Medical errors are common occurrences in health care settings and are a cause of mortality. To improve health care, it is important to address human errors in medical care. In a landmark report by the Institute of Medicine, a system wide change was recommended to address the problem of human error in medical care. Such changes call for review of policies that govern health care delivery, from hospital guidelines to federal policies and nursing code of ethics. There is a need to shift focus from errors to safety and this is best done by understanding errors. Health care providers make errors because of a variety of reasons such as limited knowledge, fatigue, ambiguous hospital guidelines and this trend can be arrested by preventing, recognizing and mitigating harm that arises from medical error (Hughes & Donaldson, 2008).
System changes to address errors come in form of policy changes. Recently, my organization has implemented a hospital guideline change to recognize watchful waiting as an option for inguinal hernia as opposed to immediate repair. This policy change was implemented based on evidence (Fitgibbons et al., 2006). However, some practices have remained in place. For instance, washing hands with soap and water instead of using alcohol wipes when the hands are not visible dirty. Recent developments such as information technology have made it possible to focus on safety. IT systems make it possible to standardize care, enhance communication, and decision making. With robust informatics, it is possible to implement EBP because a nurse gains access to a wide range of published research work which can be applied as evidence in nursing practice. This makes it easy to realize some aspects of quality care such as safety and efficacy which are important in reducing errors.
References
Fitzgibbons Jr, R. J., Giobbie-Hurder, A., Gibbs, J. O., Dunlop, D. D., Reda, D. J., McCarthy Jr,
M., & Jonasson, O. (2006). Watchful waiting vs repair of inguinal hernia in minimally symptomatic men. JAMA: the journal of the American Medical Association, 295(3), 285-292.
Hughes, R. G., & Donaldson, M. S. (2008). An Overview of To Err is Human: Re-emphasizing
the Message of Patient Safety.
