Workarounds occur when healthcare providers use alternative approaches to bypass standard operating healthcare procedures in a bid to accomplish a goal (Seaman & Erlen, 2015). For example, instead of collecting and entering patient data into the Computerized Patient Record System themselves, doctors have been known to use pen and paper to make notes then have nurses enter them into the system and sign the orders later. This workaround exists for a couple of reasons. First, some physicians felt the process was dreary opting to delegate it to the nursing staff. Some doctors may be unfamiliar with the system or have low confidence in it. Sometimes delays in the system forced the doctors to use the paper-based workaround. This workaround has a few risks including the probability of medication errors resulting from nurses misreading an order, the introduction of patient documentation gaps and time wastage as the process is repeated by the nurses later. Despite these disadvantages, this workaround has the benefit of allowing doctors time to attend to more patients and save time in case of delays, system freezes or massive downtime.
One crucial aspect of healthcare provision is patient safety. Better health outcomes have been linked to a quality safety culture (Kumbi et al., 2020). At my place of work, the current safety measures are based on teamwork, adequate staffing and continuous learning. Interdisciplinary teams communicate, share resources and work together in improving patient safety. Adequate staffing and regular staff training ensures enough expertise and manpower to deliver quality care. The aspects that need to be changed include transitions and handoffs which when poorly done can result in crucial patient information loss and cause risk to health outcomes. Another aspect that needs to change is the culture of blame which disheartens reporting of incidents concerning safety therefore preventing the identification of mistakes, putting patient safety at risk. When patient information is jotted down and shared on paper, patient confidentiality risks being violated. Change strategies include sticking to best practices, developing efficient shift change and handover procedures and adapting a “just culture” to counter the culture of blame (Reis et al., 2018).

Reference

Kumbi, M., Hussen, A., Lette, A., Nuriye, S., & Morka, G. (2020). <p>Patient Safety Culture and Associated Factors Among Health Care Providers in Bale Zone Hospitals, Southeast Ethiopia: An Institutional Based Cross-Sectional Study</p>. Drug, Healthcare And Patient Safety, Volume 12, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.2147/dhps.s198146

Reis, C., Paiva, S., & Sousa, P. (2018). The patient safety culture: a systematic review by characteristics of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture dimensions. International Journal For Quality In Health Care, 32(7), 487-487. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzy171

Seaman, J., & Erlen, J. (2015). Workarounds in the Workplace. Orthopaedic Nursing, 34(4), 235-240. https://doi.org/10.1097/nor.0000000000000161