Workarounds and their implications for patient safety
A workaround is a practice that aims to fix a different workflow or procedure to meet a specific goal. Those who apply a workaround are usually trying to find ways to achieve that goal more quickly and using a shortcut by improvising other methods of achieving something. They mostly violate the standard procedure; hence it can pose a risk to the patient expectations.
One of the workarounds that I have witnessed in a hospital was the failure of pharmacist to scan medication when giving them to patients. This was happening at times when patients were too many, and hence, they felt scanning would consume a lot of time. It could pose a lot of risk to patients, especially if they need to track their medication history for future reference. There are no benefits of doing this because and I feel that it is not good at all.
A current patient safety measure I have witnessed at the same hospital is where two to three doctors repeat an ultrasound scan before they publish the results. This ensures that they come up with the best outcome by matching several observations. However, there are still some aspects that need to be changed to ensure patient safety. First, all medications should be scanned and paired with the patient’s details before administering for easy record retrieval. Secondly, the patient’s privacy should be upheld and avoid instances of sharing their information with family members without patient consent. Some patients might not want to share that. Thirdly, lab results should be scanned, and the data saved so that the results can be linked and compared later if the patient becomes sick again.