The faces of risks in surgical patient management

Patient safety is considered a serious public health issue worldwide. In fact, the World Health Organization shows that 1 out of 10 patients is harmed under hospital care even in developed countries. This shows that risks are inevitable, specifically during surgical procedures. Thus, the assessment of risks is crucial so that physicians can perform their duties effectively and make consensual decisions for whatever surgical procedures they perform.

Image Source: rasmussen.edu

In this light, tests are used in calculating or stratifying risks for patients undergoing surgery, especially in myocardial problems. This is summarized as follows:

1. General preoperative risk stratification

2. Preoperative risk stratification for myocardial events

3. Postoperative risk stratification

The purpose of this scoring system is to identify potential high-risk patients and focus on generating a multi-level risk-and-benefit discussion among hospital practitioners.

Image Source: commons.wikimedia.org

Risk is a term that comes in many forms, depending on the expectation and experience of varying patient groups. In understanding and identifying these risks, there are methods to utilize. In integrating these methods concurrently with proper implementation, risk management could improve significantly. As a result, medical practitioners and healthcare executives, like Dan Bucsko and Kurt Weinmeister, can perform their duties well in improving the quality of care for all patients, and risks, such as prescription error, injurious fall, improper documentation, adverse anesthesia effects, and even death, could ultimately be avoidable.

Image Source: clearrisk.com

Read more about health risk management and patient safety by accessing this Twitter page.

REPOST: Patient satisfaction’s impact on physician livelihood

This American Medical News article discusses patient satisfaction and its effects on doctors' livelihood as well as their own sense of satisfaction, professionally speaking.

Image Source: ResilientAmbassadors.com

Leaving a patient satisfied can be critical to a physician’s job evaluation and pay. But what does patient satisfaction mean, and how can a doctor make sure it happens even as he or she makes treatment decisions that might not make a patient happy?

American Medical News has reported on what makes a patient satisfied enough to rate a physician highly — and how to balance giving the best care with what a patient might expect or demand. Patient satisfaction: When a doctor’s judgment risks a poor rating

Some doctors see an ethical conundrum in using patient satisfaction as a factor in rating their effectiveness as physicians — and as a factor in their pay. The problem comes when patients, unhappy that they’ve been denied a treatment they don’t need, take their anger out on physicians when assessing their services.

Image Source: Quality-Patient-Experience.com

Satisfaction scores seen as crucial to physician success

Price is the primary factor for consumers when they choose a product — except in health care, where personal experience reigns supreme. For that reason, consultants are advising physicians to win over patients with convenient, personalized and warm service. They recommend that physicians deliver the best, most appropriate care while giving each patient a satisfying experience.

Shift to medical home may not increase patient satisfaction

Researchers hypothesized that practices with more medical-home elements would have happier patients. But the data they gathered showed that didn’t always happen. The problem, they theorize, is that things that the make the office run more efficiently, and can help improve care, can be seen by patients as impersonal and factory-like.

Image Source: ThinkProgress.org

Physician rating website reveals formula for good reviews

What makes a patient happy? It’s not the physician’s expertise, or the perceived quality of care. It’s a short time in the waiting room and a longer time in the exam room. That’s the formula for patient satisfaction one organization came up with after it read 36,000 online reviews of physicians.

This Dan Bucsko Facebook page has more has more links to articles on the healthcare industry.

Clinical communication and patient safety

Image Credit: Booher.com

Miscommunication leads to error; the lack thereof often breeds tragic consequences. In clinical settings where lives are at stake, the breakdown in effective communication sometimes becomes the main culprit of infective incompetence and ineffectual processes. In the science of patient safety and healthcare risk management, communication has always been a key factor in cohesive, effective, and efficient healthcare delivery.

Image Credit: USF.edu

Stressing the importance of effective communication in healthcare processes, risk managers encourage physicians, nurses, and other healthcare staff to introduce and implement proper mechanisms and strategies that make communication one of the key components of improved healthcare delivery system. While traditional systems such as a norm for sense of hierarchy prevent open communication among staff at different rungs in the system, healthcare leaders involved in any clinical setting must be proactive in keeping a clear and effective flow of information within processes and procedures. Good communication means the clinicians and staff work as one body and mind when it comes to patient safety. There should be no room for errors, even from the simple acts of gathering patient information and reviewing medical data.

Image Credit: InCrowdNow.com

Effective communication has long been the focal focus of patient safety and risk management. To prevent incidences of clinical errors and malpractice, miscommunication among healthcare professionals must never occupy the center stage.

For more related topics, follow this Dan Bucsko < href="https://twitter.com/DanielBucsko">Twitter page.