Test Result Reporting and Follow-Up and Its Impact on Patients and Health Care Safety (2)
Test Result Reporting and Follow-Up and Its Impact on Patients and Health Care Safety
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Test Result Reporting and Follow-Up and Its Impact on Patients and Health Care Safety
Introduction
Quality of care and health care safety for patients in all health organizations is the core/major objective. All healthcare professionals starting from nurses, doctors, and other professionals, collaborate or work as a team to ensure patients’ demands and needs are met and served to satisfaction. Quality of care and health care safety refers to the magnitude at which health care services are provided to patients and community members to meet anticipated health outcomes consistent with qualified practical professional knowledge. Satisfactory quality care to meet health care safety within a healthcare organization has to be provided based on evidence-based professional knowledge since it is essential to achieve universal health coverage (Oldland et al., 2020). WHO indicates that healthcare safety within all healthcare organizations across the globe has been its focus for a long time since it helps patients recover and receive quality care despite various infections. This is because patients are diagnosed, and results are reported for what the patient has been diagnosed with. However, research indicates that result reporting has been identified to impact patients greatly. Because of wrong reporting, patients receive the wrong medicine prescription, which may negatively impact the patients. And according to the clinical code of ethics, patients’ health care safety will have been provided, which is their core objective. Research indicates that patient healthcare safety is a healthcare discipline that has evolved due to evolving complexity in the healthcare system, which is concerned with the dramatic increase of patient harm in various healthcare organizations. Health care safety is primarily concerned with reducing risk factors, errors, and tribulations that patients experience while receiving health care services in various organizations. WHO report indicates that patient health safety is their central concern since it is concerned with maintaining health care standards within the rapidly growing development of science in healthcare based on various domains such as timely, efficient, effective, safe, equitable, and patient-centered. This research paper will focus on the topic that ‘test result reporting and follow up and its impact on patients and health care safety.’
Theoretical Concepts of Test Results Reporting and Follow-up
Test results reporting and follow-up have greatly impacted patients’ health care safety in various care organizations. I have been interested in this topic because test result reporting in healthcare organizations helps in providing valuable insights and feedback concerning the overall health products within the organization and enables healthcare teams to identify means to improve it, like technology implementation within healthcare organizations. Primarily, test reporting is aimed at providing information to stakeholders and making a final decision concerning whether to release a particular product or hold it for some time. However, reporting results need to include family members (stakeholders) to ensure the right decisions are made, especially in quality improvement. Stakeholders’ engagement (patient and family) in quality improvement is significant because they are involved in all processes to ensure health safety (Carrodeguas et al., 2019).
Research on Test Results Reporting and Follow-up
Test results reporting and follow-up have been identified as one of the models that should be implemented within healthcare organizations to ensure that continuous quality improvement initiatives are well established (Dreiher et al., 2020). Clinical research indicates that healthcare professionals should be on the frontline to ensure that a culture of quality care is established and implemented within their respective working stations. Across the globe and in many healthcare facilities today, the issue of quality care and safety has been well pushed for since, according to statistics, many patients have been experiencing poor quality care associated with poor result reporting and lack of follow-ups for patients. Finkelman (2022) indicates that to determine the quality of care within healthcare organizations, it is crucial to incorporate the quality chasm report. Many healthcare organizations have been reported to adopt this model because it is based on three major domains of the healthcare delivery system: structure, process, and outcomes. Incorporating this model into the healthcare services system will be significant for it will help improve the quality of care and help maintain a culture of safety for all patients within healthcare organizations. Research indicates a culture of safety adoption should be maintained since it breeds identification and reporting, promotes trust, ensures high-quality care, and promotes patient safety across all disciplines.
Quality care for patients has been a primary global concern. It is significant for this concept to be well understood within healthcare organizations and managed properly. This is because quality safety within healthcare organizations presupposes meeting clients’ prospects and achieving their satisfaction, thus promoting a safety culture. Test result reporting and follow-up have been a critical topic of concern in the health care sector. It is essential to understand patients’ health and well-being since it is crucial, and information achieved or received from the test should be well utilized throughout the medication process to ensure that patients are provided with quality care. Test result reporting and follow-up is a major and incredibly important topic, especially today; the nation is striving to be a force in the international economic system which cannot be achieved without maintaining a safe culture. Focusing on this topic is crucial since it leads to patient satisfaction as their needs and demands are met through the quality of services provided to healthcare professionals. It helps promote patient-nurse long-term relationships (Finkelman, 2022).
Research indicates that test result reporting and follow-up play a significant role in maintaining and establishing patient-centered care since healthcare professionals are always concerned with their patients (Ilardo & Speciale, 2020). This indicates that test result reporting and follow-up create a patient-centered care system since healthcare professionals share their ideas and experiences with their patients and provide room for the patient’s participation, and their opinions are always valued. It’s important to remember that patients are involved in the process and that their input might be helpful. Additionally, it is important to note that patients who are satisfied with the caliber of the services are far more inclined to suggest a facility to others. Since making money is the main objective of private hospitals, this element should not be ignored. Clinical research indicates that healthcare organizations that provide positive and effective test result reporting and follow-up have shown to have transformational leadership that needs to be enhanced since statistics show that it has not been efficiently established to promote test result reporting that healthcare professionals and patients can discuss and meet satisfactorily. It is crucial to recognize that workplace satisfaction is a crucial factor influencing health care professionals’ performance levels and is closely related to service quality.
How Test Results Reporting and Follow-Up Impacts Care
A survey concerning patient safety culture indicates that test result reporting and follow-up provide a standard through which patients, healthcare professionals, and even patients’ families can openly discuss the issues affecting their health as per the test. Review practice errors and deficiencies and provide a framework where accountability expectations and behavioral choices can be consistently applied. IOM indicates that test result reporting and follow-up create a culture of safety since healthcare professionals have to remain transparent as they report errors and genuinely discuss them with the patients, analyze the error with the patient’s family, and ways to be taken to prevent such errors from happening. This process creates a patient-centered framework that leads to patients’ improved healthcare. However, it is significant to consider cultural diversity to provide an effective patient-centered framework in the healthcare organization. For patient-centered care to be efficient and effective, it is crucial to include cultural diversity since it helps dispel any stereotypes and personal biases that could arise when a healthcare professional interacts with patients from different ethnic groups. Incorporative cultural diversity competence when reporting test results and doing follow-up is essential since it helps in recognizing and respecting ways of being for other people who have different cultural backgrounds (Finkelman, 2022).
Patient-centered care can be provided by implementing contemporary technology within a healthcare organization. Implementing current technology in the healthcare sector will lead to accurate results, assuring trustful results to patients and privacy and confidentiality (Hussain, 2018). The use of technology in continuous quality improvement fosters patient-centered through effective communication between healthcare professionals and patients via visual, text messages, Skype, emails, portals, and all other social media platforms where the patient can interact with healthcare providers freely and at any moment. Incorporation of technology in test result reporting and follow-up has a great impact on patient’s health since it helps in minimizing errors that occur in nursing practice, preventing adverse drug reactions since research is well done before prescribed, upholds patients’ privacy and confidentiality as well as improving overall patient’s care. Research indicates that telemedicine is being implemented at national, state, and local levels to ensure effective patient-centered care is provided to all patients despite being from different ethnic backgrounds. This is because, at local levels, technology has not been well implemented. Still, it is necessary to increase patient safety throughout test result reporting and follow-up. Generally, technology in healthcare contributes to patient-centered care since it encourages patients to be part or involved in their care, which contributes to quality safety. Clinical research shows that technology has substantial impacts on patient safety. And it has been recommended that there should be implementation of healthcare technology is essential since it primarily helps or is concerned with patient safety and quality care (Choudhury & Asan, 2020).
Methodology and Results
Various agencies have given test result reporting and follow-up reports and different information. For instance, according to research carried out by Canadian Medical Protective Association indicates that a lack of proper/good test result reporting and follow-up leads to poor quality care and lack of patient safety. It further indicates that tracking patient follow-up and test result reporting is challenging, especially in healthcare organizations that receive many patients. This indicates a need to implement or incorporate technology in the healthcare sector to facilitate timely and fast test result reporting and follow-up. This healthcare organization indicates that technology implementation will help maintain strong follow-up and effective communication between patients and healthcare providers, thus leading to patient-centered care thus enhancing safety and quality patient care. Because lack of effective test result reporting and follow-up leads to failure and delay in follow-up thus, quality care is questionable, which leads to poor patient safety.
Additionally, a study conducted by Dahm et al. (2018) acknowledges WHO reports that poor patient safety has been associated with poor test result reporting and follow-up. It indicates that test result management should be prioritized for patient safety to be attained. This is because, according to research, statistics and systematic reviews show that a significant percentage of patients in test result follow-up fail to be followed up due to a lack of tracking system within healthcare organizations. Study shows that poor test result reporting and follow-up lead to various consequences especially patient safety, since it impacts the quality of care. According to the research findings, establishing information technology within healthcare settings is significant since it plays a crucial role in communication/reporting and follow-up test results. Moreover, the research indicates that despite the implementation of information technology, there is a need for family or stakeholder engagement to ensure patient safety is maintained and quality of care. Family or stakeholder engagement in healthcare is vital since it helps make a good decision about who needs test results and how the results will be communicated (Dahm et al., 2018).
Conclusion
In conclusion, since cases of tackling test result follow-up are increasing, there is a need to establish or implement an integrated governance structure that will ensure the safety of patient care within various health facilities. According to the methodology and concern of test result reporting and follow-up, there is a need to establish an integrated governance structure that will help healthcare organizations address the issue of poor test result reporting and follow-up that will lead to effective and efficient care for all patients. Through the establishment of integrated governance, a trust board will be formulated and in charge of controlling and managing the organization and its supporting structures. That will be able to detect any risk and manage it through technological means before patient safety and quality of care is affected.
References
Carrodeguas, E., Lacson, R., Swanson, W., & Khorasani, R. (2019). Use of machine learning to identify follow-up recommendations in radiology reports. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 16(3), 336-343.
Choudhury, A., & Asan, O. (2020). Role of artificial intelligence in patient safety outcomes: systematic literature review. JMIR medical informatics, 8(7), e18599.
Dahm, M. R., Georgiou, A., Westbrook, J. I., Greenfield, D., Horvath, A. R., Wakefield, D., … & Wabe, N. (2018). Delivering safe and effective test-result communication, management and follow-up: a mixed-methods study protocol. BMJ open, 8(2), e020235.
Dreiher, D., Blagorazumnaya, O., Balicer, R. D., & Dreiher, J. (2020). National initiatives to promote quality of care and patient safety: achievements to date and challenges ahead. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 9(1).
Finkelman, A. W. (2022). Quality Improvement: A guide for integration in nursing. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Hussain, M. K. (2018). Healthcare Innovations, Health Needs and Emerging Market Issues Assessment from existing literature. Research Journal of Social Science & Management, 7, 160-166.
Ilardo, M. L., & Speciale, A. (2020). The community pharmacist: perceived barriers and patient-centered care communication. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(2), 536.
Oldland, E., Botti, M., Hutchinson, A. M., & Redley, B. (2020). A framework of nurses’ responsibilities for quality healthcare—Exploration of content validity. Collegian, 27(2), 150-163.
