FBN # 50-12426
CE Broker #20-295341
A Self-Study Learning Module
Sheryl Gilson, MSN, RN
Preventing Medical Errors
This course will provide and introduction and overview of the safety concerns facing health care systems today, including data and background on the magnitude of the problem Error reduction and prevention, and multi-causal analysis. Goals of the Joint Commission and National Patient Safety goals will be discussed. The ultimate goal is to promote safety and improve patient outcomes. Patient and Family participation will also be stressed within this course.
Florida Statute requirements: Section 456.013(7), Florida Statutes, now requires completion of a two hour course relating to prevention of medical errors as part of the renewal process for licensure. The Board has amended rule 64B19-13.003, Florida Code (F.A.C.), to include this requirement
The IOM reports, the Florida State legislature mandated that all licensees must complete a two-hour course on prevention of medical errors, which meets the criteria of Florida Statute 456.013, for initial licensure and biennial renewal.
Research funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has shown that medical errors result most frequently from systems errors-organization of health care delivery and how resources are provided in the delivery system. Only rarely are medical errors the result of carelessness or misconduct of a single individual
Mistakes can happen anywhere; in hospitals, they happen in outpatient clinics, they happen in nursing homes and home care, and they happen in self-care. We as clinicians need to acknowledge that they can and do happen. The challenge is to avoid them, and when mistakes do occur, to prevent them from causing harm to our patients.
Errors can occur at any point in the health care delivery system. Acknowledging that errors happen, learning from those errors, and working to prevent future errors represents a major change in the culture of health care. The shift in culture has occurred; from blame and punishment to analysis of the root causes of errors and strategies to improve systems and processes. Every person on the healthcare team has a role in making health care safer for patients and workers.
Objectives
1. Describe the magnitude of medical errors and the effect on patient safety
2. Identify the processes to approach error reduction and prevention
3. Recognize error prone situations. Processes and identify factors that impact the occurrence of
errors
4. Define types medical errors.
5. Define the process and benefit of multi-causal analysis (i.e. Root Cause, Sentinel Events and/or FEMA)
6. Describe processes to improve patient outcomes
7. Identify safety needs of special populations
8. Discuss the importance of public (community) education in reducing errors.
9. Define Patient/Family responsibilities in aiding health care providers to reduce errors
10. Describe what each of us can do to protect patients and ourselves from accidental injury.