1. Safety of patients, staff and visitors is at the top

1.

Safety of patients, staff and visitors is at the top of the quality list. With the pandemic and challenges in obtaining all the necessary PPE and staffing to maintain the highest standards as a manager what actions can you take? Can you limit patient visits to a level you can successfully handle? Can you close a practice due to questionable safety?

Tinker (2018) shares the Quadruple Aim of Healthcare:

1.   Improve the patient experience of care.

2.   Improve the health of populations.

3.   Reduce the per capita cost of healthcare.

4.   Reduce clinician and staff burnout.

One through three have been addressed in this week’s discussion. Today’s press, as well as talking with healthcare providers regarding the impact the COVID pandemic burnout is a real challenge. Burnout can exhibit itself in several ways including decreased quality, increased sick calls, and resignations. How does an emphasis on quality reduce clinician and staff burnout?

Reference:

Tinker, A. (2018, October 30). The Top Seven Healthcare Outcome Measures and Three Measurement Essentials. Health Catalyst. Retrieved August 22, 2020, from Button

https://www.healthcatalyst.com/insights/top-7-healthcare-outcome-measures

2.

According to CMS, TJC, and the NAHQ there are 7 outcome measures they look at when accrediting an institution.

1. Mortality: how many patients have passed away from their illness or injury or even by care being provided. 
2. Safety of Care: how many patients contracted an nosocomial infection from the hospital, bed sores, in appropriate meds and dosages. 
3. Readmissions: how many patients are being readmitted for the same illness or discharged before they were really ready to leave the care of the hospital. 
4. Patient experience: how satisfied was the patient with the care they received from their providers, nurses, aids, cleaning personnel, and even the food service department. No one is really left out of this type of survey. 
5. Effectiveness of care: were the goals reached for the patient, did they meet the outcome. Were best practices used and maintained. 
6. Timeliness of Care: were patients being seen in a timely manner. 
7. Efficient use of Medical Imaging: are these services being used appropriately or to often. 

Most important to me would Safety of care when a patient goes to the hospital because of an illness their thought is that they are there to get better not acquire an infection or the wrong the medication. Patient safety should be a top priority for all providers. An example of this is a couple of years ago at a local hospital where i am from there was a patient who died because they were given too much insulin, this was because the glucometer was malfunctioning. In reading the news paper article about it , the nursing staff missed performing a couple steps before giving additional insulin, for one getting another glucometer to check the blood sugar, and then having the lab actual draw the patient and test the blood for a more accurate blood glucose level. There are protocols set up in the event that something like this happens and it did not appear that the protocol was followed. And in this case the patient and their family suffered the consequences.

Reference

Tinker, A. (2018). The Top Seven Healthcare Outcome Measures and Three Measurement Essentials. Retrieved from: The Top Seven Healthcare Outcome Measures and Three Measurement Essentials (healthcatalyst.com)