The Importance Of Quality Assurance In The Hospital

“Quality assurance programs identify problems and try to correct them so that they do not recur (Ballington, 2007).” It is important to maintain quality assurance for the protection of your own health and the patient’s health. As humans we learn from our mistakes and that is where quality assurance plays it’s role. Quality assurance is found in both hospital and retail pharmacies with different areas of focus. Depending on the pharmacy, the areas include: contamination, correct patient profile and garbing. Quality assurance is maintained by the pharmacist and pharmacy technicians. Quality assurance focuses on trying not to repeat the same mistakes. In pharmacy the technician and the pharmacist are responsible for a patient’s life along with …show more content…
Places such as the IV room and the chemotherapy room are two major ones. It is the pharmacy technician 's job to make sure to be properly garbed and to avoid contaminating the medication. “A lapse in aseptic technique or policies and procedures in the pharmacy could lead to a serious outbreak of healthcare-associated infections, result in unnecessary and preventable health risks to the employees (Ballington, 2007).” For example, a technician may be in the IV room getting ready for mixing a patient’s medication and accidentally drops the needle. “Following appropriate aseptic technique procedures to minimize microbial contamination of a compounded sterile preparation is important (Ballington, 2007).”To maintain quality assurance the technician must discard the needle in a sharp’s container and use a new needle. Otherwise the needle becomes contaminated and the patient’s life is at risk. Another example would be a technician going to the chemotherapy room. The technician must be correctly garbed with double gloves, gown, shoe covers, hair cover and a face mask. A technician is required to double glove to avoid exposing the technician to the hazardous chemical. All of the outerwear is for the sake to protect the technician mixing the …show more content…
Quality assurance’s whole concept is to avoid creating mistakes that do not need to be created. Each setting has different areas that quality assurance focuses on whether it is garbing, contamination or a patient’s profile. It is important to always maintain quality assurance no matter which setting you are in. One wrong mistake can cost a patient’s or your own life. Without quality assurance patients would be suffering along with the pharmacy and pharmacy staff. We as a pharmacist or pharmacy technician are to ensure a patient’s life and our own