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Liability insurance is a big issue for all doctors. They face a string of liability issues when attending to patients and must tread carefully in their practice. A medical malpractice suit can cause financial and emotional hardship, an enormous amount of time and the potential for a stained reputation. This type of insurance is far and away the most important liability for a doctor.
As safe and sound as hospitals are made out to be, they can be breeding grounds for the most dangerous biological, chemical and ergonomic hazards. Most health care facilities have countless safety issues taken into account every day.
Medication errors are still common, but not many have serious consequences such as patient injury or death. Medical authorities, like the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), have researched the causes of such errors and informed the public with their policy statement.
Health and safety hazards pervade hospital environments, so hospital administrations develop precautionary procedures to preserve the wellness of patients and personnel. Actual procedures vary among institutions, but some concerns are common in the medical field.
Radiation is used in hospitals to generate CT scans and X-ray images and to treat cancer non-surgically by targeting and destroying cancer cells. In large doses, radiation is dangerous and can have harmful biological side effects. To minimize the dangers of radiation exposure, hospitals write radiation safety guidelines for their staff.
Hospitals typically perform radiation procedures and radiation therapy. A team of radiation therapists will perform these types of procedures on patients. They use radiation to treat or heal cancer or tumors. Radiation can also look for any hidden health problems the patient may have. Hospitals must undergo certain educational requirements to ensure the safety of their patients and staff when performing radiation procedures.
The safety issues surrounding hospitals are environmental for both hospital patients and hospital staff.
The Joint Commission gives accreditation status to hospitals and other health care organizations that comply with its numerous standards. Among those standards is a chapter dedicated to the environmental safety of the organization, known as the Environment of Care. Weekly safety rounds should be conducted with team members familiar with the standards though the Joint Commission mandates it only every six months. A checklist of standards should be developed and accompany each rounding team member.
Nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections are increasingly known as HAIs, or healthcare associated infections, because they also affect nursing homes, dialysis clinics, health centers, and other medical settings. Estimates in 2002 from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) indicated that 1.7 million patients annually contract an HAI unrelated to (or even in the incubation stage of) the disease or condition that originally caused them to seek medical care.
The JCAHO (Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Operations) hospital standards are not posted a lot outside of "internal use" settings, but some basic guidelines are taught to health care providers. Practicing fire safety in a hospital is key to patient safety. Follow these steps to practicing fire safety in a hospital
