Well, things are changing quite drastically in the U.S. due to the ongoing pandemic. While first writing this article, things were actually looking good for the U.S. We thought we were seeing light at the end of the tunnel due to the numerous vaccines and a large number of Americans being vaccinated. COVID-19 cases were decreasing, many states were confident and had thus eased restrictions and regulations surrounding social distancing, allowing businesses to open up. Healthcare providers who have been ensuring patient care via virtual means were also opening up for in-person visits. Unfortunately, things did not remain positive for long – the pandemic is far from over.
COVID-19 cases in certain states are once again rising with increasing the pressure on healthcare providers. Once again, some hospitals are choosing to postpone elective procedures, whereas others are updating visitation policies for the patients. Moreover, hospitals are now getting filled with regular patients as well as COVID-19 patients. Thus, healthcare providers must focus on enhancing patient safety and risk management to reduce unwanted incidents and enhance healthcare outcomes.
COVID-19 has changed everything
The pandemic has changed everything for the entire world – one can say that it has shaken the word’s core, figuratively. For instance, many of us are still working remotely and practicing social distancing. However, the biggest changes, arguably, occurred in hospitals and health systems – telehealth became one of the only ways to ensure patient care during the pandemic and it looks like telehealth will become a permanent part of healthcare. Before diving into patient safety and risk management in the post-pandemic era, let’s see how it was before the pandemic.
1. In patient safety and risk management, patient misidentification is a common theme
Quite simply, patient safety focuses on preventing patient harm during the treatment process so that unwanted incidents don’t hamper healthcare outcomes.
Now patient safety incidents occur because several reasons, such as diagnostic testing errors, medication errors, patient falls, among other issues. While these topics have been widely discussed by experts, let’s take a look at a less discussed but crucial problem that causes patient safety incidents in many ways – patient misidentification.
Patient misidentification isn’t anything new – in fact, it has existed for decades due to a variety of reasons. However, a lot of patient safety incidents can be traced back to patient misidentification.
2. Patient misidentification causes patient record mix-upsÂ
This one’s quite simple – when a patient comes for an in-person visit, s/he is assigned the wrong medical record due to misidentification. As a result, any subsequent action will most definitely lead to a patient safety incident as the patient will receive wrong treatment, medication, and so on.
However, if by some miracle, the patient who came in doesn’t face any harm – does it mean that future patient safety incidents won’t occur? What about the patient whose EHR was used?
3. Patient misidentification jeopardizes patient data integrityÂ
This answers the question asked in the previous point. Whenever a medical record is used for someone else other than the actual patient, it leads to patient data integrity failure. Not only is the information in the EHR corrupt, but it also becomes quite dangerous. Just imagine that the patient who has heart disease is getting prescribed medication for chronic kidney disease – the consequences can be quite disastrous!
4. Patient misidentification generates preventable medical errorsÂ
This is closely tied to the previous points and is a consequence of them. When a patient is misidentified, they will be getting the wrong treatment, radiation overdoses, blood transfusion errors, wrong medication, and so on. While patients are usually misidentified during the registration process, it might also occur during treatment, and both of them lead to detrimental healthcare outcomes. However dangerous these events might seem, they are entirely preventable if patients are accurately identified.
While these were some of the patient safety and risk management issues in the pre-pandemic era, what do caregivers need to do in the post-pandemic one?
5. Improving patient safety in a post-pandemic worldÂ
To be honest, there are still many unresolved issues within healthcare facilities that jeopardize patient safety and risk management. However, the pandemic has added more issues into the mix – as a result, caregivers need to work on all of the problems simultaneously.
So, how can caregivers focus on patient safety as some of them are opening their doors to in-person visits?
Continue providing virtual healthcare sessions
Starting off, we all know how the pandemic has shown the many advantages of telehealth. Fortunately, a lot of patients have accepted telehealth and are even wanting to continue using it after the national health emergency is over.
If the caregivers continue to provide telehealth services, they can keep patient volumes down within their facilities and continue treating everyone. This ensures patient safety as lesser patients come in for in-person visits and keep HAIs (hospital-acquired infections) at bay.
6. Ensure everyone is properly wearing PPEÂ
While it looked like the pandemic was waning in the U.S., COVID-19 cases have increased once again. We’re still at a critical stage, and as new infectious and dangerous variants are popping up, healthcare providers must ensure the safety of everyone that comes into their facilities.
Enforcing PPE usage on everyone is the only way to safeguard both patients and caregivers. While restrictions might have eased for other industries, enforcing PPE usage on people who visit the hospitals can reduce infections and even save lives in the process.
7. Utilize solutions that eliminate physical touchÂ
Due to the pandemic, many organizations are working towards innovative solutions, one of which is making them contactless or at least reducing the number of physical interactions required. This is more applicable for healthcare facilities, as these are places where patients might become victims of HAIs.
While many organizations are coming up with contactless solutions, some already exist, for instance, many healthcare providers are using a touchless patient identification platform. Not only does such a solution help ensure positive patient identification, but it also reduces the risk of HAIs as it’s contactless.
Hospitals must protect patients at all costsÂ
Patient safety incidents have always been an issue of the U.S. healthcare system, and with COVID-19 cases spiking once again, it looks like hospitals and health systems have their hands full. However, with careful planning, utilizing appropriate strategies, and making informed decisions, hospitals can prevent deaths, medication errors, mix-ups, and more – improving patient safety in the process.
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