Importance of seeking patient consent and informing patients and families about their care

Question:

Diascuss about the Improving Safety Quality and Value.

To exercise Patient-centered healthcare paramedics have some principles developed by Picker that guide them in their practice:

• Paramedics should put their patients’ best interests at heart based on the fact that they respect what they prefer and value which means that patients should be allowed to make their own decisions (Gallagher & Ewer, 2017). The healthcare practitioner should insist on making the decisions for the patients. The paramedics should be sensitive to their patients’ cultural values and beliefs (Barofsky & Budson, 2013).
• Another principle is that patients have to be given utmost emotional care especially socially because some of them may lack self-worth and lose their sense of belonging in. (Barofsky & Budson, 2013). Emotional deficiencies may come from anxieties over physical status, illness and financial issues. Paramedics should give them a lot of attention.
• Paramedics must ensure even that after their patients have been discharged, the patient-centered care continues even if a patient claims that they could handle themselves (Innes & Hatfield, 2012). The paramedic should arrange plans to coordinate ongoing treatment for the patient such that the patient-centered healthcare services persist.
• Patient-Centered Healthcare should be coordinated in such a way that the patient can communicate to other teams that identify with his situation. These groups alienate the problem of vulnerability or the feeling of powerlessness in during the phase of the illness of the patient (Sanchez, Barach, Johnson, Rowen, Jacobs, & al, 2017). When a patient can communicate to other teams, he can cite his preferences, ideas, and opinions where the experts find a chance to hear them out in a transparent manner.
• Paramedics should involve the family and friends of their patient in the course of treatment, to ensure that there is follow-up because they act as caregivers and it is important when the patient is being discharged because of decision-making (Carpenito, 2017).

Quality Healthcare must include open closure which means that the case of or the state of a patient must be explained to him or her and their family (Ness & Edith, 2009). Ideally, when the patient is under care of the paramedic, poor patient centered care can erupt from any given stage. For example, in the process of offering treatment to the patient a paramedic may identify the patient condition and go ahead to provide treatment without letting him or her know. This act goes against the paramedic ethics that requires the healthcare provider to seek consent from the patient. Besides, patient care takers and family are left in distress.  For example, in the case of Mrs. Ruby as given in the Lecture, her son was not told about the state of his mother which made him upset and thus getting a bad message on the quality of healthcare services in that health care center. Also, Mrs. Ruby a 55-year-old woman with a chest infection needed sufficient care which she did not get. Additionally, failure to disclose the patient condition to him as well as other concerned parties such as hospital staff denies the sick person an opportunity for his or her needs and wants to be catered for appropriately, for example, accommodation and other essential services.

From this experience as a patient and exploration of the Tom’s case puts the patient centered care into jeopardy and therefore, causing quality breakdown. Also, maybe she would tell her friends and family later about the hospital service and their poor patient care, which would spread a bad image of the hospital. During Mrs. Ruby’s stay at the hospital, she felt anxious about her medication, but she was not attended to. On the other hand, failure to tell her son, Mrs. Ruby was exposed to more danger because of lack of support. Paramedics should provide quality care to their patients to protect the hospital’s position and most importantly the patients’ health. The biggest factor leading to quality breakdown is lack of adhering to the central principle of PCC which is respecting the patients’ preferences and values which in this case was not upheld at all (Calhoun & Esparza, 2017). Mrs. Ruby wanted to consult the doctor but she could not, which was her preference, which later exposed her to risk.

The impact of poor patient-centered care on healthcare quality

The worst consequence of poor patient-centered care is exposures of the patient to risk (Watson, 2017). Here are points that prove how the issue can increase the risk for the patient;

• Near miss, a condition that can cause harm to the patient but in real sense it did not result into harm either because of timely intervention or by chance. For example, failure to pay attention to Mrs. Ruby’s preference could have resulted to more health risks.
• The observance of the appropriate medical management will help the patient to overcome healthcare service provision related problem that in turn my put his or her health into risk.
• Adverse events caused by the failure in medical management or complications that results in calling for the demand of more care or prolonged hospitalization. For example, failure to inform all the concerned parties about the patient condition may deny him appropriate medical care and therefore, requiring him to stay in the hospital further. In the case of Mrs. Ruby, her son was not notified of the incident which put Mrs. Ruby at more risk because her family was not there to support her.
• Frequently, the sentinel event increases risk to the patient especially in the case where unexpected occurs causing severe psychological or physical injury. For example, Mrs. Ruby was not briefed on the matters of the plan of her treatment after which she ended up suffering a fracture.

Identifying errors in treatment is highly recommended to help in mitigating the occurrence of the same mistakes in future. However, there are a number of obstacles that can hamper the paramedic from reporting the risks. For example, the paramedic may feel that it would be easier and safer to stay silent. Failure to report the risky incidents will prevent the organization investigating the occurrence and establishing appropriate mechanisms to counteract the same in future. For example, there were report failure cases among the three hospitals in Australia. The reported concerns were patient safety and quality issues. In the hospitals the management had not acknowledged patient concerns a quite a period of time. This well evidenced in the Camdem hospital in Cambell town whereby the about 50 percent of the cases reported were as result near misses.

Based on the above example, this essay will recommend for the change in the provision health care quality and safety in the Australian health sector. The 50 percent cases is an indication that the patient lives were at risk and therefore, there is a need to take quick and accurate measures to remedy the situation. This observation justifies the importance of reporting risks by encouraging the culture of disclosing the patient centered care negative impacts. However, the findings indicate that it makes hard for the paramedics to disclose these risks especially where they are the major causes.

Some of the ways that paramedics can promote effective patient centered care comprises of improving the community understanding on the health matters. ACSQHC report released on 2014 showed that almost 60 percent of the community members do not have adequate health literacy. Secondly, improvements can be realized by community based health programs that will be focused on enlightening people on the importance of health safety and quality. Finally, the paramedics can set up first kits in the hospitals to facilitate the attendance of the patients during the waiting time. This will help to reduce risks that can occurrence to the patient before seeking the treatment.

References

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Calhoun, E. A., & Esparza, A. (2017). Patient navigation: overcoming barriers to care. New York: Springer.

Carpenito, L. J. (2017). Nursing care plans: transitional patient & family-centered care. Philadelphia, PA [: Wolters Kluwer|Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,

Carpenito, L. J. (2017). Nursing care plans: transitional patient & family-centered care. Philadelphia, PA: Wolters Kluwer|Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,

Elling, B., & Elling, K. M. (2003). Principles of patient assessment in EMS. Australia; Clifton Park, N.Y: Thomson/Delmar Learning.

Gallagher, C., & Ewer, M. (2017). Ethical challenges in oncology: patient care, research, education, and economics. London: Academic Press.

Innes, A., & Hatfield, K. (2012). Healing arts therapies and person-centered dementia care. London; Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers,

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Ness, K., & Edith Cowan University. Faculty of Computing, H. a. (2009). The impact of center-based respite on occupational performance for people with dementia.

Sanchez, J. A., Barach, P., Johnson, J. K., Rowen, L., Jacobs, J. P., & al, e. (2017). Surgical patient care: improving safety, quality, and value. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Verlag.

Stahl, M. J. (2014). Encyclopedia of healthcare management. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage Publications.

Watson, G. L. (2017). Your patient safety survival guide: how to protect yourself and others from medical errors. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield.