Fortifying Patient Care: 11 Strategies for Improving Patient Safety in Hospitals

As a healthcare provider, it’s your responsibility to keep your patients safe while they’re under your care. 

But that can be easier said than done. 

How do you effectively focus on patient safety when there are so many other aspects of hospital care clamoring for your attention? 

Improving patient safety in hospitals requires commitment and strategy. Trusted Managed Services shares 11 processes you can implement to help keep your patients safe.

Table of Contents

• How Do Hospitals Improve Patient Safety?
• 11 Tips on How To Improve Patient Safety in Hospitals
• What Are Four Ways Technology Is Improving Patient Safety?
• Trusted Managed Services’ Healthcare MSP Gives Your Team the Tools You Need To Increase Patient Safety

How Do Hospitals Improve Patient Safety?

Improving patient safety in hospitals can be done, but it takes teamwork and focused commitment. Opportunities for improvement include:

• Narrowing the nurse-patient ratio
• Utilizing technology
• Fighting nurse burnout
• Utilizing trained sitters
• Connecting with patients
• Maintaining hygienic rooms
• Debriefing errors
• Washing hands
• Focusing on communication
• Using checklists
• Fine-tuning your discharge process

Trusted Managed Services can help hospitals by providing them with the tools they need to provide facilities with contingent staff to create a safe nurse-patient ratio. 

With our healthcare MSP, your team is empowered with best-in-class technology and high-level industry knowledge that relieves the administrative burden on your staff while decreasing your contingent labor spend.

11 Tips on How To Improve Patient Safety in Hospitals

#1: Improve the Nurse-to-Patient Ratio

Research reveals that every additional patient assigned to a nurse in a medical-surgical unit beyond the optimum ratio significantly increases the risk of poorer patient outcomes that include:

• Preventable death
• Longer stays
• Readmission
• Higher cost of care; and
• Unfavorable patient satisfaction

One way to improve nurse-to-patient ratios is easy access to hiring contingent staff. 

Trusted Managed Services’ healthcare MSP helps you identify candidates faster.

Instead of your human resources department having to sift through thousands of nursing candidates and resumes, your MSP can instantly connect you with candidates that meet your specific requirements and expectations.

Request a demo today.

#2: Utilize Technology

These days, technology offers a wealth of options for improving patient safety in hospitals. Technology can enhance patient care through:

• Automated tasks
• Medication alerts
• Clinical flags and reminders
• Patient tracking
• Reporting of consultations and diagnostic testing

Hospital staff will need to be trained in how to best utilize the benefits of the chosen technology, and patient safety reporting should be monitored to ensure maximum outcomes.

#3: Combat Nurse Burnout

According to one study, 62% of all nurses experience burnout. It is most common among nurses under age 25 with 69% reporting burnout.

Fatigue and burnout among nurses can leave nurses feeling exhausted, depressed, and anxious, which may lead to:

• Decreased job performance 
• Poor patient safety 
• Negative patient experiences
• Medication errors
• Patient falls
• Increased job turnover
• Strained relationships between nursing staff 
• Unpleasant work environment

#4: Enlist Trained Sitters for High-Risk Patients

A patient sitter is an in-room monitor who stays with patients in a hospital or other healthcare facility. They are trained to observe and assist patients who are at risk of danger, such as those with psychological disturbances, or those who may harm themselves or others. 

A patient sitter’s duties may encompass tasks such as: 

• Supervising patients
• Providing conversation, emotional support, and companionship to patients
• Making regular reports about the patient to the medical staff
• Alerting nurses when patients need assistance or intervention

Patient sitters can help to reduce the burden on nurses by freeing them to focus on other tasks.

One healthcare facility reported zero falls with injury among patients who had a trained patient sitter in the room.

#5: Engage With Patients and Their Families

Strong nurse-patient engagement is another strategy for improving patient safety. Nurses and other staff members can engage with patients and their families by:

• Talking to the patient about their goals
• Listening when the patient has a question surrounding their care
• Providing a patient-friendly medication administration record
• Providing patients with a call “help alert” system they can utilize if they feel their needs are not being addressed

#6: Maintain Hygienic Patient Rooms

Healthcare-associated infections thrive in unclean environments. Strategies for improving patient safety in hospitals by maintaining the highest hygienic standards include:

• Assessing rooms and removing obstacles that might make them difficult to clean
• Using a systematic approach to cleaning to ensure consistency
• Proceeding from cleaner, rarely-touched surfaces to dirtier ones to reduce the spread of dirt and microorganisms 
• Cleaning from the top of the room to the bottom to keep clean areas from being contaminated during the process

#7: Debrief When Errors Occur

Even with the strictest of standards surrounding patient safety in hospitals, accidents are bound to occur. When they do, it’s critical that the why and how be carefully analyzed, including:

• What happened: Allow those involved to describe what happened using only facts, with no opinion-based adjectives or adverbs. Consider asking questions like:
  • What were you doing before the issue occurred? 
  • What was the issue?
  • What did you do at the time?
  • What did you see everyone else do?
  • What was the end result? 
• Why it happened: The most effective way to pose this question is by asking, “If you could do this all over again, what would you do differently?” This allows everyone involved to identify the reason for the incident without placing blame or putting other coworkers on the defensive. 
• What lessons can be learned: While this is the final step, it is the most important when it comes to improving future performance. Each team member should clearly identify what they learned from the incident. They should also discuss any lessons that apply to the team or organization.

#8: Require Proper Hand Hygiene

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), handwashing reduces the number of people who get sick with:

• Diarrhea by 23-40% 
• Reduces respiratory illnesses, like colds, by 16-21%
• Gastrointestinal illness in schoolchildren by 29-57% 

One look at the above statistics reveals that one of the best ways to improve patient safety is insisting that everyone who interacts with patients must maintain proper hand hygiene. 

Hands should be cleaned with sanitizer or soap and water upon entering and exiting patient rooms. Hands should also be cleaned throughout the day to ensure they stay free of contaminants.

#9: Prioritize Communication

Excellent communication should always be given the highest priority, but it is particularly important in hospital settings.

Nurses should know that it’s safe to speak up should they:

• Observe something taking place that may put a patient at risk
• Discover their equipment is not functioning properly
• Need assistance moving or otherwise caring for a patient  

Concerns may be shared when management is on rounds or by meeting with their nursing leader.

Shift changes can be a time when risks are especially high and communication can be fraught with misinformation. Communication should be prioritized to ensure everyone is on the same page.

#10: Employ Checklists

Checklists are a great option for helping improve patient safety. They can be instrumental in:

• Preventing nursing errors
• Standardizing patient care; and
• Establishing a high level of communication

According to a Johns Hopkins study, medication errors are the third leading cause of death in the United States, behind cancer and heart disease.

Checklists can help nursing staff ensure:

• Proper dispensing of medications
• Patients are identified before beginning procedures
• Healthcare providers follow proper procedures for infection control 

#11: Optimize Your Discharge Process

Specialized patient transporters who have been trained in how to safely move patients should be used to transport them to the hospital exit. 

Additionally, an article in the American Journal of Medical Quality recommends the following strategies for improving patient safety during the discharge process: 

• Educating each patient about their diagnoses throughout their hospital stay, including any test results
• Advance creation of appointments for clinician follow-up and post-discharge testing
• Discussing the importance of follow-up visits with the patient
• Confirming transportation arrangements
• Clarifying the medication plan, including any side effects that should be monitored
• Outlining the steps to take if a problem arises, such as what constitutes an emergency and who to call 
• Having the patient explain the details of the discharge plan in their own words
• Calling the patient two to three days after discharge to check in and resolve any problems

What Are Four Ways Technology Is Improving Patient Safety?

A technology-driven healthcare MSP like Trusted Managed Services can assist your facility by: 

1. Alleviating staff burnout by providing contingent staff
2. Allowing current staff to utilize their PTO days
3. Freeing current staff from having to work every holiday
4. Providing additional staff as needed to cut nurse/patient ratios

Trusted Managed Services’ Healthcare MSP Gives Your Team the Tools You Need To Increase Patient Safety

Navigating the intricate and ever-changing terrain of modern healthcare presents a unique challenge. Add in trying to oversee your recruitment endeavors and the task can become nearly overwhelming. 

With Trusted Managed Services, your team has the tools it needs to:

• Identify candidates faster: Instead of your human resources department having to sift through thousands of candidates and resumes, your MSP can instantly connect you with candidates that meet your specific requirements and expectations.
• Gain insights on your hiring process: Utilize our industry knowledge to get a clear understanding of any gaps in staffing, how many hours you need to keep your facility properly staffed, and how much it’s all going to cost.
• Spend less on contingent staff: Get high-level insights into competitive pay for contingent staff, or easily convert temporary staff to permanent staff. There are no hoops to jump through and no fees for transferring.
• Stay in regulatory compliance: Limit the risk of operational downtime by being better prepared for future audits, avoiding fine lines or penalties, and making more time for your administrative staff. MSPs are versed in standards, compliance laws, and regulations.
• Centralized invoicing: All bills and invoices are sent electronically through the VMS. You will receive an invoice for all contingent workers in the program, and invoicing is stored in one single depository in the VMS
• Focus on retention: As turnover rates continue to soar, you’ll have more time to spend researching and implementing ways to offer staff flexibility and will be able to improve staff development and retention rates.

Learn more about how Trusted Managed Services can help you manage your healthcare operations and free you up to focus on providing the best possible care to your patients.