An acquaintance of mine had experienced chest pains and was referred to her GP for a check-up. The GP gave verbal instructions for a receptionist to make an ECG appointment within the earliest possible dates. The patient was promised to be contacted soon. The clinic did not contact my friend within the next two days, and she decided to call to clarify the ECG appointment. The receptionist had trouble recalling making the appointment; after that apologized for failing to arrange one and promised to call back. The next day, the receptionist contacted my friend and informed her that her ECG appointment was in two weeks. Ultimately, the ECG results did not indicate any heart impairments; however, such a delay might have been harmful to a patient with a severe condition.
The first factor contributing to this patient safety incident was the lack of properly embedded communication patterns in the healthcare organization since the GP failed to provide written instructions to the receptionist. Secondly, the incompetence of the receptionist, who neglected the patient’s appointment’s urgency, was a significant factor. Thirdly, impaired teamwork in the health care organization contributed to miscommunication and hindrance to patient safety. To mitigate the problem, one might recommend implementing electronic means of communication to record all instructions pertinent to patient procedures (Wu & Busch, 2019). Furthermore, it is encouraged to train the staff for a better quality of teamwork to ensure responsible and unified decision-making and prioritization of timely care delivery.
Thank you for your post and for sharing your experience with a patient safety issue. Indeed, understaffing is a significant problem in the contemporary healthcare system. Your recommendations are reasonable since they address practical ways of mitigating similar risks to patient safety through long-term goals. Moreover, I find it reasonable to refer to the organizational benefits such as reputation and image that might motivate healthcare institutions to improve their patient safety policies. However, the recommendations you have suggested seem to be far-reaching without properly identifying the appropriate ways to facilitate staffing and personnel distribution. Your recommended solutions might benefit from articulating the policy-making and addressing the causes of understaffing. Since burnout is one of the leading causes of increased intention to leave among healthcare staff, it might be beneficial to find ways of minimizing burnout in the teams (Hammig, 2018). In such a manner, the cause mitigation might help improve staff experiences and increase the level of patient safety.
Thank you for presenting your case and analyzing its implications for patient safety. You made it clear that the causes of the patient safety risks were related to insufficient staffing and poor information systems management. Indeed, the shortage of qualified professionals to conduct surgeries is a problematic issue that might be mitigated by utilizing payment encouragement. In addition, policymakers need to create a favorable workplace environment to engage a talented workforce in healthcare work (Hammig, 2018). In addition, as you have reasonably argued, digital system error is another vital aspect of care quality and safety since it might jeopardize the functioning of a whole unit. To expand your recommendation to substitute the system, one might suggest implementing an extensive training intervention. It would not only educate the staff on the proper usage of the new system but also on the ways it might help them cooperate as teams more efficiently (Wu & Busch, 2019). Thus, the long-term patient safety benefits will be promoted and ensured.
Reference
Hammig, O. (2018). Explaining burnout and the intention to leave the profession among health professionals – a cross-sectional study in a hospital setting in Switzerland. BMC Health Services Research, 18(1), 1-11.
Wu, A. W., & Busch, I. M. (2019). Patient safety: A new basic science for professional education. GMS Journal for Medical Education, 36(2), 1-15.