Healthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim

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Healthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim

Assignment: Evidence-Based Practice and the Quadruple Aim Healthcare organizations continually seek to optimize healthcare performance. For years, this approach was a three-pronged one known as the Triple Aim, with efforts focused on improved population health, enhanced patient experience, and lower healthcare costs. More recently, this approach has evolved to a Quadruple Aim by including a focus on improving the work life of healthcare providers. Each of these measures are impacted by decisions made at the organizational level, and organizations have increasingly turned to EBP to inform and justify these decisions. To Prepare: Read the articles by Sikka, Morath, & Leape (2015); Crabtree, Brennan, Davis, & Coyle (2016); and Kim et al. (2016) provided in the Resources. Reflect on how EBP might impact (or not impact) the Quadruple Aim in healthcare. Consider the impact that EBP may have on factors impacting these quadruple aim elements, such as preventable medical errors or healthcare delivery. To Complete: Write a brief analysis (no longer than 2 pages) of the connection between EBP and the Quadruple Aim. Your analysis should address how EBP might (or might not) help reach the Quadruple Aim, including each of the four measures of: Patient experience Population health Costs Work life of healthcare providersHealthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim

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Evidence-based practice or EBP is a philosophy that places emphasis on the use of only those interventions and clinical methods that have a scientific or scholarly base of evidence in support of their efficacy (Melnyk & Fineout-Overholt, 2019; Crabtree et al., 2016). This is what is referred to as the best practice in nursing care as opposed to common practice. When the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) came up with the Triple Aim objectives, they revolutionized the view of healthcare provision by splitting it into several facets. This was later to be expanded to the Quadruple Aim with a fourth objective added when it became clear that nothing can be done or achieved without the dedication and selfless input of the healthcare workers such as the nurses (Feeley, 2017; Sikka et al., 2015). This paper discusses the relationship between EBP and the Quadruple Aim and how the former might help in reaching the latter.

How Evidence-Based Practice Might Help Reach the Quadruple Aim

The Quadruple Aim objectives as advanced by the IHI are made up of four closely-linked aims that are related to healthcare service provision. They are:Healthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim

  1. Improvement of the health of patients (population health)
  2. Improvement of the care experience (patient experience)
  • Mitigation of the costs of healthcare, and
  1. Provision of a conducive work environment for healthcare workers

Improving the Health of the Population (Patients)

This aim is concerned with making the health status of the patient population better in all respects. It means that patients should have access to healthcare services and be attended to promptly. They should receive quality care that ensures that they are given value for their cover or money. It means shorter hospital stays, quicker recoveries, and a lower rate of readmissions. All this translates to better patient outcomes. EBP can therefore help achieve this aim in that it will incorporate only interventions with evidence of efficacy and which therefore have a higher chance of producing better patient outcomes.

Improving the Care Experience

This means that the patient’s experience of the healthcare service should be memorable. It means that patient satisfaction should be at the highest level with regard to the healthcare services received. EBP can help achieve this aim by basing workplace satisfaction and psychological safety of the workforce on scholarly research that recommends strategies that have proof of efficacy. This is because the satisfaction of the patient is directly proportional to the satisfaction of the nurse or any other healthcare worker.

Mitigating the Cost of Healthcare

To achieve this aim of making the cost of healthcare affordable, EBP can help by coming up with recommendations on the best methods to do this that are based on research carried out by scholars and reviewed by peers.

Providing a Conducive Work Environment for the Healthcare Workforce

As stated above, a place of work that is devoid of psychological safety is dangerous to the patient. This means that if the nurses are for instance afraid of reporting errors for fear of victimization, many patients will fall victim to the problem which will go uncorrected. Strategies for making the workforce comfortable can be implemented from scientific evidence out of scholarly research and this will be the role of EBP in achieving this aim or objective. Healthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim

Conclusion

The quadruple aim and EBP are closely related. The latter can be used to achieve all the four objectives contained in the quadruple aim. This is possible because all the activities aimed at achieving the aims will be based on scholarly research.

References

Crabtree, E., Brennan, E., Davis, A., & Coyle, A. (2016). Improving patient care through nursing engagement in evidence-based practice. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 13(2), 172–175. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12126

Feeley, D. (2017, November 28). The triple aim or the quadruple aim? Four points to help set your strategy. Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Retrieved 21 December 2019 from http://www.ihi.org/communities/blogs/the-triple-aim-or-the-quadruple-aim-four-points-to-help-set-your-strategy

Melnyk, B.M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare: A guide to best practice, 4th ed. Wolters Kluwer.

Sikka, R., Morath, J.M., & Leape, L. (2015). The Quadruple Aim: Care, health, cost and meaning in work. BMJ Quality & Safety, 24(10), 608-610. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004160

Healthcare Improvement’s Quadruple Aim