Patient safety is a critical aspect of healthcare that needs focused professionals to continue to meet aggressive metrics. Excellent patient safety practices can determine long-term implications of a healthcare facility; thus, creating a need for credentialed individuals who are vigilant about the totality of the patient experience.
What is Patient Safety?
The overview of how hospitals and other health care organizations protect their patients from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections, is the definition of patient safety. While many healthcare facilities are good at keeping their patients safe, some hospitals are not as focused on this critical aspect of healthcare. As many as 440,000 people die every year from preventable errors in hospitals.
Preventing Mistakes, Accidents, Infections:
In some healthcare facilities, patient safety is a top priority. Strong healthcare teams have the ability to decrease infection rates, put checks points in place to prevent mistakes, and ensure strong lines of communication between hospital staff, patients, and families. Patient safety also cuts down on medical malpractice lawsuits, which helps keep the overall cost of healthcare down.
The statistics are alarming:
- Up to 440,000 people die every year from hospital errors, injuries, accidents, and infections
- Every year, 1 out of every 25 patients develops an infection while in the hospital—an infection that didn’t have to happen
- A Medicare patient has a 1 in 4 chance of experiencing injury, harm or death when admitted to a hospital
- Today alone, more than 1000 people will die because of a preventable hospital error
With healthcare growing at a rapid rate, more advocates for patients will be necessary. Now is the perfect time to learn more about a career as in patient safety.
To learn more about the impact of patient safety, and possible career options, visit this article.
