How to Prevent Medical Errors

Phrase Fire Dec 13, 2022

Eliminating medical errors is one of the most important leaps we can take to improve healthcare in America. Yet, only 3% of healthcare providers feel prepared to prevent mistakes. This post will walk you through precautionary steps you can take, like checking for allergies and test results before administering drugs, as well as steps your hospital or clinic can take like creating a checklist and mandating communication, that will help keep mistakes from happening and save lives.

Professionalism

1. Pre-Checking

Start off with checking vital signs. If there's anything you or they know will cause a problem, let them know. For example, if your nurse has just found out that you have an enlarged thyroid, and are on medication for it, then someone should ask about drug interactions with the medicine for your thyroid disease (and vice versa). There may be other things going on that could cause problems if we don't catch them quickly so we can avoid a difficult situation from arising.

2. Communication

Don't make assumptions. If a patient is having trouble breathing, and they can't get themselves out of breath, they may be in distress. Let the patient know that you have concerns and to let you know if there's any change in their health.

3. Inventory Checklist

Many hospitals now require nursing assistants to check an inventory checklist before they leave the room while the nurse is present in the room with another nurse or physician concurrently present as a backup. This nurse should then note any change in the patient's vitals before leaving, or if they're leaving alone with no physician/nurse or another personnel present.

4. Communication & Checklist

Mandate a checklist and perfect communication whenever a doctor or nurse orders a medication that could possibly have harmful, adverse, or fatal effects if not administered accurately. The patient should sign off on their daily medications when the checklist is completed and checked off by both the doctor and the patient.

5. Pharmacy Change

If you happen to not be able to receive a certain medication after it's been prescribed, then the pharmacy should notify your doctor. They'll then be able to prescribe an alternative medication and fax over the new prescription.

Here are some tips to help you How to Prevent Medical Errors.

6. Communicate with Patients

Sometimes patients can't tell us what they feel, or they may not realize there are possible circumstances that could arise as a result of their actions/inactions while at home or out in public with their family members/friends. Tell them what to do before they leave their home, what they should be doing, and how to avoid any possible problems that could arise while they're at home or in the hospital. This can reduce complications later on down the road.

8. Reviewing Prescriptions

Ask the pharmacy to make sure that each prescription you order is correct every time you order a drug. Make sure the right dosage, right medication, and right side effects are being sent to your patients' rooms. so that they know what to do to prevent a bad outcome.

7. Nurses & Physicians: Prepare for Situations

Be proactive and ensure you're aware of any circumstance that could cause an adverse effect. If you don't know about an adverse effect, then it's your responsibility to find out why there's been a change in the patient's condition/vitals. This is where communication skills and the checklist come in handy. Ensure you're communicating with each other and researching any adverse effects and drug interactions that could result.

9. Checklists

Every hospital should have a handwritten checklist whenever anything significant arises. This will help the staff know in case of an incident whether or not they've done everything they need to do to address it before leaving the room when the doctor or nurse is present or not present. The checklist should be signed off on by the physician and nurse before leaving.

10. Systematic Reviews

Every hospital/clinic should do a systematic review (or review) of all incoming orders. This involves asking the pharmacy, who sent it in, to fax over the order and any information to them. If there's a problem, then it's your responsibility to contact the patient and find out what's going on. This will help ensure that your mass of prescriptions is not ordered for you.