In the current era of Medicine, hospitalists are in the front line of improvement and innovation in quality of patient care and safety. I'm unsure whether this is an unwanted privilege or honor; however, certainly, our job in the extremely complex environment that a Hospital pose, make us witnesses and actors in this fascinating and challenging journey that is the patient safety.
Hospitals by definition are dangerous places. The patients are very sick, the healthcare providers are overworked, the duty hours are demanding, but in addition there are multiple levels at which errors can occur. It is our responsibility to identify those errors and pursue a proactive role in attempting to minimize any preventable error. We need to be humble. Knowledge can easily overpower us. It is impossible to master all knowledge, and in pursuit of the best of patient care, sometimes it is not knowledge, but organization, time to think, good documentation practices, and evidence-based simple practices (such as using checklists, washing hands, etc.) which will allow patient care to be safer.
In this blog post, I discuss on some thoughts that my recent ventures into patient quality and safety have inspired me.
As I concluded in the blog post, "we all need to be on board of the train of safety and quality, as this journey will be the most exciting ever, and as a hospitalist, we are passengers in the First class coach."
No comments:
Post a Comment