In 1-2 pages, write an evaluation of a hospital’s policies on safety and describe current efforts in place to minimize risks of harm to patients. Hospital Safety Policy and Measures t Hospital Safety Policy and Measures t APA format and include a title page and reference

Hospital Safety Policy and Measures to Minimize Patient Harm

Hospital policies influence the daily activities of a hospital. They are important for the health and safety of patients and even for those who work at the hospital. They boost communication between patients and healthcare workers and communication among healthcare workers. Improved communication among healthcare workers results in improved care for patients. Hospital policies ensure that hospital procedures and activities conform to the laws of the state, thus avoiding legal consequences. They also make it easier for hospitals to be validated by accrediting bodies that assess the policies of hospitals and make sure that they conform to set standards. Hospital policies on safety include keeping all its inhabitants safe, infection transmission prevention, and ensuring each patient gets the treatment that is appropriate for their disease.

A hospital intends to create an environment that is safe and secure for visitors, patients, and healthcare workers. To keep everyone safe, hospitals have installed surveillance cameras, and they have put up fire exit signs and fire exit routes. An individual has been appointed to maintain the surveillance cameras and fire exit signs. A safety inspection is conducted twice yearly, and thereafter, a report is generated and discussed by hospital management. Hospitals have also hired security officers who receive and guide visitors and patients as needed and react to security situations, thus protecting visitors, patients, and healthcare workers.

When patients seek care at hospitals, they are given identifiers like outpatient or inpatient numbers. These identifiers are used to ensure that health information is correctly matched to the patient so that they can receive treatment that is appropriate for their disease. Visitors are required to come during the hours that have been set aside for visiting patients. When they come, they are expected to respect patients and healthcare workers at the hospital and to only bring along items that are approved by the hospital (Belanger et al., 2017). Healthcare workers have to undergo a verification process to ensure that they are licensed, competent, skillful, and have a good employment record. The verification process ensures that the healthcare workers the hospital is hiring are qualified for their duties in the hospital.

The hospital environment creates the risk of transmission of infection. However, infection transmission prevention is done in various ways. According to Khan et al. (2017), these include hand cleansing with soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer, proper use and disposal of needles and syringes, proper disposal of hospital waste products, use of medical asepsis technique in clinically invasive procedures, sterilizing reusable hospital equipment, proper cleaning of the hospital environment, and isolation of infected patients. This approach reduces the risk of transmission of infection from patients to healthcare workers or vice versa.

Measures that have been put in place to minimize the risk of patient harm are the provision of care that is patient-guided, informed consent, the creation of awareness on patient safety, data security and confidentiality, and quality assurance committees. Patient-guided care makes sure each patient receives treatment that is appropriate for their disease. The creation of awareness of the importance of patient safety keeps healthcare workers up to date with patient safety policies and procedures and helps them avoid legal consequences of breaching safety policies (Lengetti et al., 2018). Informed consent is a process that gives a patient all the information about the treatment they are going to receive before they accept or decline the treatment. Data security and confidentiality allow only authorized individuals to access patient information. Quality assurance committees assess existing safety policies and generate reports for discussion by hospital management. Improvements are made where necessary after discussions to increase the quality of care.

References

Bélanger, L., Bussières, S., Rainville, F., Coulombe, M., & Desmartis, M. (2017). Hospital visiting policies-impacts on patients, families and staff: A review of the literature to inform decision making. J Hosp Adm, 6(6), 51-62. https://doi.org/10.5430/jha.v6n6p51

Khan, H. A., Baig, F. K., & Mehboob, R. (2017). Nosocomial infections: Epidemiology, prevention, control, and surveillance. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 7(5), 478-482. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtb.2017.01.019

Lengetti, E., Kronk, R., Ulmer,