Hello I need assistance with this discussion question. I've attached an answer sample. Why are organizations encouraged to develop a culture of safety? How can a culture of safety be achieved? How ca
Why are organizations encouraged to develop a culture of safety? How can a culture of safety be achieved? How can a culture of safety be assessed? Research and identify an article discussing a healthcare organization e.g. hospital, nursing home, surgery center, patient care facility etc. that has implemented innovative safety operations to reduce corporate risk. Summarize three to four main points from your selected article. Cite the article in APA format as part of your post.
Why are organizations encouraged to develop a culture of safety?
Health care organizations are encouraged to create a safety culture to minimize the risk of injury and/or death to the patient as well as the employees due to everyday common mistakes ( Pogzar,2012). For example many times patients who have had invasive procedures develop sepsis while still in the hospital; this is due to carelessness of the treating staff when caring for the open wound. With employees a simple thing such as getting a flu shot can provide a safer, healthier environment for both parties, while reducing absences in the work place.
How can a culture of safety be achieved?
A culture of safety has to come from the top down, meaning that it must be demonstrated by management all the way down to the entry level employees in order for the collective efforts to make a difference in the way patient care is monitored and flowed. The vision set forth by the organization must be a realistic and one that motivates the employees to walk in the way of the vision. Most important is that the culture is able to evolve with technology and changing healthcare regulations. Mostly a culture of safety has to be one of commitment by all involved in the daily workflow.
How can a culture of safety be assessed?
Many organizations use benchmarking to assess where they stand amongst their peers, meaning how they fair against other organizations of the same size that provide the same services that they do. This can also be done by developing programs for patient safety and tracking the rate of which incidents are occur before, during, and after the roll out of the programs. The most important part of the assessment is being sure that the mandatory regulations are being upheld and carried out to standards.
Organization
In the article Sentara Healthcare: Making Patient Safety an Enduring Organizational Value, it speaks of how the organization as a whole was doing poorly compared to peer organizations. The leadership deiced to hire an outside firm to assess areas where the organization could improve and to help increase patient safety. Once, the assessment was complete organizational strategies and tools where implemented to help ensure that the change would come about through the entire organization.
References
Oh, J. (2012, June 4). 6 Elements of a True Patient Safety Culture. Retrieved December 17, 2015, from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/quality/6-elements-of-a-true-patient-safety-culture.html
Pozgar, G. (2012). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration (11 ed.). Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones& Bartlett Learning.
US National Library of Medicine, & National Institute of Health. (2003, November). Safety culture assessment: a tool for improving patient safety in healthcare organizations. Retrieved December 17, 2015, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1765782/
