be too busy and forget to reconcile the patients’ medications. This leads to patients being prescribed the same medication twice or missing a dose. At home, the patient may miss medication, underdose, or overdose, leading to health complications