Analyzing Relationships Between Medication Errors & Quality and Safety Outcomes NURS FPX 6212 Assessment 2 Executive Summary

Analyzing Relationships Between Medication Errors & Quality and Safety Outcomes

Since medication errors are rising and a severe concern for Vila’s health as they lead to adverse events and even fatalities, it is essential to analyze the relationships between medication errors and specific quality and safety outcomes. The specific safety and quality outcomes studied are adverse events, patient satisfaction, length of stay, mortality rate, and hospital readmissions. Medication errors are usually due to inadequate training of staff, lack of communication, high workload, and poor work environment. Such factors increase the risk of medication errors, leading to patient complications and adverse events (Neugebauer et al., 2021). Adverse events harm patients and lead to healthcare costs. Medication errors also contribute to the quality outcomes of stay as medication errors and adverse events leading to complications increase the length of stay for more treatment, increasing the costs and decreasing patient outcomes (Rasool et al., 2020). Due to all of this, medication errors reduce patient satisfaction, impacting healthcare’s reputation and patient trust. Medication errors can also lead to hospital readmission, negatively impacting patient outcomes.

The additional data that could be collected to gain an even better understanding of the medication errors is understanding the underlying factors contributing to it with root-cause analysis, data can be collected on the different types of medication errors and their severity, and data can also be collected on the training and education level of the healthcare providers to determine the relationship.

Strategic Initiatives

The strategic initiatives that can be taken for a culture of safety and quality related to the outcome measure of patient satisfaction can be the development of educational programs for patients that increase their awareness and confidence in medications (Cha et al., 2021). Patients can be given surveys or questionnaires to rate their medical experience and satisfaction. The initiative for the outcome measure for the length of stay can be providing training and workshops to the healthcare providers so they are confident in preventing medication errors. There can be the implementation of technology like BCMA for checking prescriptions to avoid errors and adverse events that may prevent prolonged stays at the hospital for the patient (Naidu & Alicia, 2019). A medication safety committee can also be formed to analyze the trends of medication errors and root causes for the outcome measure of adverse events. 

The Vila Health strategic plan is to provide patient-centered care by reducing harm while minimizing human errors at the facility. In light of the current situation with increasing medication errors, the organization must adapt to technologies like BCMA, address workforce challenges, address lack of competency and training, and improve healthcare disparities.