Patient safety remains a priority for key healthcare stakeholders, according to Philips released data from a U.S.-based survey that looks at what physician and nurse leaders consider the top threats to patient safety. The survey, which included responses from 251 physician and nurse leaders reveals 74 percent of physician and nurse leaders say they believe lack of patient data during in-hospital transport is a risk to patients. Almost three-quarters of physician leaders (73%) and four in five nurse leaders (79%) said patient safety keeps them up at night.
Incomplete patient data = Patient Safety Threat?
An important part of maintaining patient safety is ensuring a complete record of patient monitoring data, however, when patients are transferred from one department to another, clinicians often struggle with incomplete data records due to multiple systems operating independently.
Selected from a list of six options in the survey, the top three threats to patient safety between physician and nurse leaders collectively were inconsistent care delivery, having incomplete data on patients and alarm fatigue. Seven in 10 of both groups say lack of complete data on patients is a cause of clinical inefficiencies, and physician and nurse leaders agree that better access to critical patient data is beneficial to clinician response (91 percent and 96 percent).
Other key findings from the Philips survey include:
– Inconsistent care and alarm fatigue: 78 percent of physician leaders say incomplete data on patients is the biggest threat to patients, while nurse leaders think alarm fatigue is the biggest threat (76 percent). However, both groups agree that inconsistent care delivery is a top concern (78 percent and 75 percent).
– Easing data-related patient safety concerns: Nine in 10 physician leaders and almost all nurse leaders say patient monitoring must be consistent to move healthcare forward (91 percent and 97 percent), and almost nine in 10 physician leaders (87 percent) and almost all nurse leaders (97 percent) say having a gap-free patient monitoring data record is essential for good patient care.
