Lack of Reported Medication Errors Spurs Medcare Hospital to Improve Data Focus, Patient Safety

Medcare Hospital is a 64-bed private general medical facility in the United Arab Emirates city of Dubai. Opened in 2006, Medcare employs 577 full-time staff, the hospital has an emergency department, 25 outpatient consultation rooms, an intensive care unit, a neonatal intensive care unit, delivery suites, an endoscopy room, and a day-surgery unit. The hospital's QMD was one of the first established in the company to support quality improvement and patient safety functions.

Only two medication errors were documented between January and September of that year. Either staff was being incredibly diligent in avoiding errors, or a lack of proper data collection meant the hospital's quality management department (QMD) was not receiving the full picture, and thus patient safety improvement efforts were not being fully supported.

Errors involving patient medication can happen various ways, many creating potentially life-threatening scenarios. If a hospital employee dispenses the wrong medication due to an illegibly written order, or if a nurse gives a medication to the wrong patient, the ramifications can be deadly. Not only does the patient suffer, but the hospital could face legal action and the staff member who made the error could have his/her career derailed as a result.

Reference:

Knowledge Center. (n.d.). Retrieved July 27, 2016, from http://asq.org/knowledge-center/case-studies-lack-errors-spurs-medcare-improvement.html

· Part 2 (23% of your final grade): Submit a case study with the following:

2. opening paragraph­-introduction to the situation

3. background organizational information­-history, mission, values, competition, financial information, and additional information of significant value

4. area of interest­-strategic planning, leadership, marketing, finance, health care operations, human resources

5. definition of the challenge/concern-specific problem or decision(s) to be made; this is your problem statement

6. alternative situations/solutions­-list of options for meeting the challenge or concern

7. conclusion­-summary of the situation, any constraints or limitations, and the urgency of the situation, with the best alternative presented and defended

Most but not all case studies will follow this format. The purpose here is for you to thoroughly understand the situation and the decisions/discussions that need to be made. Take your time and stay focused on your objectives.

Here, we'll pay a bit more attention to the fourth and fifth components:

Defining the Challenge/Concern

The problem statement should be a clear and concise statement of exactly what issue or concern needs to be addressed. This is not challenging to write!

To pinpoint the challenge to be addressed, ask yourself the following questions:

· What appears to be the issue/problem?

· How do I know that this is a problem? Note that, in answering this question, you will differentiate the indicators of the problem from the problem itself.

· What needs to be addressed immediately? Answering this will help you to differentiate between problems that can be resolved within the context of the case and larger issues that need to be addressed at a later time.

· What is important and what is urgent? Some problems appear to be urgent, but upon closer examination, are revealed to be relatively unimportant, while others may be far more important than they are pressing.

The problem statement can be framed as a question (e.g., What should Sue do? or How can Mr. Smith improve? It typically has to be rewritten several times during the analysis of a case, as you peel back the layers of symptoms or causation.

Coming Up With Alternative Situations/Solutions

You'll want to answer the following questions to come up with viable alternatives:

· Why or how did the challenge/concern arise? You are trying to determine cause and effect for the problems identified. You cannot solve a problem of which you cannot determine the cause! It may be helpful to think of the organization in question as consisting of the following components:

· people who transform. . .

· resources, such as materials, equipment, or supplies, using. . .

· processes, which create something of greater value

· Who is affected the most by the challenge/concern? You are trying to identify the relevant stakeholders to the situation, and who will be affected by the decisions to be made.

· What are the constraints and opportunities in this situation?

This paper should be about 7 - 10 pages of text.