Assignment Details
Prepare an 8–10-page data analysis and quality improvement initiative proposal based on a health issue of professional interest to you. The audience for your analysis and proposal is the nursing staff and the interprofessional team who will implement the initiative.
“A basic principle of quality measurement is: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it” (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2013).
Health care providers are on an endless quest to improve both care quality and patient safety. This unwavering commitment requires hospitals and care givers to increase their attention and adherence to treatment protocols to improve patient outcomes. Health informatics, along with new and improved technologies and procedures, are at the core of virtually all quality improvement initiatives. The data gathered by providers, along with process improvement models and recognized quality benchmarks, are all part of a collaborative, continuing effort. As such, it is essential that professional nurses are able to correctly interpret, and effectively communicate information revealed on dashboards that display critical care metrics.
Assessment Instructions
In this assessment, you will propose a quality improvement (QI) initiative proposal based on a health issue of professional interest to you. The QI initiative proposal will be based on an analysis of dashboard metrics from a health care facility. You have one of two options:
Option 1
If you have access to dashboard metrics related to a QI initiative proposal of interest to you:
- Analyze data from the health care facility to identify a health care issue or area of concern. You will need access to reports and data related to care quality and patient safety. If you work in hospital setting, contact the quality management department to obtain the data you need.
- You will need to identify basic information about the health care setting, size, and specific type of care delivery related to the topic that you identify. You are expected to abide by HIPAA compliance standards.
Option 2
If you do not have access to a dashboard or metrics related to a QI initiative proposal:
- You may use the hospital data set provided in the media piece titled Vila Health: Data Analysis. You will analyze the data to identify a health care issue or area of concern.
- You will follow the same instructions and provide the same deliverables as your peers who select Option 1.
ANSWER:
Quality improvement is inevitable in healthcare organizations. Notably, quality management entails a sustained approach to achieving long-term success through customer service. Patients visit healthcare facilities for diagnosis, treatment, and disease management. In that case, quality healthcare services translate to effective diagnosis, treatment, and disease management that improves the chances of recovery. Quality is, therefore, a matter of life and death in healthcare. Besides, quality is not a one-off strategy; rather, an ongoing process aiming at reducing errors to an acceptable level. Quality improvement is data-based in that operational and performance data are used to guide continuous improvement.
Data Analysis and Healthcare Issue
The quality improvement initiative adopted in this project uses data from Vila Health. The data is on hospice care and encompasses adverse events that were reported monthly between 2014 and 2015. Notably, the adverse issues comprise the near-miss events and instances that caused harm (actual or potential) to the patient. Hospice units offer end-of-life care, and, therefore, the nursing care provided is critical and dedicated. Pain management is one of the goals of hospice care. Nurses must endeavor to apply any strategies at their disposal to improve the healthcare conditions of patients seeking hospice care. Besides, Vila Health had particular performance indicators that are used to continue reading …