Communication, Leadership, and Risk Management in Healthcare

Communication, Leadership, and Risk Management in Healthcare

Responding to William’s post

Hello,

This is an insightful post on the roles and responsibilities within a healthcare team, especially focusing on medical assistants. The analysis underscores the importance of communication and accountability in ensuring patient safety and quality care. Expanding on these points, it is essential to emphasize the role of robust risk management practices in preventing medical errors. According to McGowan et al. (2023), implementing comprehensive risk management strategies—such as regular training for medical assistants, ongoing monitoring of adherence to protocols, and creating an environment where open communication is encouraged—can significantly reduce potential malpractice claims and improve patient outcomes. These strategies help ensure that staff members are well-prepared and that any issues are promptly addressed.

Another crucial aspect is the role of leadership in shaping the culture of a healthcare practice. Effective leaders can foster a culture of civility and professionalism, which is vital for inter-professional collaboration. Mabona et al. (2022) highlight that nurse practitioners and other healthcare leaders must actively promote a supportive environment where team members feel valued and respected. This approach not only enhances job satisfaction but also directly impacts the quality of patient care.

Addressing disruptive behavior within the team is also critical. Implementing a zero-tolerance policy for such conduct and conducting regular civility training are proactive measures to ensure respectful interactions among staff. Studies by Ota et al. (2022) support this approach, noting that promoting civility in healthcare settings reduces the risk of adverse events and improves patient safety.

To prevent future occurrences of dangerous situations, healthcare teams should adopt a multi-faceted approach that includes continuous professional development, regular performance evaluations, and clear channels for reporting and addressing concerns. Fostering a culture of constant improvement through feedback mechanisms helps identify and address gaps in practice effectively.

References

Mabona, J. F., Van Rooyen, D. R. M., & Ten Ham-Baloyi, W. (2022). Best practice recommendations for healthy work environments for nurses: An integrative literature review. Health SA Gesondheid, 27(1788), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v27i0.1788

McGowan, J., Wojahn, A., & Nicolini, J. R. (2023). Risk management event evaluation and responsibilities. StatPearls – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559326/

Ota, M., Lam, L., Gilbert, J., & Hills, D. (2022). Nurse leadership in promoting and supporting civility in health care settings: A scoping review. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(8). K

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

Medical assistant

This is an important professional in a health care team and they handle various clinical and administrative duties. Medical assistants who are working under the direction of licensed healthcare providers including doctors and nurses may be held accountable for medical malpractice. Assessing the patient’s vitals is an essential part of clinical nursing care. It is important to ensure that patients feel secure with the type of healthcare services that they are being given in a clinical setting. Ignoring the indicators may make the patients to feel that their health is deteriorating and this is likely to result in late medical intervention. Once the patient’s vitals were taken, the medical assistant ought to have immediately informed the nurse practitioner of the results. At the start, the medical assistant seems to have been participating in disruptive conduct which is considered a violation of the AAMA code of conduct. The medical assistant appears to have been irresponsible owing to the fact that she was not attending to the needs of the patient and was acting disruptively rather than taking immediate action to lower the blood pressure and report it to the NP.

Communication, Leadership

Nurse Practitioner

Looking into this case, the NP was not directly involved in this case owing to the fact that the medical assistant did not report the results to the NP by delaying the blood pressure report to the NP, which was likely to cause a delay in treatment. Further, this is an indication that there is an unfavorable work environment that is likely to divert the attention of the NP in office. Research shows that inter-professional communication, clinical learning environment, and psychological safety are all negatively impacted by unprofessional behavior which also puts the patients at risk for adverse events and even high mortality rates of the patients.

Medical Director

In the event that the medical assistant are to be blamed for medical malpractice, they should be held accountable. Being that the medical assistant are required to work under close supervisor, in the event that they have medical malpractice being blamed on them, then the immediate supervisor should be held liable (Gelea et al., 2024). The medical director is required to be in charge on the day to day operation including hiring, firing, and discipline and reporting the medical assistants to the American Association of Medical Assistants. As a result of compromised patient, the medical director may also face medical malpractice as well as neglect charges. In regards to ethics and law, the Medical Director is likely to be the one in charge of all the staff members including the patients.

Practice

In this case, there is medical attention owing to the fact that it raises questions that pertains to patients’ safety. Being that everyone in the office is an employee of the practice, they are all accountable to the actions. The practice team should now come up with a strategy on how to notify the NP and the physician on any potential disruption (Erdemir et al., 2020) In order to have a secure and healthy work environment, there should be a civility seminar for the staff. The practice may seem to be inappropriate in the event that the situation is not fully resolved promptly. In order to succeed, there should be interprofessional collaboration.

What practices would you implement to prevent further episode of potentially dangerous patient

It is important for the healthcare team to deal with the issue of behaviors which is a problem to the effectiveness of health care delivery. The healthcare providers who are in positions of authority in most cases engage in behaviors that are intimidating and disruptive. It is based on this that collaboration, communication and team oriented work environment is important for the safety of patient and quality care (Gelea et al., 2024). All the members should be trained on what constitutes a proper professional conduct as outlined in the organizational code of conduct. The education and the code should focus mostly on respect.

What leadership qualities would you apply to effect positive change in the practice? Focus on the culture of the practice.

Inter – professional healthcare teams offers modern healthcare, which largely depends on efficient collaboration and communication to guarantee the patients care which is both safe and highest caliber (Geiderman et al., 2024). There are various behaviors that shows the need to have interdisciplinary education and training in conflict resolution and communication. This is important in that it will help the health care professionals to be respectful to one another. To ensure patient, employers should provide regular in-service to staff members including effective leadership in nursing, effective communication, effective teamwork, and the need for professional autonomy. Optimizing the health and wellbeing of nurses should be important in attaining positive patient and societal outcomes as well as optimal organizational performance.

References

Erdemir, A., Mulugeta, L., Ku, J. P., Drach, A., Horner, M., Morrison, T. M., … & Myers Jr, J. G. (2020). Credible practice of modeling and simulation in healthcare: ten rules from a multidisciplinary perspective. Journal of translational medicine, 18(1), 369.

Galea, G., Chugh, R., & Luck, J. (2024). Why should we care about social media codes of conduct in healthcare organisations? A systematic literature review. Journal of Public Health, 32(7), 1205-1217.

Geiderman, J. M., Moskop, J. C., Marco, C. A., Schears, R. M., & Derse, A. R. (2024). Civility in health care: A moral imperative. In Hec Forum (Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 245-257). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.