Stay Safe At Work

Patient Safety is now one of the most important issues facing modern day hospitals, and the recent spurt of infections spreading though wards were a wake-up call for many institutions. Such a wake-up call led to provisions being put into place to counteract such infections. Medical Ethics come into play here, and the safety of patients should be dealt with through professional and ethical means. According to the Department of Health one in ten patients acquires a HAI, and those who do contract an infection stay in hospital nearly three times longer than ordinary patients, placing tremendous financial pressure on our already strapped-for-cash health services. One of the ways that medical staff such as doctors, nurses, and surgeons are ensuring safety is at its optimum is through using ethical provisions and procedures. One of these provisions is the need to prevent venous thromboembolism, which is a blood clot that forms in the veins. Such clots can be extremely dangerous, and is actually the most common cause of preventable hospital deaths. That’s right, most hospital deaths that could have been stopped are caused by venous thromboembolism. The reason why such clots are so dangerous is essentially because the veins return blood to the heart, and if a piece of a blood clot formed in a vein breaks off it can be transported to the right side of the heart, and from there into the lungs. However, surgical teams, as well as doctors and nurses are now using timelines and plans as a way to keep on top of such clots. Teams of doctors and surgeons are setting goals concerning how different patients should be treated for clots in the veins. By setting goals to treat such things as venous thromboembolism the recovery rate is much higher.