NURS 6050 Week 6 Discussion, Improving Quality Essay

Improving Quality

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According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), health care quality is “the degree to which health care services for individuals and populations increase likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.” (The National Academics of Sciences Engineering Medicine, 2013). In this discussion, I will consider the six aims for improvement presented by the IOM and address my health care organization’s challenges and improvements in regard to a quality or safety issue.
Quality of care is the main focus not only within my entire organization of employment but also within my specific unit. We are strongly focused on the quality of care provided to our patients and the outcomes of that care. We believe that providing safe, effective, patient-centered care will increase positive outcomes and decrease the overall hospital stay of each individual.NURS 6050 Week 6 Discussion, Improving Quality Essay
Safety is “an essential and vital component of quality nursing care.” (American Nurses Association, 2003). This aim can sometimes be challenging within a health care organization because it contains many flaws and it is prone to errors. These errors more times than not will be detrimental and cause harm to patients.
One particular quality care issue that affects my area of work is the rate of Catheter Acquired Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTIs). As I have stated previously in other discussions, my care is directed to a wide variety of individuals on a Medical/Surgical unit. At any given time, I may be giving care to 2 or 3 patients with a urinary catheter out of the 5 individuals I am assigned to. The reasons for these catheters can range from the healing process of a decubitus ulcer to acute urinary retention due to intraoperative medications. No matter what the reason, a patient should not suffer a urinary tract infection (UTI) from a urinary catheter that is meant to assist in the “healing” process. nurs 6050 Essay Assignments
“Concerns about costs, lengths of stay, and patient safety would be good enough reasons to establish protocols to reduce the incidence of CAUTIs, but now there’s a financial concern as well.” (American Sentinel University, 2013). Due to the preventable nature of this issue, many insurance companies refuse to cover the cost of care associated with the CAUTIs. “Among UTIs acquired in the hospital, approximately 75% are associated with a urinary catheter. Between 15-25% of hospitalized patients receive urinary catheters during their hospital stay” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2017, July 19).NURS 6050 Week 6 Discussion, Improving Quality Essay  Since this quality care issue can be prevented, the CDC and other organizations have developed a guideline for prevention. These guidelines include but are not limited to appropriate catheter use, alternatives to catheter use, proper techniques for insertion and maintenance, and quality improvement programs. “Each CAUTI is associated with the medical cost of $758. And, a total of over $340 million spent in health care is attributable to the incident of CAUTI in the U.S. each year.” (National Healthcare Safety Network, n.d.)
There are many things that nurses can do with managing catheters that can reduce the risk for infection by using strategies/steps given by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). The unit that I work on has adopted a nurse driven protocol that allows removal of unnecessary catheters. We do also have some physicians who place standing orders for removal of a catheter after a certain time period. Since the implementation of these two things, we have seen a drop in out CAUTIs since last year. These infections can be prevented and nurses need to advocate for the removal if not necessary. The preventive measures could potentially save one’s life and money. NURS 6050 Week 6 Discussion, Improving Quality Essay