ACCIDENT PREVENTION Accident prevention refers to the plans, preparations

and actions taken to avoid or stop an accident before it happens. Accidents can be

classified as unplanned and unexpected events giving increased risk of injury, ill health,

death and loss of property, damage to environment or any combination of thereof.

Accident prevention includes all measures taken in an effort to save lives, escape from

injury, lessen the degrees of injury, reduce loss of properties, treatment and

compensation costs, production and time loss, and morale loss of the concerned

organization "prevention is better than a cure" is an old and popular proverb, which

means it is better to stop bad things from happening, than to fix them after they have

already happened. Accidents are preventable, but steps must be taken to prevent them.

It is a legal obligation of organizations to comply with the laws, standard practices, and

safety observations to avoid emergencies and accidents. Many accidents occur due to

human factors. These factors include unsafe acts, un-mindfulness, negligence, lack of

knowledge and training. Another leading factor of accidents is working conditions.

Unsafe working conditions can include faulty machines, faulty designs, substandard

processes, occupational hazards, fire and other hazards. Accidents will continue to

happen if preventative measures are not taken. Accident prevention can be achieved by

commitment and cooperation between management, safety programs, safety culture

and accountability. Prevention requires the following actions such as Hazard

identification by risk assessment, Removal of unsafe work by research and

development and removal of unsafe machines, tools and improvement of working

conditions and environments

DISASTER PLANNING The basic structure for disaster planning includes the fours

phases of comprehensive emergency management: mitigation, preparedness,

response, and recovery. Mitigation involves preventive measures to reduce

vulnerabilities. In healthcare, these include structural hardening and non-structural

measures such as laws, guidelines, and surveillance. Preparedness builds capabilities

to manage the impact of hazards and includes drills and exercises, education, and

stockpiling supplies. A response is an action to reduce adverse actions during the

disaster such as triage, treatment, and management of patient flow. Recovery involves

actions to restore areas affected by the disaster to pre-disaster operations such as

normal surgical schedules and billing procedures.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLAN An emergency response plan is designed to help

companies address various emergency situations that could occur within their organization. The

best plans include who to contact, how to act in an emergency, how to mitigate risk and what

resources to use to minimize loss. The main objective of an emergency response plan is to

reduce human injury and damage to property in an emergency. It also specifies which staff

members should enact emergency response plans, as well as which local emergency teams

(i.e. police, fire and rescue, etc.) Should be contacted. Ideally, the final outcome of emergency

planning is to protect a company’s finances, physical infrastructure, materials and occupants

from harm.

ERROR PREVENTION Medical errors are a serious public health problem and a

leading cause of death in the united states. It is challenging to uncover a consistent

cause of errors and, even if found, to provide a consistent viable solution that minimizes

the chances of a recurrent event. By recognizing untoward events occur, learning from

them, and working toward preventing them, patient safety can be improved. Part of the
solution is to maintain a culture that works toward recognizing safety challenges and

implementing viable solutions rather than harboring a culture of blame, shame, and

punishment. Healthcare organizations need to establish a culture of safety that focuses

on system improvement by viewing medical errors as challenges that must be

overcome. All individuals on the healthcare team must play a role in making the

provision of healthcare safer for patients and healthcare workers. All providers know

medical errors create a serious public health problem that poses a substantial threat to

patient safety. Yet, one of the most challenging unanswered questions is "what

constitutes a medical error?" the answer to this basic question has not been clearly

established. Due to unclear definitions, “medical errors” are difficult to scientifically

measure. A lack of standardized nomenclature and overlapping definitions of medical

errors has hindered data analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. There are two major types

of errors, first is the errors of omission occur as a result of actions not taken. Examples

are not strapping a patient into a wheelchair or not stabilizing a gurney prior to patient

transfer and errors of the commission occur as a result of the wrong action taken.

Examples include administering a medication to which a patient has a known allergy or

not labeling a laboratory specimen that is subsequently ascribed to the wrong patient.

BAUISTA, DYANNE G.