Overview
As a student of healthcare quality management, it is vital that you are able to identify problems that arise in healthcare organizations and propose strategies for their improvement. A critical part of this process requires you to be familiar with quality and accreditation standards and navigate the communication channels of the organization.
For your summative assignment, you will identify a departmental problem within a healthcare organization and develop a collaborative performance improvement initiative to address it. Ideally, the proposed evidence-based solution will serve to improve the departmental problem, thus contributing to the overall success of the healthcare organization. The project is divided into three milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Four, and Six. The final product will be submitted in Module Seven.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
Prompt
Begin by identifying an organizational problem within your own workplace healthcare setting or a hypothetical healthcare organization. Propose an initiative that addresses this chosen problem, utilizing evidence-based literature and quality standards. If you choose a problem in your workplace, be sure to utilize data from that healthcare organization; if you have created a hypothetical healthcare organization, you may use a public domain database with instructor permission. As this is a scholarly initiative, this assignment must adhere to all APA requirements and formatting and include peer-reviewed and evidence-based sources to support any and all claims.
Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
What Is the Organizational Problem?Provide the organizational problem that you have chosen. How does this problem fail to meet quality or other regulatory requirements?Articulate organizational challenges posed by the problem (e.g., interdepartmental conflicts, communication failure, budgeting issues).Evidence-Based SupportProvide data that supports the existence of the problem. You may utilize public sources to find data related to your selected problem.How has this problem been addressed in the past? What information management systems or patient care technologies have been utilized when addressing this problem? Be sure to use peer-reviewed literature to support your answer.Discuss relevant accreditation standards, safety standards, compliance standards, and quality initiatives. How do these standards promote a culture of safety within the department? Be sure to cite the appropriate standards within your answer.Performance Improvement InitiativePropose an initiative that will address this problem within the department of your chosen healthcare organization. What specific relevant quality standard will this quality initiative address?Describe the type of data that will reveal a quality outcome.Implementation of the Plan in the OrganizationHow will this implementation plan be communicated among departments?How will the ?data ?be displayed and shared with the organization?If the plan for this initiative was implemented, what do you believe would be the hypothetical effect(s) on patient care outcomes? How will health information systems support those improvements in patient care?What do you think the hypothetical effect of the quality or performance plan would be on the culture of safety within the organization?Success of the Performance Improvement PlanIf this initiative is successful, how would the organization monitor the financial implications?How would the current information management systems contribute to the success of your plan?What current organizational processes will help the plan be successful?How will the plan be communicated among departments? How will this communication help team members commit to the performance improvement plan? Health & Medical
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Mitigating Medical Errors in Health Systems
Courtney Roberts
July 9, 2023
Health & Medical
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Mitigating Medical Errors in Health Systems
Identifying the Organizational Problem
Problem Description and Regulatory Implications
The healthcare organization under consideration faces a notable organizational challenge:
the elevated incidence of medical errors. Medical errors can encompass a range of situations,
including misdiagnoses, errors in medication administration, surgical mistakes, and other
treatment-related errors. These errors can potentially cause significant harm to patients, increase
healthcare expenses, and reduce the overall quality of patient care.
This issue violates the guidelines set forth by the ISO 9001 standard and regulatory
bodies such as The Joint Commission (TJC), which governs Quality Management Systems
(QMS). These guidelines require a constant enhancement in the quality of healthcare services to
optimize patient safety and satisfaction (Carver et al.,2023).
Organizational Challenges Posed by Medical Errors
Medical errors significantly impact various aspects of the organization, encompassing
interdepartmental conflicts, communication breakdowns, and budget management challenges.
Interdepartmental conflicts may arise due to divergent perceptions regarding responsibility and
misalignment in approaches to patient care. Communication breakdowns can arise due to
insufficient dissemination of crucial patient data or ineffective operational structures, thereby
giving rise to medical errors. From a financial perspective, medical errors have significant
implications, leading to escalated healthcare expenses due to malpractice litigation, extended
hospitalization periods, and the provision of redundant or unnecessary medical services
(Rodziewicz et al.,2023).
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Evidence-Based Support for the Problem
Despite the fictitious nature of our organization, empirical evidence from the real world
underscores the significant impact of medical errors. As per national data, it is estimated that
medical errors in U.S. hospitals alone lead to an annual mortality rate ranging from 210,000 to
440,000 deaths (Tariq et al.,2023). This places medical errors as the third leading cause of death,
following heart disease and cancer. The issue of medical errors has been previously tackled
through diverse strategies, such as using health information systems like Electronic Health
Records (EHRs) to guarantee patient data’s precision, availability, and promptness. Furthermore,
the utilization of Patient Safety Reporting Systems has been employed to effectively monitor and
analyze instances of errors and near misses, thereby providing valuable insights for
implementing specific interventions to enhance patient safety. Nevertheless, despite these
technological advancements, the persistence of medical errors indicates the necessity for a more
comprehensive and system-wide approach to address this issue (Singh et al.,2023).
Accreditation Standards and Safety Culture
Multiple accreditation standards and quality initiatives have been implemented to mitigate
medical errors and cultivate a culture of safety within healthcare organizations. The National
Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) established by the TJC (The Joint Commission) specifically focus
on medical errors (Lark et al.,2018). The above standards encompass measures to enhance
patient identification accuracy, improve medication administration safety, and prevent
healthcare-associated infections. The purpose of these standards is to facilitate the adoption of a
proactive approach toward ensuring patient safety. Similarly, the Agency for Healthcare
Research and Quality (AHRQ) promotes cultivating a culture centered on safety by employing
its Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. This initiative highlights the significance of
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ongoing education, collaborative efforts, and a patient-centric approach to mitigating medical
errors. Implementing these standards, along with the digitalization of health records and the
progress made in patient care technologies, fosters an environment that prioritizes safety, reduces
errors, and promotes the continuous enhancement of patient care quality (Karande et al.,2021).
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References
Carver, N., Gupta, V., & Hipskind, J. E. (2023). Medical Errors. In StatPearls. StatPearls
Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430763/
Karande, S., Marraro, G., & Spada, C. (2021). Minimizing medical errors to improve patient
safety: An essential mission ahead. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 67(1), 1–3.
https://doi.org/10.4103/jpgm.JPGM_1376_20
Lark, M. E., Kirkpatrick, K., & Chung, K. C. (2018). Patient Safety Movement: History and
Future Directions. The Journal of Hand Surgery, 43(2), 174–178.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhsa.2017.11.006
Rodziewicz, T. L., Houseman, B., & Hipskind, J. E. (2023). Medical Error Reduction and
Prevention. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/
Singh, G., Patel, R. H., & Boster, J. (2023). Root Cause Analysis and Medical Error Prevention.
In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK570638/
Tariq, R. A., Vashisht, R., Sinha, A., & Scherbak, Y. (2023). Medication Dispensing Errors and
Prevention. In StatPearls. StatPearls Publishing.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519065/
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