A Guide for Doctors: Protecting Your Patients against Future Complications

You have a duty of care to protect your patients not only in the present day, but also in the future. For this to be the case, the healthcare that you provide needs to extend itself way past the confines of your hospital or practice. Even when they’re back at home, the treatment that you administer should keep your patients safe from all the health-related problems that have the potential to befall them.

Here’s what you should be doing to protect your patents against future complications:

Educate them on infection prevention

You cannot be around your patients at all times of the day to ensure that they are remaining healthy. At the end of the day, this all-important task falls to them. This doesn’t, however, mean that you can’t push your patients in the right direction in this instance. By taking some time to educate your patients about the basics of infection prevention, they will be sure to remain a lot healthier no matter how many times a year they come into your practice to see you.

Here are some of the things you should be educating your patients about:

• The proper hand-cleaning technique
• The basics of safe injection practices
• The importance of getting vaccinated

Push them to make more informed decisions

Should you take the time to discuss their diagnosis and what treatment options they have available to them, your patients will be sure to make more informed decisions regarding their healthcare going forward. Push them to come to their own decisions regarding their care, but ensure that these decisions are only ever made after all possible options have been discussed.

Never rush anything

Your patients are probably going to want a quick fix to their health problems. As their doctor, however, it is your duty to ignore their wants and desires in this instance. Your one and only job is to ensure that they make a full recovery… no matter how long it takes. It doesn’t matter if they need to get back to work quickly — there are insurers and compensation solicitors that can help them out in that sense. The only thing you should be focusing on is providing healthcare of the highest possible quality, and you can’t do that if you choose to rush the treatment.

Dress their wounds carefully

Wound dressing is a very precarious exercise. Make even the smallest of mistakes in this instance and all sorts of health problems have the potential to arise.

It is essential that you are incredibly careful when it comes dressing wounds. Even more importantly still, you must be using the right materials and equipment to ensure that scarring doesn’t occur. In this instance, the best thing that you can opt for is silicone gel designed for wound dressing. This type of soft, self-adhesive sheet is perfect for wounds because, when applied to intact skin, it works to prevent new scars from forming while still tending to the scars that are already there.

Take the above advice, and you’ll be sure to protect your patients from future complications.