PROMOTION OF PATIENT SAFETY MEMORANDUM To: Dorcas Floyd, RN BSN, MS, CENP Vice President/Chief Nursing Officer, Bessemer Hospital From: Student Name and title at job, RN Date: June 19th, 2017 Subject: Promotion of Patient Safety As you are aware, patient safety is vital when it comes to quality healthcare service. Unfortunately, patient errors at Bessemer Hospital have been on the rise, and this has led to a worsening of serious conditions, disability and even patient mortality. As a result, the credibility of our infirmary has declined, creating the potential of great financial losses. We can, however, address this problem by hiring temporary on-call nurses during peak patient hours. According to a publication by the Institute of Medicine (2004), 98,000 hospitalized American citizens die annually due to errors made by nurses. This serious problem is usually the result of either failure to follow management practices necessary for safety, or an unsafe work and workspace design. This is certainly true here at Bessemer, where recently one newly registered nurse was hurried into catheterizing a patient in preparation for an operation. This was done without sufficient supplies or supervision and, because of this, the patient suffered a severe urinary-tract infection with serious complications and an extended hospital stay. Thankfully the patient recovered, but even the slightest mistake, caused simply by rushing, can lead to a more severe problem that must be addressed. These problems clearly are the result of an increased workload and stress for nurses, but they can be reduced. Like many hospitals across the region, our nursing staff is low in comparison to the number of patients served daily, and this creates added stress and increases errors. To address this issue, we can hire a temporary staff on more difficult days to alleviate this burden. With an increase in our nurse to patient ratio, we can expect the number of errors to decrease as our fulltime staff will be able to focus on a smaller number of patients and will not have to rush through procedures and risk errors. Please contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions about this recommendation. By implementing this recommendation, you will see a great return on investment and allow our nurses to take better care of our patients, who are the reason this hospital exists.