Essential Patient Safety

Patient Safety is now essential to the smooth running of hospital resident/patient relationships, and keeping patients safe is one of the most important factors that all doctors, nurses, specialists and surgeons have to deal with. Hospital based infections are often rife within lower quality institutions, and it's hospital staff's responsibility to ensure that patients are safe from such infections.

According to the Department of Health one in ten patients acquires a HAI, and in light of this information, ‘Patient Safety' has now become tremendously important for those treating patients, and new provisions which centre around cleanliness, common sense, and organisation are now compulsory in all hospitals. However, residents can also follow simple procedure to ensure their patients stay safe, and one of these procedures involves good hospital design principles. Follow evidence based principles for hospital design can drastically improve patient safety and overall quality. Patient falls, for example, can be prevented by providing well-designed patient rooms and bathrooms, as well as creating decentralized nurses' stations that allow easy access for patients. If those being treated require assistance, they shouldn't have to worry about accessing this.

Design principles can also help reduce infections, and offering single-bed rooms, improving air filtration systems, and providing multiple convenient locations for hand washing will all help. Errors concerning medication can easily be prevented by offering pharmacists proper working facilities, i.e, well lit, quiet, and private spaces, they should be able to fill out prescriptions without distractions.

These measures may seem simple and straight-forward on paper, but they are crucial to the effective running of a hospital, and are deemed essential in reducing the amount of problems, NHS complaints, and errors that are made in public health institutions every year.