Reference no: EM133796079

Question

Nurses' role in root cause analysis (RCA) directly impacts patient care and outcomes due to their experiences and comprehensive understanding of clinical workflow. Acquiring proficiency in the process of RCA, healthcare professionals can make quality improvement changes using the best practice plus quantitative and qualitive data which enhances patient care and reduces medical errors. (Singh et al., 2024). According to Singh et al. (2024), "One study reported that approximately 400,000 hospitalized patients experience some preventable harm each year, while another estimated that >200,000 patient deaths annually were due to preventable medical errors. Moreover, the reported cost of medical errors is wide-ranging, with some experts estimating healthcare costs of $20 billion each year, while others approximate costs of $35.7 to $45 billion annually from hospital-acquired infections alone." Providing cost effective care, preventing medical errors, reducing patient harm and improving clinical outcomes can be done through RCA by: Implementing effective RCA of a sentinel event and strategies for prevention Apply RCA reporting standards that follow the Joint Commission requirements. Collaborate with other members on the medial team to prevent the most common types of clinical errors and work on improving clinical outcomes. (Singh et al., 2024).