Problem:
The role of the patient safety officer (PSO) is critical to the health care entity. To be an agent of change, they must not only have a high intelligence quotient but also, perhaps more importantly, a high emotional quotient- that is to say that they must have solid people skills (Denham, 2007). When a concern arises regarding the potential for a mix up in patient information, the PSO's initial steps may include evaluation of other rooms to see if similar concerns arise, discuss the situation with staff members that may have been included in the errorsmade, bring in the risk manager to understand the level of concern and also bring in the family toengage them in taking an active stance in the care for their family member. In this case, the PSO was responsible to arising the concern of the similar names and dates of birth to the charge nurse and then when the risk manager reached out, they were requiredto assist with outlining the circumstance and discussing what mitigation efforts were initiated. In this case, the PSO could have taken it a step further to engage a family member for each patient. A family member could have assisted with ensuring that anyone walking into the room to care for their family member, knew why they were there and what the treatments were going to consist of. Taking these steps can help to alleviate some of the burden on the hospital staff when similarities present themselves. From a leadership perspective, the safety leader must be able to communicate how the results of safety initiatives will generate bottom line results and impact the other strategy. Need Assignment Help?