Patient safety, especially for the residents, has become increasingly important. Although a hospital can be assumed to be a naturally safe place, numerous hazards are worth considering. Resident patients’ safety is, to a large extent, a duty of the hospital management. Below are some strategies through which healthcare facilities can guarantee the safety of residents.
1. Promote a safety culture within the facility
Safety culture is by far the most important aspect of any healthcare facility. This culture promotes safe practices among patients and staff. For instance, when a safety culture is prioritized, staff within the facility will be keen to follow the laid-out procedures regarding patient treatment and other practices. Patients are also made aware of their respective roles pertaining to individual and collective responsibilities towards safety.
2. Follow best hospital design principles
Hospital design plays an essential role in determining how everyone within the hospital interacts with the systems in place. The buildings, corridors, hospital beds, and entrances should be constructed in line with the recommended principles by the relevant authorities. The role of emergency and safety management within a healthcare facility is to ensure that residents can be evacuated easily in case of an emergency. This also ensures that residents can raise the alarm during an emergency and exit easily from a building.
Therefore, all healthcare facilities should be well designed, and all residents should be informed of how they use the various tools and systems for their safety. For instance, fire extinguishers and exit doors should be installed in every facility.
3. Install and effectively utilize monitoring technology
One of the best ways of keeping patients safe is ensuring that you can observe them at all times. Monitoring technology such as CCTV has proved essential in all institutions, including medical facilities. For instance, when an unauthorized person attempts to enter a healthcare facility, monitoring systems notify the relevant authorities, which take immediate action to secure all residents.
In addition, if a patient falls or encounters a challenge, the monitoring team would respond quickly since they can observe all actions within the facility.
4. Enforce accountability and verify all medical practices and procedures
Some cases have been reported where patients received the wrong treatment, which significantly endangered their lives. Since hospitals have a specific procedure for every treatment, verification should be done to ensure that patients are given the correct treatment.
For instance, two-step verification should be followed whereby a patient is not given any prescription without a second doctor’s presence and confirmation. This way, most of the problems associated with patient misdiagnosis and wrong treatment will be avoided, and therefore resident patients will be assured of their safety.
In addition, patients in a position to consent should be given the informed consent opportunity to understand and sign for every medical procedure done to them.
Bottom Line
The bottom line is: that residents in any healthcare facility should be safeguarded from common and unforeseen risks. Every hospital should understand its safety needs and put all measures in place for the safety and security of everyone present.
Hi, I’m the Founder and Developer of Paramedics World, a blog truly devoted to Paramedics. I am a Medical Lab Tech, a Web Developer and Bibliophiliac. My greatest hobby is to teach and motivate other peoples to do whatever they wanna do in life.