Patient Safety Standards and Practices

It is quite important for healthcare providers to have the same and shared understanding of patient safety concerns since they form the foundation of quality healthcare and significantly addresses the cost of healthcare provision (Wu & Juhasz, 2017). Shared understanding as well ensures the healthcare professionals prioritize patient health needs and consequently play a key role in enhancing healthcare provision efficacy across healthcare providers regardless of the individual or institution patients seek healthcare services (Evans & Rogers, 2016). A shared understanding of safety policies and standards reduces risk and harm associated with medical mistakes. Again it creates growth and development of positive safety culture. It collectively creates an umbrella of reliable and quality healthcare.
On the other hand, allowing healthcare mistakes jeopardizes the quality of healthcare and increased adverse effects to patients including medical injury and even death (Evans & Rogers, 2016). Medical mistakes as well increase the healthcare costs in correcting such mistakes and also mitigating impacts associated with ‘medical mistakes’. In the long run, uncontrolled medical mistakes create an undesirable culture which considers and allows medical mistakes in the name of ‘human error’. Adverse impacts also include increased patient injury and lacked on healthcare efficacy mistrust.
The approach towards healthcare leaders and employers regarding medical mistakes ought to be based on the understanding of the principles of professional codes and healthcare safety. Ensuring the related officials and employers understand the implications of both adherence and deviations would play an important role in encouraging a safety culture (Christiansen, Robson, & Griffith-Evans, 2010). Also, emphasis on punitive policies for omissions and commissions leading to injury in the healthcare practice would also be based on the ultimate goal for healthcare quality. Healthcare systems as well ought to ensure reliable reporting and capture medical-mistakes-related instances.

References
Christiansen, A., Robson, L., & Griffith-Evans, C. (2010). Creating an improvement culture for enhanced patient safety: Service improvement learning in pre-registration education. Journal of Nursing Management, 18(7), 782-788. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01114
Evans, S. B., & Rogers, S. (2016). The Patient Perspective on Quality and the Role of the Patient in Safety. Quality and Safety in Radiation Oncology. doi:10.1891/9781617052460.0022
Wu, A. W., & Juhasz, R. S. (2017). 1. Principles of healthcare quality and patient safety. New Horizons in Patient Safety: Understanding Communication. doi:10.1515/9783110455014-001