How Continuous Quality Improvement Can Address Medical Errors

How Continuous Quality advancement Can Address medical ErrorsThis paper will cover medical misconducts and how Continuous Quality betterment can address them. wellness c be managers have addressed the issue of medical errors for mevery years. health check errors can be coifd by lack or communication and leadership. Quality improvement in the health c atomic number 18 environment is a hot topic and managers are seeking ways in which they can improver the quality of care that a patient receives. The quality of care that a patient receives can be the determining factor as to whether they live or die. It is critical that managers develop policies and implement control poster to control the rise of medical errors.Attention to medical errors escalated over quintette years ago with the waiver of a conduct from the Institute of Medicine (IOM), which found that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die each year in U.S. hospitals due to pr publicationable medical errors (Kaiseredu , 2010). Hospital errors rank between the fifth and eighth leading ca subprogram of death, killing more Americans than breast cancer, traffic accidents or AIDS. Serious medical specialty errors occur in the cases of five to 10 percent of patients admitted to hospitals. These numbers may understate the problem because they do not include pr flushtable deaths due to medical treatments outside of hospitals (kaiseredu, 2010).Health care managers, on with the Food and Drug Administration, have study the medical error reports to recover the cause of errors. Medical errors are one of the leading causes as to why health care has declined. To improve healthcare managers must receive how to decrease the mortality rates. Managers can determine this by studying and analyzing medical reports. These reports provided managers with detailed information on what procedure was being conducted or what medication the patient was administered. In a study by the FDA that evaluated reports of termina l medication errors from 1993 to 1998, the most common error involving medications was related to administration of an improper dose of medicine, accounting for 41% of fatal medication errors. Giving the incorrectly drug and using the wrong route of administration each accounted for 16% of the errors. Almost half of the fatal medication errors occurred in people over the age of 60. Older people may be at greatest pretend for medication errors because they often take multiple prescription medications (Stoppler Marks, 2010).History has shown that many surveys and research studies have been conducted, so that providers can learn where and why mistakes are being made. Once providers have a clear understanding, they can implement control measure to insure these mistakes do not occur. National patient role Safety Foundation Survey The National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF) commissioned a earpiece survey in 1997 to review patient opinions about medical mistakes. The findings showed that 42% of people believed they had personally undergo a medical mistake. In these cases, the error affected them personally (33%), a relative (48%), or a friend (19%) (Wrongdiagnosis, 2010). Patients that were given the survey have experienced the following medical errorsMisdiagnosis (40%),Medication error (28%),Medical procedure error (22%),Administrative error (4%),Communication error (2%),Incorrect laboratory results (2%),Equipment malfunction (1%), and opposite error (7%).Patient safety should be the number one concern for health care organizations. Health care managers are held accountable for ensuring that patients are provided with quality care. They are overly accountable for the patients that are injure or die due to a providers medical error. The health care industries along with scientific researchers have developed tools in which the quality of care can be measured. Organizations can use these tools to determine if effective care is being provided. Once they have det ermined the level of care they are providing, they can educate providers on what they are doing both wrong and right. The most common method employ to determine the quality of care, is through the use of surveys. Health care organizations can provide staff and patients with surveys to determine what areas the organization can improve and sustain. These surveys will not be provided to every patient the provider has hardened but only a selected few will be surveyed.Quality measurement in the healthcare industry requires a large add up of resources and funding. Researchers will most likely use methods that have worked earlier and have provide them with data they could use to enhance the level of care the organization is providing. Healthcare researchers are constantly trying to find ways in which the completely eliminate medical errors. Due to the persisting cycle of experienced providers leaving and new providers being hired, medical errors in many cases will never be eliminated. Health care organizations can however implement the necessary control measures to ensure that patients are not misdiagnosed or the wrong limb is not amputated (Cohen, 2007).Healthcare organizations can decrease medical errors by establishing a continuous quality improvement plan that calls for the development of a multidisciplinary team to research and check into the causes of medical errors. The Department of Veteran affairs uses a CQI model developed by the Joint focal point to reduce the number or medical mistakes made by providers. Joint Commissions surveys all the Veteran Affairs Medical centers to see whether their staff is following the medical policies and regulations in providing quality care.Joint Commission has also established policies regarding how health care organizations will report and handle sentinel events. A sentinel event is an unexpected occurrence involving death or somber physical or psychological injury, or the risk thereof. Serious injury specifically i ncludes loss of limb or function. The phrase, or the risk thereof includes any process variation for which a recurrence would carry a significant chance of a serious adverse outcome. Such events are called sentinel because they signal the need for immediate investigation and response (Jointcommission, 2010).In conclusion medical errors can occur at anytime while a patient is receiving care. It is important that health care providers communicate and provide education to their staff on reducing the number of medical errors, the deftness has encountered. Medical errors can lead to the organization being sued by the patient or the patient family member. practice of law suites can be devastating for any organization to go through and can reduce the amount of funds that have been allotted to providing quality care. Therefore it is important that medical errors are reduced and even eliminated.