logo

Quality and Safety in Healthcare - PDF

   

Added on  2021-05-27

15 Pages4186 Words78 Views
Quality and Safety in HealthcareDiagnostic Errors

IntroductionPatient safety in healthcare has become a significant concern across the globe and is currentlya significant concern in the Saudi Arabian healthcare system. In order to address thechallenge, a range of knowledge and skills of stakeholders in multiple areas is required.Numerous issues can result in risk to life risk, and one major problem that can create concernfor patient safety is diagnostic error. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), diagnosiserror is the error that occurs at the time of detecting any disease, which can affect themedication process and can even endanger the life of patients (Blaya et al., 2014).Illuminating the diagnostic error and improving the quality of diagnosis is the main concernin any healthcare system. To address this issue, significant revision of the diagnostic processis required, as well as widespread commitment of all stakeholders. Different types of diagnostic errors that relate to laboratory testing may occur. One of them ismissing the diagnosis. In this case, the test results do not provide any explanation for thepatients’ complaints (Newman-Toker,). Another type of diagnostic error is the wrongdiagnosis (Zwaan, & Singh, 2015). In this type of error, the test results are found to beincorrect and the true cause is discovered later. Delayed diagnosis can also affect themedication process and it is also placed in the category of diagnostic error (Singh, 2014). In astudy of a Harvard medical practice, it was found that almost 17% of patient deaths occurreddue to an error in diagnosis resulting from inadequate, incorrect or untimely lab results(Kohn,Corrigan, & Donaldson, 2000).Several hospitals in Saudi Arabia have reported diagnostic errors (Alsafi et al.,2015). When the errors occur, they can cause severe complications for thoseaffected. Moreover, they may result in the death of patients (Alsafi et al., 2015).Diagnostic error is a serious issue that needs to be reduced in order to improve the quality of

the healthcare system. This paper addresses the occurrence of diagnostic errors inSaudi Arabian hospitals and outlines a plan to improve the quality of diagnosticprocedures, as prevention of diagnostic errors is important for improving thequality of health in Saudi Arabia.Intended improvementApproachThis issue with diagnostic error in the healthcare system is significant and can result in a range of significant future issues. Therefore, it is important to reduce the problem with animprovement program that is well planned (Nyasulu et al., 2014). This paper describes a quality improvement plan for reducing diagnosis error resulting from inadequate, incorrect oruntimely laboratory results. The improved practice mentioned in this paper will help to provide test results that are error free, which will also help to provide appropriate medication and treatment to all patients. The quality improvement plan will address the safety issue of the patients and will also improve the quality of healthcare system in Saudi Arabia and possibly around the world. In order to reduce the diagnostic error, automation in the lab procedure can be one of the best improvement plans which can be possible by adapting LIS. The inclusion of lab automation through the Laboratory Information System (LIS) is assumedto help in reducing medication error (Duarte & Azevedo, 2017).AimThe aim of the quality improvement plan presented in this paper is to increase the accuracy level of the diagnostic results by utilising technology and the intervention of healthcare professionals. The data presented in this paper will measure the degree to which

application of the LIS is seen to improve the accuracy and timeliness of diagnostic results. The following sections first provide a detailed description of the quality improvement plan, followed by a description of the measures that will be used to assess its effectiveness, the context, the stakeholders involved etc. The data collection procedures are then presented, followed by the processes used to analyze the data. Finally, the conclusion discusses how the quality improvement strategy for reducing the error in the diagnosis process will improve the healthcare system in Saudi Arabia by offering improved safety for the patients and maintain their full faith in the healthcare system.The improvement strategy is to include Laboratory Information System in the analysisof the medical tests. The diagnosis department or the pathologists will be involved in this andfrom the pathology department the information will be collected that how LIS is beneficial. MechanismIn order to improve the accuracy in the lab results, hospitals are integrating technology in its action. Implementation of the Laboratory Information System (LIS) is an initiative that is designed to integrate technology into the medical system (Jones, Johnson, & Batstone, 2014). LIS is a software system that generates test results more accurately and within the stipulated time required by the clinicians. With the use of cloud computing technology, which makes the process of delivering test results more reliable (Ser et al., 2014),producing meaningful and almost error-free results that can enhance the decision-making progress (Namakula&Kituyi, 2014). With the installation of LIS, quality healthcare can be provided to the patients by the staff of the laboratories and hospitals. It has been reported in several studies that usage of LIS is associated with better laboratory management,improved communication and better decision-making, thus helping medical organisations to improve their functionality (Tavakoli et al., 2013).

End of preview

Want to access all the pages? Upload your documents or become a member.

Related Documents
Patient Safety Culture: Improving Health Care Quality
|4
|814
|135

Diagnostic Error United States Report 2022
|4
|771
|16

Patients Safety: An Issue of Health and Human Service Management
|13
|1738
|188

A Hospital with All Basic Facilities
|18
|5101
|243

Legislative Service Framework or Department of Health Directive
|8
|1466
|16

Negotiated Independent Work Based Learning docx
|8
|1381
|15