Question

The Josie King story is one of many compelling stories about what happens in healthcare systems when things go wrong and patients experience sentinel events, including irreparable harm or, as in the case of Josie, death. Josie was an eighteen-month-old toddler who had been admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital for burns she suffered accidentally when her mother was giving her a bath. Josie died from medical errors that could have been avoided. Josie’s mother, Sorrel King, recounts how she tried to alert healthcare providers about her little girl’s changing condition and how she was ignored as her baby continued to decline despite the mother’s pleas for help. Josie died from severe dehydration and misused narcotics.

Access the following resource to learn more about Josie King:

King, S. (2002). About: What happened [Speech transcript]. Retrieved from the Josie King Foundation Web site: http://www.josieking.org/page.cfm?pageID=10

To prevent such events in the future and provide evidence-based professional practice, healthcare systems must be patient-centered and healthcare providers must partner with patients and their families through inter-professional collaboration and attention to detail.

Based on Josie King’s story, how can we move away from placing blame on one person and focus instead on the healthcare delivery systems we work in to improve patient safety and quality outcomes?

Describe one quality initiative that is occurring in your healthcare organization to improve the quality of patient care and safety to decrease sentinel events and the events that lead to such initiatives.

Answer 1

The healthcare team is compared to Godly nature when they save the lives of children for a parent. At the same time medical negligence can cost a life.Blaming cannot be a solution instead a proper action has to be taken against the healthcare provider for improper care.Patient safety should be the utmost priority, double checking and cross checking can prevent from this type of incidents.Periodic daily monitoring of the patients in every shift and depending upon the intensity of disease.Strictly follow the rights of medication administration.

Some of the quality initiative to improve quality of health care is

• Narcotic drugs should be administered only with clear instruction by the provider
• Evaluate the patient status before and after drug administration
• Always respect for autonomy of parents when it comes to parents
• Describe and find rationale to the parents complaints when they report New behaviour of the child.
• Report any changes immediately
• Maintaining records