Identifying Clinical Error Risks for Druhi Neupane in Hospital

This report analyzes the case of Druhi Neupane, a 48-year-old patient with a language barrier, and identifies her high risk of clinical errors in a hospital setting. The report highlights the communication challenges between Druhi and the healthcare staff, and how this barrier increases the likelihood of misdiagnosis, medication reconciliation errors, and documentation errors. It details the potential consequences of each error, including serious health complications, death, or treatment delays. The report also suggests strategies to mitigate these risks, such as using hospital interpreters, collaborating with other healthcare practitioners, using translated health information, and seeking clarification when needed. The analysis underscores the importance of effective communication for patient safety and quality of care.

Identification of the patient
The 48 year old Druhi Neupane is clearly a high risk of clinical errors due to the fact that there is a communication barrier between Druhi
and the nurse. Although the barrier could have been bridged by Druhi’s visitors and relatives, they also have minimal English thereby
widening the communication gap. According to de Moissac and Bowen (2018), language barrier negatively impacts the quality of patient
care and safety. Therefore, in the case of Druhi, communication barrier may lead to clinical error as important information may not be
captured hence low quality of care.
Clinical errors
Misdiagnosis- This involves offering a prognosis on the basis of the symptoms offered by the patient hence ending up to be
false. Misdiagnosis can also result into failing to treat a patient, delaying the treatment, or even failing to conduct appropriate
tests. This error is likely to occur in the case of Druhi because critical information may not be provided by the patient due to a
lack of a common language. This error can result into serious health complications, death or even recurrence of the health issue.
Medication reconciliation error- This involves reviewing the medical history of the patient and identifying the appropriate list of
medications so as to avoid drug interactions, omissions, dosing errors and duplications (Aghajani, Ghazaeian, Mehrazin,
Sistanizad and Miri 2016). Ineffective communication between Druhi and the nurse may lead to error in medication
reconciliation because Druhi may only provide non-specific information that may lead to over-prescription and under-
prescription, incorrect dosage and prescribing the wrong medicine. This error may result into death and severe injury of the
patient.
Error of documentation- to ensure therapeutic outcomes, the nurse in charge must observe the condition of the patient, the care
and the treatment offered. However, due to communication barrier, the nurse may fail to record the medications administered or
even poor observations that may result into negative outcomes of Druhi. It is hard for the nurse to have an accurate and factual
documentation when communication is a great problem. Documentation errors can result into death, omission and even delay in
treatment. Fig 2: (Kennedy 2016)
Strategies
• Seek help from the hospital’s
trained interpreters.
• Effectively collaborate with other
healthcare practitioners so as to
help come up with a solution (Shitu,
Hassan, Aung, Kamaruzaman and
Musa 2018).
• Use translated health information
• Seek for more clarification in case
something is not clear (Murphy,
Singh and Berlin 2014).
Druhi Neupane’s treatment Clinical Errors
Student’s Name
List of References
Aghajani, M.H., Ghazaeian, M., Mehrazin, H.R., Sistanizad, M. and Miri, M., 2016. Errors Related to Medication Reconciliation: A Prospective Study in Patients Admitted to the Post
CCU. Iranian journal of pharmaceutical research: IJPR, 15(2), p.599.
Christensen, J., 2016. Medical errors may be third leading cause of death in the U.S.. CNN retrieved from
https://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/03/health/medical-error-a-leading-cause-of-death/index.html
de Moissac, D. and Bowen, S., 2018. Impact of language barriers on quality of care and patient safety for official language minority Francophones in Canada. Journal of Patient
Experience, p.2374373518769008. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373518769008
Kennedy, B., 2016. How to overcome the language barrier: Retrieved from https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/feature/how-break-through-language-barrier
Murphy, D.R., Singh, H. and Berlin, L., 2014. Communication breakdowns and diagnostic errors: a radiology perspective. Diagnosis, 1(4), pp.253-261.
Shitu, Z., Hassan, I., Aung, M.M.T., Kamaruzaman, T.H.T. and Musa, R.M., 2018. Avoiding medication errors through effective communication in a healthcare environment. Malaysian
Journal of Movement, Health & Exercise, 7(1).
Fig 1: (Christensen
2016)