Changes in healthcare put patients at risk

FAILURE OF communication between healthcare professionals is leading to more adverse drug events and near misses in health services, according to an expert in healthcare systems around the world.

Research carried out in countries such as the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Denmark and New Zealand has shown that between 7.5 per cent and 12.9 per cent of patients admitted to the health services will experience an adverse event or a patient safety incident.

The international patient safety movement is increasingly drawing attention to these problems as part of its drive towards more patient-centred care, according to Prof Siobhán Nelson, Dean of the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto, Canada.

The shift of many health services into the community is also leading – in some countries – to patients relying more on personal care support workers who, according to Nelson, often don’t know which patient symptoms are the most important ones to communicate to a healthcare professional.

“Patients are now far sicker at home than they were in the past. And these changes are happening almost beneath the surface of healthcare systems when services are shifted to the community without the follow through of professional support,” she said.

Changes from hospital-based care to day surgery and care in clinics also means the time spent with the patient is very limited, according to Prof Nelson, who spoke at an international conference on nursing and midwifery in the Royal College of Surgeons.

“The clinical encounter used to be 10 days in hospital but now treatments are often carried out on outpatient basis. This means that the time with the patient is very intense,” she said.

Prof Nelson also stressed the importance of up-to-date electronic patient records in a climate of healthcare reform.

Meanwhile, recent research by the Health Information and Quality Authority in Ireland found that 86 per cent of people agreed that their health information should be linked up across the health system.

The authority has previously stated its support for electronic patient records as a means of improving patient safety in Ireland.