Patient Safety
Patient safety is a critical component of any health care system which underscores quality-healthcare delivery. It is the prevention of potential harm that is likely to affect patients by ensuring that the patients are safe from errors, injuries, accidents, and infections (Cochrane et al., 2017). Even though healthcare organizations highly value patient safety, it remains a major challenge. As such, healthcare organizations require taking responsibility to improve patient safety, which is best attainable through the establishment of safety-oriented cultures characterized by shared values and belief on safety, personnel training on safety best-practice, and detection of potential safety hazards (Stevens, Levi, & Sands, 2017). The analysis delves into examining adverse drug events as one of the risk factors that jeopardize patient safety. Exceptional patient-safety leans on the effective collaboration and respect among all parties involved in care delivery to minimize adverse events.
Adverse Drug Event as a Primary Risk to Effective Patient Safety
Adverse drug event (ADE) is harm or potential harm that a patient might experience due to exposure to or inappropriate use of medication. Most cases of adverse events are preventable and arise from medication errors. Preventable adverse drug events may be caused by different factors including polypharmacy, limited health literacy and numeracy, medications that look alike or have names that sound alike, and inadequate diagnosis leading to the prescription of wrong drugs (Breckenridge, 2015). Health.gov reports that one in three adverse events in hospitals rare ADEs leading to prolonged hospital stay by one to five days (2019). It also indicates that over 1 million emergency department visits per year are directly related to ADEs and that physicians encounter over 3.5 million visits per year due to ADEs (health.gov, 2019).
Mitigating Adverse Drug Events
There is an urgent need to take precautionary measures during the medication process as a way to mitigate the threats which ADEs pose. First, it is essential to avoid unnecessary prescribing and ensure effective medical reconciliations during transitions to prevent over-prescription. Second, it is necessary to ensure effective transcribing by eliminating handwriting errors, which is appropriately attained by using computerized options (Cochrane et al., 2017). Further, checking drug interactions and allergies before dispensing medication can help in boosting safety. Finally, adhering to the five Rs of medication safety, which include administration of right medication, in the right dose, at the right time, by the right route, to the right patient is critical (Breckenridge, 2015).
Conclusion
It is apparent that attaining patient safety calls for healthcare organizations to establish safety-oriented cultures supported by active collaboration and respect among parties involved in care delivery. Despite adverse events such as ADEs continuing to jeopardize patient safety, most of the events are preventable. Thus, healthcare professions, in collaboration with the patients and their close families, require taking extra precautions in each step of healthcare delivery to minimize the cases of adverse events.