Doctors in El Paso- Patient safety is an extremely important issue for professional healthcare providers. This fundamental principle of health care is being recognized more and more as a growing public health challenge around the world. But what is meant by patient safety? And how can health care professionals address the challenge it presents?

“Patient Safety is a health care discipline that emerged with the evolving complexity in health care systems and the resulting rise of patient harm in health care facilities. It aims to prevent and reduce risks, errors and harm that occur to patients during provision of health care,” according to the World Health Organization (WHO). The overarching aim is to improve patient outcomes by proactively addressing patient safety.

The goal of all health care providers is to keep all their patients safe and free from harm from the first through the final day of their care and treatment. All health care professionals play a significant role in creating a consistent culture of safety within their practices. There are several ways health care providers can create a culture of safety; they can achieve it by establishing and requiring high standards for communication, collaboration, team-building, and organization of health care resources. A focus on clear communication between members of the health care team as well as between provider and patient, consideration of early signs and symptoms of health issues for early detection (and hence more timely resolution), application of “high reliability” techniques to increase overall awareness, and risk management to mitigate patient care error within the practice can help keep patients safe as they receive the care they need.

Patients themselves play a vital role in improving overall patient safety as well. For health care providers to ensure that safe care environments are available, patient input is key. Patients who are active in their own care can more effectively engage health care providers to make sure that the treatment received is beneficial and appropriate to their needs. For patients to do this, they need to be as well-informed as possible about their health and wellness needs in general, as well as regarding possible options for how to meet those needs; learning as much as possible about every aspect of their care and participating in all healthcare-related decisions is extremely important as a part of building improved patient safety.

Eliminating preventable harm to patients is more critical than ever, as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to wax and wane around the world. Patient safety is central to providing consistent and quality health care. This can be accomplished if procedures and protocols for use of best practices are implemented in health care practices. As the WHO clarifies, “the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of health care and reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum” is of the utmost importance. The WHO notes that it is possible to achieve high-standard patient safety via “clear policies, organizational leadership capacity, data to drive safety improvements, skilled health care professionals and effective involvement of patients and families in the care process.” Responsible health care professionals take the time to learn continuously about how they can improve at keeping patients safe while providing quality health care services.

Modern MD, PLLC is a health and wellness family practice serving communities in El Paso, Texas, and New Mexico. Dr. Patricia Lopez-Po, MD competently leads the practice from the west side of El Paso at her family medical center; she also makes home visits to deliver care to those who cannot be seen in her office. Dr. Lopez-Po takes a holistic approach towards health care treatment, focusing on the whole patient in each case, to provide comprehensive primary care (including specialty services as needed). She aims for clear communication with each patient and his or her family to best provide the continuity of care every patient needs and deserves. If you are seeking compassionate whole-patient health and wellness care and want to establish a solid relationship of trust with your primary care physician, reach out to Dr. Lopez-Po at Modern MD today. Contact her online, or call 915-288-3008 to schedule an appointment.