I created this blog as an assignment for my class at UC Davis Extension “The Internet and the Future of Patient Care." For some reason I was never thought of blogging before. By taking the healthcare informatics class I learned that blogging is very easy and convenient way to share information and ideas. Currently I am wound care nurse at UCDMC and MS student at Betty Irene Moore School of Nursing. Working as a nurse I realized that we have dissent healthcare system comparing to the third world countries, but we have a lot of areas in our system where we need to improve. In these blog I would like to share my thoughts and some information in regards what we need to do to make our healthcare system the best in the world.
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Is a hospital a safe place to be?
Is a hospital a safe place to be?
Many people consider a hospital as a lifesaving and safe place. Before I became a nurse, I believed that no matter what happened to my body, the hospital is lifesaving, safe place-a hospital where doctors and nurses will use all the technology to save my life. The only thing I had to do was to get there soon enough. After I received my nursing degree, my view of hospitals as safe place changed. Looking at statistics I learned from my Healthcare Informatics class at UC Davis, according to Institute of Medicine Report, about 90,000 to 100,000 patients per year die as a result of medical error and 50% of these errors are preventable. To better understand this number, imagine one big airplane crashing every day. This is how many people are dying because of medical errors. The interesting thing is that when one airplane crashes somewhere, this becomes breaking news, but there is no news when a medical error airplane crashes everyday. I guess we got used to it or just simply do not want to hear this. This is the huge civic problem and we have to deal with it. Personally, I made one medication error myself. At that time I worked as a dialysis nurse. My dialysis acute unit received new dialysis machines. During a dialysis procedure we give heparin to prevent the system from clotting. The new machines had touch screens. When I was programming the machine, I accidentally touched an extra zero, so the dose of heparin was 10 ml per hour instead of 1ml per hour. Luckily, I caught this in time. The patient did receive more heparin then was ordered, but not a toxic dose.
Yes, I still believe that hospital is a lifesaving place, but is it a safe place? Looking at the statistics I mentioned, it seems that it is not as safe as some people think. My next question is what should we do to make a hospital a safe place? From the patient and family stand point, I always encourage my patients and their family members to be actively involved in the patient care. I ask them to question me about what I am doing, what medication I am giving and why. When my family members stay in a hospital, I always try to be with them and actively involved in their care. Last October my mother-in-law was in a hospital because of complications from chemotherapy. One of the complications she had was Deep Vein Thrombosis which required heparin for treatment. Remembering my mistake with Heparin, I looked at the pump to see how much of medication she was getting. I suspected it was a higher dose than usual from my practice so I double checked. Sure enough, she had an extra 0 in her hourly dose. Because of my active involvement is my mother-in-low care, I was able to prevent complication from Heparin treatment. I was able to prevent problems associated with medication dose error, but how about those families that have no healthcare education? So, what can we, as healthcare professionals can do it to make the hospital a safer place? Many people believe that technology is the answer. I agree that computer technology like bar-coding medications will help to reduce big numbers of errors. When I look at the technical aspect of the banking system, I believe that these guys are doing a very good job with my accounts. With the help of computers, their error rate is very small. I think, we as healthcare professionals can do the same thing in using technology for safe care. Finally, in some hospitals I see progress. They implemented EMR with bar-coding medication administration system. But in the healthcare field, we are so behind in technology implementation compared to other industries like banking. So my concern is why healthcare industry is so slow. I believe hospital safety is not of lesser importance than accurate banking. I would like to open a discussion, what can we as nurses can do to speed up the process of computer technology implementation to make a hospital a safer place?
Yes, I still believe that hospital is a lifesaving place, but is it a safe place? Looking at the statistics I mentioned, it seems that it is not as safe as some people think. My next question is what should we do to make a hospital a safe place? From the patient and family stand point, I always encourage my patients and their family members to be actively involved in the patient care. I ask them to question me about what I am doing, what medication I am giving and why. When my family members stay in a hospital, I always try to be with them and actively involved in their care. Last October my mother-in-law was in a hospital because of complications from chemotherapy. One of the complications she had was Deep Vein Thrombosis which required heparin for treatment. Remembering my mistake with Heparin, I looked at the pump to see how much of medication she was getting. I suspected it was a higher dose than usual from my practice so I double checked. Sure enough, she had an extra 0 in her hourly dose. Because of my active involvement is my mother-in-low care, I was able to prevent complication from Heparin treatment. I was able to prevent problems associated with medication dose error, but how about those families that have no healthcare education? So, what can we, as healthcare professionals can do it to make the hospital a safer place? Many people believe that technology is the answer. I agree that computer technology like bar-coding medications will help to reduce big numbers of errors. When I look at the technical aspect of the banking system, I believe that these guys are doing a very good job with my accounts. With the help of computers, their error rate is very small. I think, we as healthcare professionals can do the same thing in using technology for safe care. Finally, in some hospitals I see progress. They implemented EMR with bar-coding medication administration system. But in the healthcare field, we are so behind in technology implementation compared to other industries like banking. So my concern is why healthcare industry is so slow. I believe hospital safety is not of lesser importance than accurate banking. I would like to open a discussion, what can we as nurses can do to speed up the process of computer technology implementation to make a hospital a safer place?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)