6 Factors of Patient Safety in Hospitals

Patient safety in any hospital or healthcare treatment facility is one of the primary concerns around the world. Hospital designs and Hospital maintenance should be taken into consideration.

Here are some of the things that contributes to patient safety:

• Hygiene
• Fire Safety
• Security
• Waste Management
• Equipments
• Positive Patient Identification
  

Hygiene

Globally at least 1.4 million people are suffering from infections that is caused by improper hygiene in a hospital, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Proper hygiene consist of making sure that all the surfaces such as the walls, the floors and the table-tops are always clean and sterile. Tthe linens of hospital beds should always be fresh and that all medical staff should sterilize their hands in the proper manner, before and after seeing every patient.

Fire Safety

In a healthcare design, it is very necessary to have a properly functioning fire system in place that meets industry standards and is up-to-date on inspections. Patients at a hospital cannot encounter a greater risk to their health than a fire occurring while they are incapacitated in a hospital bed. Their should be Fire exits and it should be clearly marked and the procedures for a fire-risk emergency is posted to the public.

Security

Security safety is important for several reasons. Secure-area intrusions, theft, fighting and kidnapping are not uncommon and should not occur due to poor security measures. Locked doors to sensitive areas, personnel identification, secured medical supplies and properly trained security staff is necessary in order to avoid such mishaps as mentioned above.

Waste Management

Hospital maintenance includes the disposal of dangerous waste material which is crucial and that hospital should ensure no patients or any unsuspecting person in a medical facility comes into contact with it. For example: Contact with a used needle could transfer diseases such as aids to someone who is accidentally pricked . The Disposal of medical waste needs to be handled on a daily basis and is guided according to a strict procedure. All medical waste should be disposed and destroyed at once.

Equipment

The hospital equipments in the hospital should function properly and those who are operating the equipment should be properly trained and certified to work with it. There were recorded cases that there were deaths or injuries due to medical negligence that happened because of alleged equipment “malfunction”, only to find out that the medical staff operating it is not certified and did not received the correct training.

Positive Patient Identification

In any hospital the patients need to be accurately marked and that the hospital should have full patient file on hand before any procedure be undertaken or drug will be administered to a patient. It is uncommon that people have had unnecessary surgeries performed on them or an incorrect drug is being administered to them because of mistaken identity.