Patient safety is a discipline in healthcare that develops rules and regulations designed to protect patients from medical errors, risks, and harm in the provision of medical care. Patient safety plays an increasingly important role due to the complexity of the healthcare system, which consists of many subsystems and complexes. A safe patient experience is important to people, which is why there are systems that compare quality scores, such as Hospital Compare Data. They help hospitals monitor patient safety and help customers decide where to get treated. The organizations worth analyzing are St. David’s Medical Center in Austin and the hospital where I did my internship, Dallas Medical Center, since while these institutions have similar safety approaches, Dallas Medical Center needs to incorporate more standards.
I chose St. David’s Medical Center for comparison because it is currently a role model in the field of patient safety; other institutions can learn from its norms, standards, and practices. In 2019, it accomplished all National Patient Safety Goals (Quality Report). St. David’s has managed to eliminate all patient identification errors, improve communication among caregivers, and use safe medication practices such as labelling medications, reconciling information, and preventing overmedication (Quality Check, n.d.). It showed perfect infection transmission prevention due to the advanced hygiene system and new air circulation systems (Quality Check, n.d.). Brilliant organization and execution of protocols in St. David’s allow the center to be number one regarding patient experience.
Similarly, Dallas Medical Center is a good facility and meets many high-level patient safety indicators. For example, the center has highly qualified staff and an excellent above-average surgical department (Hospital Safety Grade, n.d.). Moreover, the hospital scores high in safety, like St. David’s Medical Center, due to a low number of harmful events, in-hospital injuries, and other emergencies (Hospital Safety Grade, n.d.). However, the practices that Dallas Medical Center can learn from St. David’s are committed to improving communication between caregivers, possibly introducing team-building activities, and creating safe medication practices, such as labelling medications. Additionally, Dallas Medical Center must introduce new systems to prevent the spreading of infectious diseases, such as buying new ventilation systems and establishing waiting rooms.
References
Hospital Safety Grade. (n.d.). Dallas Medical Center.Web.
Quality Check. (n.d.). Quality report: St. David’s Medical Center. Web.