Dear Mr. President,
Thank you for the opportunity to contact you and share my views on the topic that is widely discussed by many Americans. I recognize and respect your decision to repeal and replace the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 that is also known as Obamacare. I understand that it was developed based on ideas supported by the previous president and that it not only fails to coincide with your views on this issue but also has a range of problems. However, I believe that you need to include patient safety standards in the new law because this topic is critical for the representatives of the general public.
The Concept of Patient Safety
Patient safety is “the prevention of harm to patients” that is mainly produced by medical care according to the Institute of Medicine (Mitchell 2008, para. 2). It includes the use of simulators, coding, computerized practices, resource management, and other initiatives that can be resorted to because of the necessity to overcome related issues and enhance healthcare procedures. Under the initiatives that were implemented by Barack Obama, the number of deaths in hospitals decreased by almost 90,000 individuals in 2010-2014. In addition to that, several issues obtained in hospitals reduced by 17% percent. However, you should not stop focusing on this topic because zero patient harm is not reached yet.
Patient Safety Issues
About 5% of all hospitalized patients experience medication errors that affect their health adversely even during surgeries. It is critical to prevent them or at least make them less frequent. Depending on the location up to 17% of negative outcomes are faced by patients because of diagnostic errors. What is more critical, they are reported to be the cause of 10% of deaths. Almost 20% of clients deal with problems in the framework of discharge practices and home care.
Healthcare workers often overwork and neglect their workplace safety. However, the quality of patient care depends on their condition directly. Hospital facilities that do not have appropriate heating, ventilation, and other basic things cannot ensure that patients obtain the best possible care. Reprocessing issues are also critical. Inadequate cleaning of endoscopes, for instance, can increase the risk of infection. It is critical to developing initiatives to prevent and avoid sepsis. This issue is at the top of patient safety problems, so it is worth discussing. Attention should also be paid to antimicrobial-resistant bugs that infect people and are not combated yet.
Because of computerization, many people also question the importance of cybersecurity. Hackers can enter the system and alter the information about the patient’s previous and current medication history. Finally, the lack of transparent data of a good quality prevents the staff from defining patient needs and stick to them (Barnet, Green & Punke 2016).
Patient Safety Improvement
The necessity to improve patient safety is emphasized by numerous parties, including the Joint Commission (2017). It is stated that health care safety has not reached its highest quality because of the existing issues. Still, the existence of standards, policies, publications, and events proves that this topic is critical to many people and organizations.
I wish you read this letter and agree with me that there is a necessity to develop a consistent policy to enhance patient outcomes through improvements in patient safety.
References
Barnet, S., Green, M., & Punke, H. (2016). 10 top patient safety issues for 2016. Web.
Mitchell, P. (2008). Defining patient safety and quality care. Web.
The Joint Commission. (2017). Facts about patient safety. Web.