Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Quality improvement is the systemic approach used by healthcare facilities assess, monitor, and improve the quality of the standards offered patients. Healthcare facilities have a chain of activities that are cyclic and require continuous improvement to yield excellent performance (Petigara, Krishnamurthy & Livert, 2017). Healthcare facilities that have invested on continuous quality improvement have embraced the use of modern technology to improve their efficiency. As a result, the use of modern technology has led to generation of desirable results as well as delivery of quality healthcare.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

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            Quality improvement has led to introduction of improved methodologies like patient engagement and care coordination software as well as the electronic health records (EHR) software (El Morabet et al, 2018). The patient management and care software has made the processes in healthcare procedures more streamlined, efficient, and simple. EHR software on the other hand has rendered patient centered records that are right on time. The physicians at the healthcare facilities use the EHR system to retrieve the treatment histories and the medical evidence of the patients. Consequently, the patients receive the right treatment since the physician rely on the history of the illnesses from the previous clinic visits.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Improvement of the quality of healthcare services offered at the health facilities yields positive feedback from the patients and the surrounding community. The positive feedback thus leads to goodwill of service to the healthcare providers leading to expansion of the health facilities and larger profit margins (Petigara, Krishnamurthy & Livert, 2017). Quality improvement also aligns to the healthcare organization goals where the expectations of the community and the patients are met thus creating harmony and peace between the patients and the caregivers.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay. In the modern world, patients are aware of the hospital procedures, the type of health services that should be offered to them as well as their rights. Healthcare facilities should therefore embrace the initiative of quality improvement to gain more trust and confidence from the patients and the surrounding community. Healthcare facilities should also consider improving the quality of other stakeholders in healthcare including insurance health providers, doctors, and hospitals. The improvement of all the stakeholders in the health care industry will yield into a better alignment of the stakeholders.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Analysis of the Quality of Improvement Initiative

            Easton Hospital is currently undergoing high number of admissions due to the rise of Covid-19 patients. The health workers at the hospital are suffering from high workload putting the hospital at a risk of getting employees turnover due to burn out (Hutton et al, 2018). Therefore the hospital management is committed to improve the quality of the healthcare delivered to the patients at the outpatient and inpatient level to reduce the number of admissions at the hospital. Readmission of patients is the major challenge facing Easton Hospital emanating from substandard services delivered to the patients. The healthcare stakeholders are consequently affected since they have to deal with workload.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

The initiative to improve quality at the Easton Hospital started with reforms for lowering the drugs dispensing as well as drugs prescription (Petigara, Krishnamurthy & Livert, 2017). The reforms to improve the prescription of drugs to the patients as well as the dispensing procedure aimed at improvement of the safety of the patients. More than 25% of the readmissions at the hospital were contributed by drugs raising an alarm to the competency of the pharmacists at the hospital.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay. The management at the Easton Hospital implemented a procedure on medication where the drugs administered to the patients were reviewed at the point of admission and during discharge. In addition the management introduced a documentation procedure where all the medications taken from home by the patients were documented for reconciliation upon admission. A team of public health nurses was appointed to be doing follow ups to the patients after discharge from the hospital. The role of the public health nurses team was to advise the patients on the dosage of the drugs, when and how to take them. In addition, the team also advised the patients on the need to complete the prescribed dose as well as the kind of food to avoid while taking the drugs.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

The pharmacists at Easton Hospital were understaffed and hence would contribute to the common medication errors that occurred. The pharmacists were subjected to long working hours handling several patients leasing to burn out that would put them at a possibility of causing dosage errors. The recruiting team at Easton hospital is not strict on the requirements for a pharmacist leading to recruitment of less qualified and inexperienced pharmacists. Less experienced and underqualified pharmacists can therefore give wrong dosages to patients and also misguide patients on how to take the drugs.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Evaluation of the Success of the Initiative

            The implemented initiative to improve the quality of the services offered at Easton Hospital was successful since the number of readmissions reduced gradually. Over time, the readmission rates reduced from 45 percent to 18 percent within a span of nine months. The reduction of the readmission cases was an evidence that the implemented initiative was successful (Petigara, Krishnamurthy & Livert, 2017).  In admission, it was evident that the quality of services at the hospital had improved since very few patients would come back for readmission.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay. The pharmacy department improved their services as well as increasing the number of the pharmacists since the cases for readmission were no longer based on under dosage of the drugs. In addition, the hospital recruiting team revised the qualification requirements for a pharmacist and organized for training of the current employees’ working at the pharmacy. The recruiting team required all the pharmacists to be enrolled with the pharmacy board.Additionally, all the pharmacist were required to have at least three years’ experience prior to working with Easton Hospital.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Members of the community surrounding Easton Hospital got a learning experience from the public health nurses. The public health nurses advised the community about the different types of drugs. In addition, the members of the community were advised on the different types of drugs used to treat different diseases. The public health nurses also created awareness to the community members on the possible drug interactions that require physician’s attention (Hutton et al, 2018). Moreover, the community members were advised on the right time to take drugs as well as the drugs to be taken before and after meals. The implementation of the quality initiative was therefore successful since the community was equipped with vital knowledge about drugs and drug reactions.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Through the implementation of quality improvement initiative the healthcare workers got better working environment. The provided working environment gave the healthcare professionals an opportunity to deliver better services to the patients thus increasing the patient outcomes and safety (Pap et al, 2020). Improvement of quality initiative ensured the drugs given to the patients during admission were cross checked to eliminate any possibility of any mistake prior to discharge. Collaboration amongst the healthcare providers at Easton Hospital was also promoted through improvement of quality initiative leading to better health outcomes.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay. Patients also received the best advice from the pharmacists on how to take the drugs. Additionally, patients received the right guidelines pertaining dosage and the duration which they should be on medication. Patients were therefore guaranteed about their safety since all the departments in the hospital ensured that the patients were given the right medication. In addition, the safety of the patients was enhanced through ensuring that all the procedures done to the patients were accurate and professional. As a result, getting the right medication improved the productivity of the patients thus impacting positively on the economy.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Inter-professional Perspectives Related to Initiative Functionality and Outcomes

            The management team at the Easton Hospital formed an inter-professional collaboration model that allowed al the cadres in the hospital to participate in the quality improvement initiative. Additionally, all the departments in the hospital were given a mandate to counter check the activities conducted by other departments to ensure quality across all the departments in the hospital. Through the inter-professional collaboration, all the health professionals from various departments were given an opportunity to work together towards improvement of patient care (El Morabet et al, 2018). In addition, the healthcare professionals were given an opportunity develop integrated and cohesive answers to the needs of health of the community. Inter-professional collaboration also promoted team work thus giving all the employees a feeling of ownership. As such, every caregiver felt the need to deliver quality care to the patients thus improving the quality of healthcare at Easton Hospital.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Additionally, the healthcare workers at the Easton Hospital understood the problems causing the high number of admissions through the quality improvement initiative. The caregivers therefore developed changes to improve quality of services they offered to their patients (Hutton et al, 2018). In addition, the physicians understood the need to conduct continuous care to the patients even after delivery. As a result, patient care after discharge created a good relationship between the caregivers and the community members. Therefore, the members of the community got a platform to engage the healthcare workers in all activities they performed to promote their health. The continuous care of the patients after delivery lowered the readmission rates since all the communication errors the patients and the caregivers were eliminated.

Additional Indicators and Protocols to Improve and Expand Quality Outcomes

Quality indicators and protocols are evidence-based and standardized measures of the quality of healthcare used with readily available administrative data of the inpatient cases. Quality indicators track and measure the clinical performances and performances delivered to the patients (Pap et al, 2020). In addition, quality indicators and protocols expand and improve the quality outcomes through warranting quality improvement through standardization and telehealth technology.

Standardization in healthcare creates standards to guide healthcare workers on how to create common format for collection of data through large scale analytics, collaborative research and sophisticated methodologies. According to Hutton et al (2018), standardization improves the outcomes for both the healthcare providers and the patients. Through standardization, the healthcare industry is challenged to achieve value without compromising the outcomes of the patients. While regionalized care is a necessity in healthcare, standardizing health practices is vital role in delivery of affordable, safe and effective care. In addition standardizing health practices saves labor, reduces waste, reduces cost and advocates for better documentation.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Telehealth technology on the other hand is the use of modern communication and information technologies like mobile devices and computers to remotely access healthcare services. Doctors use telehealth technology to make video conferences to the patients making it easy for both the physicians and the patients. Sophisticated devices are incorporated to measure the vitals of the patients and also to scan their health data from home without necessarily requiring the help of a medical professional (Pap et al, 2020).Quality Improvement Initiative Essay. Patients manage their health care from home through telehealth technology while the doctors support and improve care services through the modern technology. Telehealth technology has taken healthcare to the next level by bringing expertise to all health areas, maximizing access to mental healthcare as well as assisting people with limited access to specialized care. Therefore, telehealth technology is an ideal additional indicator to improve and expand quality outcomes.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Conclusion

Quality improvement is a vital initiative in healthcare since it pushes for improvement of the services given to the patients. Improving the quality of healthcare yields positive outcome to both the healthcare workers and the patients. Poor quality of health services leads to high cases of readmission leading to burning out of the healthcare workers and patients’ dissatisfaction. Standardization of saves labor, reduces waste and cost leading to a safe and affordable healthcare. The implementation of telehealth technology in the healthcare industry has modernized healthcare by allowing the doctors to access the patients from the comfort of their homes. Telehealth technology has also given mental health patients and patients with special needs to easily access healthcare without getting stigma from other patients.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Attempt 1 has been evaluated

Evaluated Assessment File

Includes a link to the scoring guide and any additional faculty feedback.

Overall Comments:

Thank you for your assignment submission. For this assignment, you were asked to review and evaluate performance reports then effectively communicate outcome measures related to quality initiatives. Please look at each section below for my comments and suggestions to add to your assessment.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Dr. Matthews

COMPETENCY:Plan quality improvement initiatives in response to routine data surveillance.

CRITERION:Recommend additional indicators and protocols to improve and expand quality outcomes of a quality initiative.

Proficient

Recommends additional indicators and protocols to improve and expand quality outcomes of a quality initiative.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Faculty Comments:“

Great work of recommending additional indicators and protocols to improve and expand outcomes of a quality initiative, and impartially explaining the pros and cons of these recommendations.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

COMPETENCY:Evaluate quality improvement initiatives using sensitive and sound outcome measures.

CRITERION:Analyze a current quality improvement initiative in a health care setting.

Proficient

Analyzes a current quality improvement initiative in a health care setting.

Faculty Comments:“

You did a good job with analyzing a current quality improvement initiative in a health care setting. To move to a distinguished, you needed to identify where further information could improve the analysis. Be sure to support assertions such as the impact of staffing on outcomes with scholarly works. Errors in grammar and mechanics distract from the message.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

CRITERION:Evaluate the success of a current quality improvement initiative through recognized benchmarks and outcome measures.

Basic

Attempts to evaluate the success of a quality improvement initiative, but fails to use recognized benchmarks and outcome measures.

Faculty Comments:“

I can see you attempted to evaluate the success of a quality improvement initiative. Provide specific details to support your evaluation of a current quality improvement initiative using recognized benchmarks and outcome measures. You discuss readmissions but fail to integrate the national benchmarks regarding readmission rates.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

COMPETENCY:Integrate interprofessional perspectives to lead quality improvements in patient safety, cost effectiveness, and work-life quality.

CRITERION:Incorporate interprofessional perspectives related to initiative functionality and outcomes.

Basic

Attempts to incorporate interprofessional perspectives, but includes insufficient interprofessional feedback related to initiative functionality and outcomes.

Faculty Comments:“

For this criteria:

Incorporate interprofessional perspectives related to initiative functionality and outcomes.

• Integrate the perspectives of interprofessional team members involved in the initiative. Detail who you talked to, their professions, and the impact of their perspectives on your analysis.

COMPETENCY:Apply effective communication strategies to promote quality improvement of interprofessional care.

CRITERION:Communicate evaluation and analysis in a professional and effective manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.

Proficient

Communicates evaluation and analysis in a professional and effective manner, writing content clearly and logically with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Faculty Comments:“

Your writing has minor errors in grammar and mechanics.. I made some recommendations where additional citations of relevant evidence are needed to increase clarity. There’s always room for improvement in scholarly writing and I hope that you will consider using the Smarthinking feature located along the left side of the course home page. In addition, here’s a link to the Capella Writing Center to learn more about scholarly writing: https://campus.capella.edu/web/writing-center/home.

”

CRITERION:Integrate relevant sources to support arguments, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style.

Proficient

Integrates relevant sources to support arguments, correctly formatting citations and references using current APA style.

Faculty Comments:“

Most of your APA looked good. There were a few inconsistencies noted on your paper. I hope you will use the supplemental resources link on the course room homepage to help you with formatting your reference list. Remember that APA requires that all factual information be cited, to let your reader know where to go, in case they want to read more about it.Quality Improvement Initiative Essay.