Improvement in Hospital Quality through services provided by Nurses
Nursing in itself is regarded to be one of the most crucial services provided to clients as the same is directly related to health. Over the years there has been increasing demands in the improvement of quality of services rendered by nurses and medical staff due to increasing complexity of health problems.
The most important factor that is related to the health care industry is the fact that the front line staff – nurses, have the most important duty to project a favorable image of the health care service providing unit. As a result of which it becomes important to focus on the capabilities and competencies of the nursing staff to be able to sustain a responsible and respectable image in the healthcare industry for all organizations involved in provision of health care services to clients and patients. This makes it important to focus on the driving forces which make improvement necessary.
Driving Forces behind the need for improvement
The important driving forces that have been identified to play a crucial role in the improvement of health care services are compliance to statutory frameworks, the need to set benchmarks in the quality of services to be provided to recipients of health care services, required levels of efficiency to achieve desired patient satisfaction.
The need therefore arises to study as to how these aspects affect the need for improvement in the quality of services being provided by health care organizations in the industry and what are the different aspects that needs to be taken into consideration for the identification of a suitable program. The focus is on the improvement of services at the most basic level of a health care unit – staff.
Analysis of driving forces
OSHA Mandate
Specific and strict compliance with the occupational safety and health guidelines an important aspect that is considered to be a priority in the list of factors or forces calling for improvement in the quality of services provided.
Benchmarking
An important criterion which influences development of operational procedures by the leadership of a health care organization is benchmarking. The most important point to be taken into consideration is the fact that staff and nurses of a health care unit influences implementation of the SOPS. As a result, identification of a suited Quality Improvement Program becomes necessary.
Analysis of Driving Forces – Improved Efficiency
Efficient services are an integral part of any health care operations to be provided to patients and the success of treatment is dependent on the same.
Analysis of Driving Forces – Patient Satisfaction
One of the important yet critical areas related to the improvement of health care services is being able to provide psychological satisfaction to the patients in accordance to the requirements of medical treatment necessary. Experience and guidance are important attributes that needs to be provided to frontline staff in order to ensure achievement of the desired results. Supervision and reporting are two important aspects that become important in this case.
Identified Quality Program – Leapfrog
The Leapfrog Group is an initiative, which is the result of the association of organizations working on the introduction of breakthrough improvements in the quality of health care for American patients. The important components of the program are quality, safety and affordability which are aimed at the improvement of the health care industry in America in general.
An important feature of the initiative is that it empowers employer organizations with respect to purchasing power in case of labor. The aim of the initiative is the improvement in customer value, safety in terms of healthcare and quality of services provided by the frontline staff. Supporting informed health care decisions and promotion of high-value healthcare makes it important for healthcare providing establishments to ensure compliance.
The Leapfrog Initiative – suitability and change
The reason behind the selection of the initiative in the operations of the health care providing organizations will help in the attainment of effectiveness and efficiency among the frontline staff. It is regarded that this initiative will not only be beneficial to the hospital organizations, but at the same time it will lead to the improvement in levels of quality of service that is being provided by health care workers in the industry.
As exchange of information and expertise, and procurement of rewards and recognitions is a possibility, the program is well suited for implementation. The critical task is however, development of leadership strategies and processes leading to change management in organizations, which are still beyond reach of the program.
Leadership –style and hierarchy
For the implementation of the quality improvement program in the organization it needs to be asserted that the suitable style of leadership is Autocratic. The reason behind the same is the fact that as compared to other leadership styles, there is lesser room for interference by the staff of he organization in the formulation of strategies and implementation. At the same time, the organization also needs to focus on the delegation of a project manager who would be entrusted with the responsibility of implementation. It is suggested that reorganization of teams be made necessary in order to achieve better results from the implementation.
The organizational structure needs to be in accordance with the proposed hierarchy.
Timeline for Implementation of Change
The total change management process has to be designed to be implemented within the time period of no more than 5 months. It needs to be taken into consideration the fact that change among the staff of the organization needs to be intra-departmental.
The reason is re-allocation of staff to a unit which has different requirements in terms of health service will hamper the overall objective of the introduction of the quality program. They will be unable to discharge duties with effectiveness in such cases.
The induction period is important to impart knowledge and information about the Leapfrog program.
Bibliography
Hoangmai P.H., Coughlan, J. and O’Malley, S. O. (2006) “The Impact of Quality- Reporting Programs on Hospital Operations,” Health Affairs, Vol. 25, No.5 p. 29-31.
Rosenthal, M.B., “Nonpayment for Performance? Medicare’s New Reimbursement Rule,” New England Journal of Medicine, Vol. 357, No. 16 , p. 134-141.
Kuehn, B.M. (2007), “No End in Sight to Nursing Shortage: Bottleneck at Nursing Schools a Key Factor,” Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 298, No. 14 p. 233-239
