[ANSWER]BAA607 Safety in Health Service Management Assessment 2- Risk Management for Patient and Staff Safety in Healthcare: A Case Study of the Hourly Rounding Initiative at St Vincent’s Health Network Sydney

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Health Service Management: Prior to the implementation of the IR initiative, SVHNS carried out a data collection exercise to identify and assess the major safety risks faced by patients in wards. The exercise focused on, among other risks, falls, pressure injuries, nutrition and hydration deficiencies, and pain. This was in line with the widely accepted guidelines for IR (Daniels 2016; Goldsack et al. 2015)(Health Service Management).

Collecting this data enabled the organisation to establish what safety areas to pay attention to so as to improve patient safety through the IR initiative. The following aspects of care were identified as critical to patient safety: patient positioning, toileting needs, nutrition and hydration, hygiene, pain management, and placement of the patient’s personal items. This data collection exercise is a good example of risk identification and assessment for patients.

The exercise was not a one-time event; it is an ongoing process. A few months after the implementation of the IR initiative, an audit was conducted to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the initiative. This can be seen as part of the ongoing process of risk identification and evaluation. Identifying and assessing risks to patient safety on a continuing basis helps a healthcare organisation respond to the risks as soon as they emerge. For instance, future risk identification and assessment processes can facilitate the recognition of risks that may have been left out in previous assessments.

Risk identification and assessment in healthcare should ideally focus on just patients, but also staff. This is because clinicians too face risks to their safety. In the course of discharging their everyday duties, nurses and other health professionals are exposed to falls, injury, muscular stress, fatigue, hazardous chemicals, violence, and other risks that may harm their physical and psychological wellbeing (SafeWork NSW n.d.)(Health Service Management). During the implementation of the IR initiative, SVHNS mainly emphasised patient safety – there was no attention to staff safety. This can be said to be one of the major limitations of the safety initiative. One…[Buy Full Answer for Just USD 9: 3255 WORDS]

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Type: Essay

Word Count: 3255

Grade/Mark: 94 (Distinction)

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