In this assignment you will propose a quality improvement initiative from your place of employment that could easily be implemented if approved
In this assignment you will propose a quality improvement initiative from your place of employment that could easily be implemented if approved. Assume you are presenting this program to the board for approval of funding. Write an executive summary (750-1,000 words) to present to the board, from which the board will make its decision to fund your program or project. Include the following:
- The purpose of the quality improvement initiative.
- The target population or audience.
- The benefits of the quality improvement initiative.
- The interprofessional collaboration that would be required to implement the quality improvement initiative.
- The cost or budget justification.
- The basis upon which the quality improvement initiative will be evaluated.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
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Expert Answer and Explanation
Executive Summary
An organization founded on a platform of continuous improvement is bound to always have better outcomes for its stakeholders and itself. The dynamic business environment makes it that being static may render the organization obsolete and out of touch with its consumer needs (López-Gamero & Molina-Azorín, 2016).
It is for this reason that this proposal will highlight a quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed at transforming how care is delivered to patients. The proposal will, among others, have the following components; the purpose of the initiative, the benefits, the target audience of the initiative, cost implications, and evaluation criteria of the initiative.
The Purpose of the Quality Improvement Initiative
One area that has been an issue for the organization is how it can enhance its efficiency and effectiveness of care provision. Serving a diverse population, with some patients living in rural areas, it is at times challenging to reach out to them on time when they need emergency medical assistance. This is especially true for patients with chronic and other severe conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, to list a few.
That notwithstanding, the care facility, and by extension, the healthcare system is currently facing a shortage of care providers (Bittner & Bechtel, 2017), which in turn, means that the reach of personnel can only be stretched so far. Based on these reasons, the purpose of this QI initiative is to suggest the introduction of telemonitoring systems in the facility, as assistive tools, to facilitate care provision to such vulnerable population groups.
The Target Population
The target population of this QI initiative is the vulnerable population groups earlier mentioned. This includes patients living in areas with low access to care facilities, and need keen monitoring by care providers, patients suffering from chronic conditions, with high chances of hospital admissions, and lastly the care providers, who as it stands, are thinly stretched due to the impending shortage of care personnel (Bittner & Bechtel, 2017).
The telemonitoring system will facilitate the care personnel to efficiently deliver follow-up care to many patients at the same time without necessarily having to physically meet them.
The Benefits of the Quality Improvement Initiative
The QI initiative is expected to come with numerous benefits not only to the patients but also to the organization as a whole. One of the benefits is reduced cost and improved access to care, especially to the considerably vulnerable population groups; for example, those living in rural areas. Another benefit of implementing a telemonitoring system is that it will facilitate emergency interventions to be given to a patient when need be (Yanicelli et al., 2015).
Telemonitoring systems can also prove to be effective in reducing the number of hospital readmissions. By making early diagnoses, a care provider can suggest proactive measures to the patient which will prevent the patient’s condition from escalating to the level of requiring hospitalization (Hashemi et al., 2018).
The telemonitoring system will also reduce the workload burden faced by care providers within the facility by improving the efficiency of care provision, and reducing events that could lead to more readmissions. Therefore, it is apparent that the QI will be of great benefit to both the patients and the care providers and by extension the organization.
Interprofessional Collaboration
One of the success factors of the QI initiative will be the extent of interprofessional collaboration among the various healthcare professionals and the patients they serve (Reeves et al., 2017). Interprofessional collaboration for this particular initiative will involve physicians, nurses, informaticists, patients, and their families or caregivers.
The listed persons will have to constantly engage with one another to ensure that interventions suggested with the facilitation of telemonitoring systems are adhered to. The engagement will mostly entail relaying information to and from the patient and making personalized care plans based on the data collected using the telemonitoring system. The informaticists will ensure that the system is always functioning optimally and that all parties can utilize them as per the requirements.
The Cost Justification
The QI initiative will have some budgetary implications. Some of the costs will include, purchase of end-user equipment (servers, computers, network terminals, etc.), training of personnel, and training of patients who will be using the telemonitoring technology. The estimated cost of these elements will be $200,000
The patients will have a wearable device which they will procure to facilitate monitoring of their clinical values. From this perspective, the cost implications of the initiative when weighed against the expected benefits for both the organization, healthcare personnel, and patients, then it can be said that the return on investment will be relatively high.
Basis of Evaluation
The QI initiative will be evaluated base on the following factors. One is the return on investment; that is whether the QI can recoup the cost used to implement it. The next factor is the realization of objectives; that is, whether the outcomes intended by the initiative were achieved.
Some of these outcomes include, improve access to care services, reduced rate of readmissions for patients with chronic illness, improved provider efficiency, to list a few. The last factor is sustainability; that is whether the initiative is sustainable in the long run (Fleiszer et al., 2015).
Conclusion
The information collected by this proposal report has detailed the expected benefits which far outweigh the cost implications of the QI initiative. Therefore, if endorsed and properly implemented, the QI is expected to bring great benefits to both the organization, care providers, and patients.
References
Bittner, N. P., & Bechtel, C. F. (2017). Identifying and describing nurse faculty workload issues: A looming faculty shortage. Nursing Education Perspectives, 38(4), 171-176. DOI: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000000178
Fleiszer, A. R., Semenic, S. E., Ritchie, J. A., Richer, M. C., & Denis, J. L. (2015). The sustainability of healthcare innovations: a concept analysis. Journal of advanced nursing, 71(7), 1484-1498. https://doi.org/10.1111/jan.12633
Hashemi, A., Nourbakhsh, S., Tehrani, P., & Karimi, A. (2018). Remote telemonitoring of cardiovascular patients: Benefits, barriers, new suggestions. Artery Research, 22, 57-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.artres.2018.04.001
López-Gamero, M. D., & Molina-Azorín, J. F. (2016). Environmental management and firm competitiveness: the joint analysis of external and internal elements. Long-range planning, 49(6), 746-763. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2015.12.002
Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000072.pub3
Yanicelli, L. M., Parodi, N. F., Goy, C. B., Britos, E., Baena, G., López, M. G., & Herrera, M. C. (2015). Heart failure management: Comparative study of telemonitoring systems and medical consensuses. In VI Latin American Congress on Biomedical Engineering CLAIB 2014, Paraná, Argentina 29, 30 & 31 October 2014 (pp. 821-824). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-13117-7_209
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FAQs
Quality improvement initiatives examples
A quality improvement initiative is a systematic and deliberate effort to identify and address issues that affect the quality of products, services, processes, or systems. The aim of a quality improvement initiative is to improve efficiency, reduce errors and defects, enhance customer satisfaction, and increase organizational performance.
A quality improvement initiative typically involves the following steps:
- Identifying areas for improvement: This involves analyzing processes, systems, and customer feedback to identify areas that need improvement.
- Defining goals and objectives: The goals and objectives of the initiative must be clearly defined and aligned with the overall mission and vision of the organization.
- Gathering and analyzing data: Data is collected and analyzed to understand the root cause of problems and to identify opportunities for improvement.
- Developing and implementing solutions: Based on the data collected and analyzed, solutions are developed and implemented to address the identified issues.
- Monitoring and evaluating results: The results of the initiative are regularly monitored and evaluated to ensure that the desired outcomes are being achieved.
Quality improvement initiatives can be applied to various areas of an organization, including product design, manufacturing processes, customer service, and operations. By continuously seeking to improve quality, organizations can maintain a competitive advantage and achieve long-term success.
There are many examples of quality improvement initiatives in nursing. Here are a few:
- Hand hygiene: A hand hygiene quality improvement initiative focuses on increasing compliance with hand hygiene protocols among healthcare workers to reduce the spread of infections.
- Medication safety: A medication safety quality improvement initiative aims to reduce errors and adverse events related to medication administration. This may include implementing computerized physician order entry systems, standardizing medication administration procedures, and improving staff education.
- Patient satisfaction: A patient satisfaction quality improvement initiative focuses on improving patient experiences through enhanced communication, timely discharge planning, and increased staff responsiveness.
- Falls prevention: A falls prevention quality improvement initiative aims to reduce the number of falls among patients, which can result in serious injury and increased healthcare costs. This may involve implementing fall risk assessment tools, modifying the physical environment, and increasing staff education.
- Pressure ulcer prevention: A pressure ulcer prevention quality improvement initiative focuses on reducing the incidence of pressure ulcers among patients, which can be painful and increase healthcare costs. This may involve implementing turning and repositioning schedules, using specialized bedding and positioning devices, and educating staff and patients.
These are just a few examples of quality improvement initiatives that have been successfully implemented in nursing. By continuously seeking to improve quality and patient outcomes, nursing organizations can provide high-quality care and achieve better patient outcomes.
Examples of quality improvement initiatives in healthcare
There are many examples of quality improvement initiatives in healthcare. Here are a few:
- Patient Safety: A patient safety quality improvement initiative focuses on reducing medical errors and adverse events. This may include implementing computerized physician order entry systems, standardizing procedures, and improving staff education.
- Chronic Disease Management: A chronic disease management quality improvement initiative aims to improve the care and outcomes for patients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease. This may involve implementing care coordination programs, utilizing electronic health records, and increasing patient education and self-management.
- readmissions reduction: A readmissions reduction quality improvement initiative aims to reduce the number of patients who are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of their initial discharge. This may involve improving discharge planning, increasing patient education, and enhancing care coordination between hospital and community-based providers.
- Clinical Documentation Improvement (CDI): A CDI quality improvement initiative focuses on improving the accuracy and completeness of clinical documentation in electronic health records. This may involve implementing CDI programs, utilizing natural language processing and machine learning algorithms, and educating staff on documentation best practices.
- Patient Satisfaction: A patient satisfaction quality improvement initiative focuses on improving patient experiences through enhanced communication, timely discharge planning, and increased staff responsiveness.
Executive summary fall prevention
Falls are a common and serious issue in healthcare, causing injury and increased healthcare costs. To address this issue, a comprehensive fall prevention program has been developed to reduce the incidence of falls among patients. This program is based on best practices and includes several key components, including:
- Fall risk assessment: All patients will be assessed for their risk of falling upon admission to the facility and at regular intervals thereafter.
- Interventions: Patients identified as being at high risk for falls will receive interventions designed to reduce their risk. These may include modifying the physical environment, implementing turning and repositioning schedules, and using specialized bedding and positioning devices.
- Education: Staff and patients will be educated on the importance of fall prevention and given information on how to reduce the risk of falls.
- Monitoring and evaluation: The results of the fall prevention program will be regularly monitored and evaluated to ensure that the desired outcomes are being achieved.
By implementing this comprehensive fall prevention program, our organization aims to reduce the incidence of falls among patients, improve patient outcomes, and reduce healthcare costs. The program will be implemented as soon as possible and regular updates will be provided on its progress and impact.