how to be safe during medical treatment

6 Ways Hospitals Ensure Patient Safety While Receiving Treatment

1. Enforce strict disinfection protocols. The simple act of sanitizing and disinfecting can go a long way in protecting...
2. Use advanced monitoring equipment. Monitoring patients’ conditions closely can reduce the possibility of accidents...
3. Verify all medical procedures. Medical errors can put...

Full Answer

How can I stay safe during chemo treatment?

You can follow certain steps to keep you and others safe. Follow these steps for 48 hours after you get chemo or as directed by your healthcare provider. If you get chemo every day, follow these steps until your healthcare provider tells you to stop. Always wash your hands with warm water and soap after you use the bathroom.

What should I know about medicine before going to the hospital?

Also, don’t forget any medicine you take only on occasion (like a rescue inhaler) Discuss allergies and the type of reaction you have. Hospital staff will always ask about any allergies you might have, as well as bad reactions that you’ve had to any medication or substance. That includes food, latex, intravenous dye used by radiologists, and so on.

What safety tips should I follow before a hospitalization?

Included are safety tips to follow even before a hospitalization. Share your medication list. Your doctors and nurses will need to know what you are taking. So before a hospitalization it’s important to have an accurate list to share with them.

How can we improve patient safety in healthcare?

To ensure successful implementation of patient safety strategies; clear policies, leadership capacity, data to drive safety improvements, skilled health care professionals and effective involvement of patients in their care, are all needed. Why does patient harm occur?

How can you ensure patient safety?

5 Factors that can help improve patient safety in hospitalsUse monitoring technology. ... Make sure patients understand their treatment. ... Verify all medical procedures. ... Follow proper handwashing procedures. ... Promote a team atmosphere.

What are 5 safety concerns in healthcare?

Rounding out the list of patient safety concerns for 2020 are the following:Diagnostic errors. ... Maternal health. ... Early recognition of behavioral health needs. ... Responding to and learning from device problems. ... Device cleaning, disinfection and sterilization. ... Standardizing safety across the healthcare system.More items...

What is patient safety in healthcare?

What is Patient Safety? Patient Safety is a health care discipline that emerged with the evolving complexity in health care systems and the resulting rise of patient harm in health care facilities. It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care.

How can you protect yourself from medical errors?

Protect Yourself Against Medical ErrorsTake an active role. People who are involved with their care tend to get better results. ... Keep your healthcare provider informed. ... Allergy alert. ... Is it legible? ... Clear terms. ... Check drug, dosage. ... Be informed and ask questions.

What are examples of patient safety?

The Nurse's Role in Patient SafetyIdentify “wrong site, wrong procedure, wrong patient” errors. High quality hospitals view nurses as the physician's partner in avoiding errors such as these. ... Catch medication mistakes. ... Educate patients about their medications. ... Reduce patient falls. ... Monitor patients for deterioration.

How do nurses keep patients safe?

From a patient safety perspective, a nurse's role includes monitoring patients for clinical deterioration, detecting errors and near misses, understanding care processes and weaknesses inherent in some systems, identifying and communicating changes in patient condition, and performing countless other tasks to ensure ...

What are the key elements of patient safety?

The key elements of a culture of safety include (1) a shared belief that although health care is a high-risk undertaking, delivery processes can be designed to prevent failures and harm to participants; (2) an organizational commitment to detecting and analyzing patient injuries and near misses; and (3) an environment ...

Why is it important to maintain patient safety?

Patient safety is an essential part of nursing care that aims to prevent avoidable errors and patient harm. Patient safety is a feature of a healthcare system and a set of tested ways for improving care. Staff can apply these safety improvement methods to make systems of care more reliable.

How can I protect myself in hospital?

Health care centers have stepped up these policies now. They are taking further steps to protect their patients....These include:Washing hands often.Disinfecting high-touch surfaces.Wearing face masks or other protective equipment.Making extra space for social distancing.

How can nurses avoid medical errors?

Nurses can take the following measures to reduce the likelihood of errors:Stop medication mix-ups. ... Protect patients from falls. ... Inhibit the spread of infections. ... Prevent equipment injuries. ... Pay attention to details to decrease errors in documentation.

What are the top 5 medical errors?

Eight common medical errors that harm patients are:Diagnostic Errors and Mistakes. ... Medication Errors. ... Surgical Errors. ... Labor and Delivery Errors. ... Anesthesia Errors. ... Failure to Obtain Informed Consent. ... Communication Errors. ... Infections and Secondary Complications.

What to do if you need antibiotics?

If you do need antibiotics, take them exactly as they’re prescribed. Watch for signs of infection and its complications, like sepsis. Get care right away—don’t delay. Tell your doctor if you think you have an infection, or if your infection is not getting better or is getting worse.

What to do if you have been hospitalized in another hospital?

Be a safe patient in the hospital. Tell your doctors if you have been hospitalized in another facility, have recently received health care outside of the United States, or have recently had an infection.

How can germs be spread in healthcare?

These germs can be spread in healthcare settings from patient to patient on unclean hands of healthcare personnel or through the improper use or reuse of equipment. These infections are not limited to hospitals.

How to prevent germs from spreading?

Protect yourself and your family from harmful germs that can cause infections. Keep your hands clean. Regular hand cleaning is one of the best ways to remove germs, avoid getting sick, and prevent spreading germs. Take antibiotics only when your provider thinks you need them. Ask if your antibiotic is necessary.

How to prevent infection after surgery?

Also, ask how you can prepare for surgery to reduce your infection risk. Keep your hands clean. Make sure everyone cleans their hands before touching you. Remind healthcare personnel and your visitors to clean their hands.

What is the HAI in healthcare?

Time in the hospital can put you at risk for a healthcare-associated infection (HAI), such as a blood, surgical site, or urinary tract infection. Every day, patients get infections in healthcare facilities while they are being treated for something else. These infections can have devastating emotional, financial, and medical effects.

Why is it important to allow a disinfector to clean your room?

Allowing them to clean and disinfect your room helps keep you safe by reducing your risk of developing an infection —don’t say, “come back later.”

What is patient safety?

In plain and simple terms, patient safety is how hospitals and other health care facilities safeguard their patients’ wellness by avoiding errors, injuries or accidents, or wrong judgment calls that may cause harm or endanger lives.

6 Ways Hospitals Ensure Patient Safety While Receiving Treatment

Hospitals can ensure patient safety and prevent untoward harm to patients who seek treatment with these steps.

A Culture of Patient Safety

Medical mistakes and errors may occur, but there are ways to prevent them. Patients need to feel secure that when they go to a hospital, they are getting the best healthcare possible without any risk of harm to their health or, worse, loss of lives. At Makati Medical Center, patient safety is ingrained in our culture.

How can hospitals eliminate errors?

Patients, employees, and administrators can eliminate most hospital errors by working as a team. However, it takes planning, commitment and work to maintain a safe hospital environment.

What are the characteristics of a safe building?

Most importantly, safe building designs incorporate planning to measure and benchmark facility conditions and characteristics, such as ease of information access, noise levels, scalability, and other factors. Patients, employees, and administrators can eliminate most hospital errors by working as a team.

Why are patients more involved in recovery planning?

As educated consumers, they receive safer treatment, because care providers and health advocates have empowered them with the ability to ask the right questions and notice potential problems.

Do consumers have a passive role in recovery?

Historically, consumers played a passive role in their recoveries and, with vague comprehension, followed treatment plans unquestioningly. [5] In this environment, patients placed absolute trust in care providers. Today, however, practitioners understand that educated patients can assist in reducing medical errors. Additionally, with the wealth of information available online, it is important that patients understand what health-related facts apply to their unique circumstances.

Why is patient safety important?

Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality essential health services. Indeed, there is a clear consensus that quality health services across the world should be effective, safe and people-centred. In addition, to realize the benefits of quality health care, health services must be timely, equitable, integrated and efficient.

What is patient safety?

Patient Safety is a health care discipline that emerged with the evolving complexity in health care systems and the resulting rise of patient harm in health care facilities. It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care.

Why does patient harm occur?

For example, a patient in hospital might receive a wrong medication because of a mix-up that occurs due to similar packaging. In this case, the prescription passes through different levels of care starting with the doctor in the ward, then to the pharmacy for dispensing and finally to the nurse who administers the wrong medication to the patient. Had there been safe guarding processes in place at the different levels, this error could have been quickly identified and corrected. In this situation, a lack of standard procedures for storage of medications that look alike, poor communication between the different providers, lack of verification before medication administration and lack of involvement of patients in their own care might all be underlying factors that led to the occurrence of errors. Traditionally, the individual provider who actively made the mistake (active error) would take the blame for such an incident occurring and might also be punished as a result. Unfortunately, this does not consider the factors in the system previously described that led to the occurrence of error (latent errors). It is when multiple latent errors align that an active error reaches the patient.

What is medication without harm?

Medication Without Harm (2017); with the aim of reducing the level of severe, avoidable harm related to medications globally by 50% over five years.

How many hospitalized patients have health care-associated infections?

Health care-associated infections occur in 7 and 10 out of every 100 hospitalized patients in high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries respectively (11).

What is clean care?

Clean Care is Safer Care (2005); with the goal of reducing health care-associated infection, by focusing on improved hand hygiene.

How many patients are harmed in primary care?

Globally, as many as 4 in 10 patients are harmed in primary and outpatient health care. Up to 80% of harm is preventable. The most detrimental errors are related to diagnosis, prescription and the use of medicines (6).

Why are healthcare-associated infections so difficult to treat?

Healthcare-associated infections can be caused by bacteria or fungi that are resistant to antibiotics, making them difficult to treat. Although national progress is being made to prevent these infections, there’s more to do, especially in fighting antibiotic-resistant germs. As a patient, you can help prevent the spread of infections, including antibiotic-resistant infections and improve antibiotic use.

How to prepare for surgery?

Prepare for surgery. Let your doctor know about any medical problems you have. Ask your doctor how he/she prevents surgical site infections.

What is a hospital-associated infection?

These are called healthcare-associated infections – and are often associated with devices used in medical procedures, such as catheters or ventilators.

Can you leave a catheter in place for too long?

Ask each day if your central line catheter or urinary catheter is necessary. Leaving a catheter in place too long increases the chances you’ll get an infection. Let your doctor or nurse know immediately if the area around the central line becomes sore or red, or if the bandage falls off or looks wet or dirty.

Is healthcare associated infection a public health issue?

Healthcare-associated Infections are not only a problem for healthcare facilities – they represent a public health issue. Many people and organizations are working together to attack these largely preventable infections. At CDC, we are committed to preventing healthcare-associated infections and making healthcare safer for everyone. For more information on how you can be a safe patient, visit: Patient Safety: What You Can Do to Be a Safe Patient.

How to prevent medication error?

Learn about new medications. Ask your doctor about each medication being prescribed and the reason you need to take it. Then have your nurse confirm the reason you are being given each medication. This way, if you hear something different, you should ask questions. This might prevent a medication error.

What to share with doctors before hospitalization?

So before a hospitalization it’s important to have an accurate list to share with them. Be sure to include prescription medications, over-the-counter (OTC) products, herbals vitamins, and dietary supplements.

What to do if a medication pump beeps?

Sometimes these pumps can beep at unexpected times. Never attempt to turn off the pump or allow any visitors in the room touch the pump.

What to ask hospital staff about allergies?

Hospital staff will always ask about any allergies you might have, as well as bad reactions that you’ve had to any medication or substance. That includes food, latex, intravenous dye used by radiologists, and so on. So it’s wise to keep a list of these, too.

What to tell your doctor about alcohol?

As a part of your health assessment, your doctors and nurses will ask you if you drink alcohol or use any illegal or prescription drugs that have not been prescribed to you. This information will remain confidential but is important for your care. Even if you have been prescribed certain types of medicines such as pain or anxiety medicine, you should tell the doctors if you have been taking more than the prescribed amount and how long you’ve been taking these drugs. It is important to be very honest with your doctors and nurses because alcohol and other drugs may interfere with medications you will be getting or change the way you respond to them.

How often do medication errors happen?

Medication errors happen every day in all healthcare settings, even in the most prestigious medical centers. And more than ever, consumers are aware of just how often these medications errors can happen. But with this knowledge comes power.

Can you press a pain pump button?

Don’t let family members press a pain pump button. Some patients who have surgery or are in severe pain may be given a pain relief device known as patient–controlled analgesia (PCA). These devices allow a patient to take pain medicine without having to call a nurse. This is done through a pump connected to an intravenous line (IV). When a patient feels pain, a button can be pushed and a dose of medicine is released. This button must only be pressed by the patient, not by others. Sleepy patients will not press the button, which prevents overdoses. Others pressing the button for the patient can result in breathing difficulties.

Why is it important to prevent falls?

Among people aged 65 and older, falls are the leading cause of injuries. And, those with cancer are at an increased risk of falls.

Why does cancer increase fall risk?

People with cancer, and especially people who are age 65 or older with cancer, are more likely to fall. This is because cancer treatments like chemotherapy can damage your nerves and affect your balance. T he dise a se and its treatment can also cause vision changes that might make someone more likely to fall.

Preventing falls before, during, and after cancer treatment

Talk to your oncologist and other health care providers about your risk of falls and how to prevent them. Ask if any of your treatments will increase your risk of falls. You should also tell them about any changes to your fall history or side effects. It's important that your health care team knows about:

How to stay active during cancer treatment

Exercise is important for many reasons for people aged 65 and older, including people undergoing or recovering from cancer treatments. Exercise is safe and helpful for most people during cancer treatment and recovery.

Travelling to and from appointments safely

Keeping your medical appointments is very important. However, aging brings challenges to driving safely. Also, cancer and cancer treatment can affect your ability to drive because of nerve damage, dizziness, or side effects from sedation or anesthesia. And, sometimes you may feel more fatigue and less energy without warning.

How to reduce the risk of body fluids?

Use your own toilet: Have family and visitors use a separate toilet. This will decrease the risk that your body fluids will get on their skin. If it is not possible to use your own toilet, flush the toilet 2 times. Wear gloves and clean the toilet after you use it.

How long after chemo do you have to keep your body?

Body fluids that get on your skin or another's skin may cause damage. You can follow certain steps to keep you and others safe. Follow these steps for 48 hours after you get chemo or as directed by your healthcare provider.

How to wash hands after a caregiver?

Caregivers should always wash their hands with warm water and soap after they clean. If body fluids get on a caregiver's skin they should wash the area right away with soap and warm water. You or your caregiver should tell your healthcare provider if this happens.

How to get rid of body fluids in hands?

Always wash your hands with warm water and soap after you use the bathroom. Use a paper towel instead of a cloth towel to dry your hands. This will decrease the risk that your body fluids will get on others.

Do you need gloves for ostomy?

This includes any time they need to empty your ostomy or other drains . Caregivers should always wash their hands with warm water and soap after they clean.

Should you have checkups or treatment for conditions other than COVID-19?

Some people are avoiding clinics and hospitals because they're worried about COVID-19. But health emergencies like heart attacks and strokes haven't stopped. Even minor health problems could get worse if not treated. They might become more dangerous than the virus.

What are hospitals and clinics doing to keep you safe?

Your care team is very aware of the threat of COVID-19. They are doing everything they can to keep you safe. Hospitals and clinics may have different policies. But in general, you may expect many of these measures:

What can you do to stay safe in the hospital or clinic?

We all have a role to play in keeping ourselves safe and preventing the spread of COVID-19. Here are some things you can do while you're receiving care.