Research Paper Example: Patient-Focused Functions in Hospitals

Patient focus functions need to the central point of all medical facilities. The patient focus functions often serve as guides for medical faculties to assist in delivering quality healthcare and also enhance patient safety either in or out of the hospital. The hospital-organization functions also play a major role in the provision of quality services. The functions as mentioned above have been recognized more as Joint Commission, as well as other regulatory bodies together with accrediting agencies, shows more concern for them when carrying out surveys. The paper discusses the specific criterion and guidelines in both the patient-focused functions and the hospital organization function.

Patient-Focused Functions

The Joint Commission Accreditation Standards for the patient-focused section is inclusive of guidelines in infection control areas, care provision, medication management and responsibilities and rights. Infection control and prevention are standards that are specifically designed to assist hospitals in the development and maintenance of practices covering several situations. Medication management standards sought to address a medical management system that is well-planned and implemented that is inclusive of selection, procurement, storage, preparation, ordering and dispensing. Monitoring and administration being another part of the patient-focused functions are supposed to be surveyed during the hospital accreditation process. Care, treatment, and services provided are categorized in the patient-focused criteria (Jacoby, 2008). The responsibilities and rights of the personal standards focus on: informing the patients about their rights, helping them to understand and to exercise the rights. The infection prevention and control are among the patient-focused elements used by the Joint Commission in the evaluation of a medical Centre for accreditation. The criterion assists in insuring patients, family members, and other staff members so that they can remain healthy.

A properly conducted and an effective risk assessment creates a framework for any hospitals infection control plan since if identifies infections of the highest potential and probable harm. It is also effective identification of weakness areas, which is a focal point for the Joint Commission Surveyors, and guides goals and objectives of development and reducing threats tactics. The above is needed for patients to keep coming back and to have trust in the medical facility. If faith and trust in a facility are missing, it will affect the hospitals reputation as well as its accreditation (Jacoby, 2008). A medical facilitys infection prevention assessment of risks is a cornerstone upon which a facilitys infection prevention program ought to be structured. The Joint Commission standards for management of medication are considered to be the most challenging for any organization to implement. For the preparation of hospital compliance, every stage of the medication uses the process form.

In conclusion, managing medications set out to reduce the potential errors by setting procedures in place to educate patients about medicine safety and by doing this it will ensure that the medicine is safely managed after prescription, dispensation, and administration.

Hospital Function Guideline

Setting a guideline on what should be done when treating the employee to ensure their safety is critical. The guideline can either establish the minimum levels of expected performance or ensure consistency and uniformity in ensuring employee safety across various hospitals. Regulators and accreditors have got the responsibility of ensuring that hospitals adhere to the established patient safety guideline (Patient safety: essentials for health care, 2005).

To ensure patient safety, the following should be considered by the licensing bodies in the healthcare organization;

Facts supporting the patient safety guideline

The issue patient safety has been in public domain for a long period of time. Statistics do indicate that over 70% of patients dont have access to safety in hospitals. The safety aspect, in this case, covers physical harm, psychological harm as well as information privacy and confidentiality. About 20% of patients in hospitals end up losing their lives not as a result of the diseases they are suffering from, but as a result of failed safety measures by the healthcare providers. With improved patient safety measures in hospitals, most lives of patients will be saved (AANA Journal, 2011).

Criticism of the source

The source that has been used in discussing the identified guideline in the hospital organizations is the To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System (AANA Journal, 2011). This source has lacked support from various other sources, as I have not seen any other place where it has been referenced. Again, the source would have been more effective only if it summarized its content into a small container. The author used a lot of meaningless words in passing out simple information. Most people dont like reading so many words; they only need main points and brief highlights (AANA Journal, 2011).

However, concerning the presented information despite how scattered it is, the source has proved to be of great importance. The discussion on patient safety guideline has been effectively undertaken. The author took adequate time to evaluate the importance of having such guideline in the hospital organization. Furthermore, he went extra miles to offer guidance on how such guideline can be achieved by highlighting sources of critical resources such as professional advertising, moral support as well as financial aid. According to the article, patient safety is a critical practice in any healthcare organizational setting and should be embraced throughout all organizations. Patients give the hospitals business and therefore, the hospitals must be concerned with the safety of their patients. By using this guideline, both the patients and hospital organizations will benefit a lot. Patient safety ought to be upheld with utmost urgency as it gives the patient faith to the medical facility.

References

Jacoby, R. J. (2008). Informing patients of their rights and responsibilities Journal of Health Care Compliance,10(2), 53-54,75-76. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/228003870?accountid=28844

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations., Joint Commission Resources, I. (2005). Patient safety: essentials for health care. 3rd ed. Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

Poniatowski, L. (1999). Patient assessment by the book Nursing Management, 30(3), 18 Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/231443079?accountid=28844

Quality assurance; company introduces hospital documentation tool for JCAHO accreditation process. (2005). Managed Care Weekly Digest, 148. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/210621212?accountid=28844

The Joint Commission clarifies medication management standards. (2011) AANA Journal, 65(6), 28 Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/871054745?accountid=28844