The chapters in this book explore the patient safety managerial structures that exist in countries where there are developed patient safety infrastructures and cultures. The legal structures of these countries are explored and related to major in-country patient safety issues in order to draw comparisons and conclusions on patient safety.
Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.
Developing best practices and ethical systems to protect and enhance patient safety. Human errors occur all too frequently in medical practice settings. One sobering recent report claimed that medical errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States. Hoping to reverse this disturbing trend but wondering why it is that things usually go well despite errors, John D. Banja's Patient Safety Ethics lays out a model that advocates vigilance, mindfulness, compliance, and humility as core ethical principles of patient safety. Arguing that the safe provision of healthcare is one of the most fundamental moral obligations of clinicians, Banja surveys the research literature on harm-causing medical errors to explore the ethical foundations of patient safety and to reduce the severity and frequency of medical error. Drawing on contemporary scholarship on quality improvement, risk management, and medical decision making, Banja also relies on a novel source of information to illustrate patient safety ethics: medical malpractice suits. Providing professional perspective with insights from prominent patient safety experts, Patient Safety Ethics identifies hazard pitfalls and suggests concrete ways for clinicians and regulators to improve patient safety through an ethically cultivated program of "hazard awareness."
Increased concern for patient safety has put the issue at the top of the agenda of practitioners, hospitals, and even governments. The risks to patients are many and diverse, and the complexity of the healthcare system that delivers them is huge. Yet the discourse is often oversimplified and underdeveloped. Written from a scientific, human factors
"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/
Clinical Governance is integral to healthcare and all doctors must have an understanding of both basic principles, and how to apply them in daily practice. Within the Clinical Governance framework, patient safety is the top priority for all healthcare organisations, with the prevention of avoidable harm a key goal. Traditionally medical training has concentrated on the acquisition of knowledge and skills related to diagnostic intervention and therapeutic procedures. The need to focus on non-technical aspects of clinical practice, including communication and team working, is now evident; ensuring tomorrow's staff are competent to function effectively in any healthcare facility. This book provides a guide to how healthcare systems work; their structure, regulation and inspection, and key areas including risk management, resource effectiveness and wider aspects of knowledge management. Changing curricula at undergraduate level reflect this, but post-graduate training is lagging behind and does not always equip trainees appropriately for a hectic clinical environment. An Introduction to Clinical Governance and Patient Safety presents a simple overview of clinical governance in context, highlighting important principles required to function effectively in a pressurised healthcare environment. It is presented in short sections based on the original seven pillars of clinical governance. These have been expanded to include the fundamental principles of systems, team working, leadership, accountability, and ownership in healthcare, with examples from everyday practice. This format is designed to facilitate use as a 'pocket guide' which can be dipped into during the working day, as well as for general reading. Examples from all branches of medicine are presented to facilitate understanding. Contributors are taken from a broad base - from junior doctors to internationally recognised experts - ensuring issues are addressed from all perspectives.
This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.
Covering a wide range of health care disciplines, Foundations in Patient Safety for Health Professionals is a practical, comprehensive guide to creating a culture of safety in health care settings. Developed by faculty members in bioethics, business, dentistry, law, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacy, physical therapy, and social work, this introductory textbook presents the history of safety and the core concepts of patient safety. This important resource features a patient-centered approach within a practice-based context. Written in a straightforward style, it uses personal and professional stories to illustrate the application of safety principles. Modules and case-based exercises help students learn the importance of safety best practices and quality improvements. Practicing health care professionals will also find this book to be a valuable resource.
Principles of Risk Management and Patient Safety identifies changes in the industry and describes how these changes have influenced the functions of risk management in all aspects of healthcare. The book is divided into four sections. The first section describes the current state of the healthcare industry and looks at the importance of risk management and the emergence of patient safety. It also explores the importance of working with other sectors of the health care industry such as the pharmaceutical and device manufacturers. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.
