Current National Patient Safety Goals - Essay Example

 Current National Patient Safety Goals National Patient Safety Goals: "Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections" The overall purpose of the National Patient Safety Goals is to center on problems in health care, solve them, and promote safety in healthcare. The goals promote the correct identification of patients, improve staff communication, use medicines safely, use alarms safely, prevent infection, identify patient safety risks, and prevent mistakes in surgery. Through these goals outlined by The Joint Commission, accredited organizations can address various issues of concern pertaining patient safety. The formulation of the goals involved concerted efforts of professionals who have practical experience in addressing patient safety matter in health care settings. These professionals, referred to as the Patient Safety Advisory Group, include clinical physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and healthcare managers. In addition, the commission tailors the goals to be program-specific towards a specific accredited organization. The Joint Commission implemented the goals to assess the safety and the eminence of care provided for patients. There are some achievements accrued from the implementation of the goals. This paper explores "Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections" as one of the goals of the National Patient Safety Goals. Goal number seven outlines Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections as an important consideration of patient safety (The Joint Commission, 2015). It species the need to implement evidence-based practices to prevent infections in areas such as central line-associated bloodstream infections, health care-associated infections, surgical site infections, and indwelling catheter-associated urinary tract infections. In addition, it presents hand hygiene guidelines and outlines goals for improving hand cleaning as specified by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Healthcare professionals infect millions of people in the process of giving care, treatment, and healthcare services in healthcare organizations. Healthcare-related infections are thus an integral component of patient safety in healthcare settings. Hand cleaning and the myriad forms of infections are detailed below. The rationale of hand cleaning is to help prevent healthcare-associated infections and it applies to both in home and healthcare settings such as ambulatory, laboratory, surgery, and critical access hospital. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) specifies hang hygiene guidelines to observe in home care and nursing care centers (The Joint Commission, 2015). The NPSG sets goals for bettering the process of hand cleaning and outlines its repercussions. Through the goals, one can improve hand cleaning and promote patient safety. The hand hygiene of health care staff must improve in order to avert such infections. Staff members transmit infectious agents to patients in the process of healthcare delivery and contribute to the health care–associated infections (HAIs). An organization must evaluate its compliance with the CDC and/or WHO guidelines to guarantee conformity with this National Patient Safety Goal. It should have a program that regulates and monitors a hand hygiene policy that fosters a culture of hand hygiene. In addition, there must be mechanisms to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the hand hygiene policy. The goal also outlines the need to use proven guidelines in the prevention of central line-associated bloodstream infections in nursing care centers and critical access hospitals. This requirement explores peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) lines and temporary and enduring central venous catheters. There is a need to educate relevant staff on prevention measures as a job responsibility. Both patients and their families require guidance on central line–associated bloodstream infection prevention before inserting a central venous catheter. Similar to hand hygiene, there is a need for implementable policies, aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, to lessen the risk of central line–related bloodstream infections (Lovedaya, Wilsona, Pratta, Golsorkhia, Tinglea, Baka, Brownea, Prietob, Wilcoxc, 2014). Routine evaluation is essential to remove nonessential catheters. Periodic risk assessments, examination of observance with evidence-based practices, and evaluation of the effectiveness of prevention efforts is necessary to control and prevent central line–associated bloodstream infections. In critical access hospitals and other forms of hospitals, it is essential to implement evidence-based practices to avert healthcare-related infections that arise from multi-drug-resistant organism in acute care hospitals. The requirement considers epidemiologically important organisms such as multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacteria, vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE), methicillinresistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and clostridium difficile (CDI). Although these are its main considerations, it considers several other infectious agents, which differ according to hospitals. The rationale of this goal is the alarming rate at which people patients continue to get health care–associated infections. A periodic risk assessment is necessary in every hospital to determine the exact prevention and control strategies for epidemiologically important multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs). After an evaluation of the risk assessment results, it is essential to give the healthcare workforce necessary training to avoid future risks of infection. In addition, the families of patient with multidrug-resistant organism must receive education on infection prevention strategies (The Joint Commission, 2015). In addition, there is need to prevent surgical site infections in office-based surgery, critical access hospital, ambulatory, and hospital through evidence-based practices. The importance of prevention in surgical operations is evident owing to the sensitivity of the process. Healthcare centers must educate staff, patients, and families involved about surgical procedures and the risks that promote infections. Policies and practices that meet regulatory requirements must follow CDC guidelines or information cited in scientific literature or sanctioned by professional organizations. Finally, the "Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections" goal specifies the need to use evidence-based practices to avert indwelling infections in the catheter-related urinary tract. This applies to hospital settings and critical access hospital environment. These practices largely apply to adults but do not apply to pediatric populations. Some of its guiding elements include reducing the use and duration to circumstances necessary for patient care and use of aseptic methods to prepare site, equipment, and supplies. Indwelling urinary catheters must follow established evidence-based guidelines that help protect catheters for unhindered urine flow and drainage, collect urine samples, maintain the urine collection structure, and replace the system when required (The Joint Commission, 2015). Selection and monitoring must be in line with best practices or evidence-based guidelines and the effectiveness of prevention efforts requires constant evaluation. The NPSG has other goals that the advisory committee regularly updates. For instance, goal 15 helps identify safety risks inherent in its patient population and helps healthcare professionals identify suicidal patients in psychiatric healthcare centers and patients receiving treatment for behavioral disorders in general hospital settings. In addition, safety goals underline the need for pre-procedure verification process, depending on the type and complexity of the procedure, in order to identify the patient’s desired procedure, and ensure relevant parties do the application of the procedure on the right person. It is essential to gather and confirm information in the verification process to make certain that they have all the related information and equipment before an operation, and the information matches with the patient. It prevents the instances of wrong site surgery and ascertains marking of the incision or insertion site. Goal 1 also stresses on this need, as it outlines the requirement to improve the accuracy of patient identification. In conclusion, the national patient safety goals have been successful largely. Prevention of the spread of health care–associated infections is achievable through a reliable hand hygiene policy, cleaning and disinfecting patient care equipment, and contact precautions. The environment that a patient is in determines the level of exposure to healthcare-related infections. Patient care equipment must be clean and disinfected at all times in the healthcare setting. The regulations also apply to independent practitioners who may not be familiar with the organizational policies. Standardized protocols are essential to promote uniformity across hospital centers. Periodic risk assessment aligned to best practices or evidence-based guidelines are essential to scrutinize compliance and assess the efficiency of prevention efforts. Healthcare centers must provide key stakeholders with the outcomes of risk assessment, for example, data on surgical site infection rate. References The Joint Commission. (2015). National Patient Safety Goals Effective January 1, 2015. Hospital Accreditation Program. Lovedaya, H., Wilsona, J., Pratta, R., Golsorkhia, M., Tinglea, A., Baka, A., Brownea, J., Prietob, J., Wilcoxc, M. (2014). epic3: National Evidence-Based Guidelines for Preventing Healthcare-Associated Infections in NHS Hospitals in England. ELSEVIER. Journal of Hospital Infection 86S1 (2014) S1–S70 Read More