Introduction
There is no use denying the fact that the sphere of medicine is one of the most important issues which guarantees existence of human society and civilization. Since ancient times, it helped to cure different diseases and protect the life of people. Going along with society, it has achieved a great progress and modern specialists in the sphere of medicine are able to do a lot of things which save lives of patients and help them to recover. Thus, unfortunately, even this progress is not the guaranty of the absence of mistakes which lead to the death of a patient. Medication mistakes nowadays are one of the main causes of deaths in hospitals. About 1,5 million Americans are injured by this issue (Anderson, 2010) and it costs $3,5 billion for the budget (McCann, 2014). With this in mind, it is possible to suggest that the problem of medication errors becomes one of the most important issues nowadays and the necessity to find a good solution is obvious. Nevertheless, it is possible to suggest that introduction of severe monitoring and creation of special tools which could help to avoid these mistakes could be taken as the only possible solution.
Resting on these assumptions, it is possible to say that the main purpose of the given paper is the attempt to analyze the situation in the healthcare sector nowadays and determine the main aspects of the problem of medication errors. The paper is based on the information connected with the functioning of Springfield Central Hospital (disguised name). The reason for this choice lies in the fact that this organization implemented the new technology in its functioning which main purpose was to help to get rid of the nagging problem of medication errors (Spector, 2012). Due to this fact, a computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system was implemented in the functioning of the hospital in order to solve the existing problem.
Thus, to a great surprise, the system turned out to be inefficient because of several important reasons. With this in mind, it is possible to say that the given work analyzes these reasons and tends to find another possible solution which will be able to help to reduce the number of medication errors in Springfield Central Hospital. Moreover, the work also centers around the possible electronic systems and solutions which will be more efficient. At the end of the paper a certain conclusion is made and the thoughts and information are reconsidered.
Discussion of the people alignment efforts for Springfield Central Hospital
First of all, the analysis of the given case should be started with the discussion of the people alignment efforts which could improve the situation. There is no use denying the fact that the human factor is one of the main reasons of the appearance of medication errors in the healthcare sector. That is why, it is possible to assume that some efforts aimed at the decrease of the level of negligence and inaccuracy among the staff could be rather beneficial (Hospital Errors are the Third Leading Cause of Death in U.S., and New Hospital Safety Scores Show Improvements Are Too Slow, 2013). First of all, more attention should be given to prescriptions which are ordered to a patient as it is one of the main sources of medication errors. Moreover, it is possible to recommend to increase the skills in computing as the failure of CPOE could also be taken as the evidence of poor attainments. The system could have helped in case the staff were able to use it correctly.
Theories of change implementation
Thus, is should also be said that implementation of some main concepts of the Theory of Change could help to solve the existing problem (An Introduction to Theory of Change, 2005) in Springfield Central Hospital. Having determined the decrease of the number of medication errors as the main long term perspective, it is possible to say that all further actions should be planned in accordance with this purpose. The first point should be the strengthening of control over prescriptions which are ordered to patients. Very often, doctors and nurses just confuse the numbers or titles (Medication Errors, 2015) because of various reasons. That is why, it is possible to suggest the pattern according to which all prescriptions should be checked by a certain group of specialists or specialists, who work at the same hospital. Only having passed through the procedure of verification, prescription could become legal and treatment of a patient in accordance with these prescriptions could start. Moreover, another point of the possible plan is the procedure of constant advance training which could help to save the high level of professionalism among the specialists who work in the hospital. This training should also include development of computer skills among the staff.
Sequencing of new technology
Besides, it is also possible to underline the necessity of some changes in existing technology. CPOE failed because of several reasons and one of them was the patient confusion. Very often, specialists selected the wrong patient and confused the prescriptions and medications. That is why, to avoid this sort of problem, it is possible to suggest the implementation of the more complicated system which would function only if the name of a patient is chosen rightly. With this in mind, the procedure which checks this sort of data several times should be introduced. It can help to avoid this sort of problems as a specialist, which is going to prescribe a certain medicine to a certain patient, will have to confirm several times that a patient and medicine is chosen correctly. Moreover, the photo of a patient should be added to his/her personal file for a specialist to be able to recognize him/her and associate the name with appearance.
Conclusion
With this in mind, having analyzed information connected with the given issue, it is possible to make a certain conclusion. First of all, it should be said that the problem of medication errors is very topical nowadays and it leads to many deaths among patients. That is why, there are certain attempts to get rid of this problem by implementing new practices and techniques in the work of hospitals. The attempt to use CPOE, which was supposed to improve the state of this issue and decrease the number of medication errors, failed. Thus, it should be admitted that there were several reasons for this failure. With this in mind, the given work suggests the main ways to get rid of these reasons and improve the state of affairs in the healthcare sector. Nevertheless, during the process of investigation of the given issue, the idea that medication errors are on f the main problems of modern medicine was obtained. With this in mind, it is possible to conclude that deep investigation of the given sphere is needed in order to understand the main point of this problem and find the best possible solution to the nagging problem of medication errors.
References
Anderson, P. (2010). Medication errors: Don’t let them happen to you. Web.
An Introduction to Theory of Change. (2005). Web.
McCann, E. (2014). Deaths by medical mistakes hit records. Web.
Medication Errors. (2015). Web.
Spector, B. (2012). Implementing Organizational Change: Theory Into Practice. Boston: Prentice Hall.