I have to respond to the following statements of my classmates. Please provide at 100-150 words to each statement with a reference.

Re: MONITORING PATIENT SAFETY

posted by JENNIFER SHANKWEILER

Dec 04, 2014, 2:00 PM   

Monitoring patient safety can encompass a great deal of aspects of care.  When we initially think of patient safety, things like falls, restraints, correct medication administration, pressure ulcers come to mind. We can also think of patient safety in terms of what is a safe blood pressure for a specific patient? Is the prescribed pain medicine the right choice for the patient’s pain? We can also delve a little deeper and look at the flip side of patient safety and examine the RCA process that leads to safer practice. When we look at patient safety overall, we have to ensure that the facilities processes are safe.  Caregivers cannot be set up to fail and not meet safety standards.

Public reporting has completely changed the patient safety ballgame. When it comes to HAIs, we have to report numbers of device-related infections along with surgical site infections.  With device related infections, we have to monitor device days and confirmed infections based on those device days. With SSI reporting, we have to monitor the patient themselves for a specified number of days post-op for any signs/symptoms of infection. For a number of years, these numbers were electively reported by healthcare facilities and now reporting is required by National Hospital Safety Network and CDC. Everything we do to and for patients should be monitored for safety, we owe that to our staff and our patients.

Re: MONITORING PATIENT SAFETY

posted by NICOLE FENNELL

Dec 04, 2014, 1:36 PM   

What are some key measures that providers use to monitor patient safety?

Key measures that can be used by providers is by developing quality indicators and quality measures. “Quality measures are tools that help us measure or quantify health care processes, outcomes, patient perceptions, and organizational structure and/or systems that are associated with the ability to provide high-quality health care and/or that relate to one or more quality goals for health care. These goals include: effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered, equitable, and timely care, (CMS, 2014). Medicare and Medicaid have set up innovation projects to assist patients in how they take their medication. Patients tend to not pay attention to the instructions for their medication or forget to take it or think they don’t need it. This program will help educate patients on this matter that are on Medicare or Medicaid. I have also seen these plans role out in hospitals with patients who are on private insurance companies. This can lead to many medical complications or false diagnoses if patients are taking their medication as instructed or needed. This can reflex on patient safety and goals and benchmarks should be put into place so that the patient is being educated on the correct information. Data usually shows in these cases that overtime patients will become healthier and more aware of their medical conditions. Sometimes people like to believe out of sight out of mind but this can drastically affect their health care.

Re: MONITORING PATIENT SAFETY

posted by JENNIFER BOWERS

Dec 04, 2014, 1:27 PM   

What are some keys measures that providers use to monitor patient safety?

Monitoring patient safety is vital in the health care industry. Unfortunately, the health care industry pays out a significant amount of money to patients, malpractice insurance agencies, and attorneys. By preventing accidents and errors we can decrease health care costs. It is important to prevent any problems before they may arise; therefore, completing variances, surveys, and hiring a qualified management team are just some ways the medical facility can help monitor patient safety. Whenever, there is an incident a report should be taken, reviewed by management team, and then measure should be taken to prevent this from happening again. According to Sun, (2014). “An adverse event is defined as an event that results in unintended harm to the patient by an act of commission or omission rather than by the underlying disease or condition of the patient” (Chapter 36 Monitoring Patient Safety Problems, para 3). An adverse event causes many problems for the patients and the medical facilities. Injuries and human errors are the number one cause of lawsuits. It is extremely important to uphold and implement any safety measures in medical facilities so that this problem can diminish or cease. By completing safety measures the medial facility will decrease cost and ensure the patient’s safety.

Re: MONITORING PATIENT SAFETY

posted by SHERI WILLIAMS

Dec 02, 2014, 6:14 PM   

Ensuring that patients receive safe and effective care is a continuous and revolving process.  Healthcare organizations strive to create processes and procedures for continuous improvement.  Regular monitoring  of performance processes allows organizations to see if they are meeting their goals as well as where improvements are needed.  Healthcare organizations create performance improvement plans, remains flexible, and continues to monitor in an effort to make informed decisions for which impacts better patient safety and outcomes. (Rekeiti, Kyloudis, Toska, & Saridi 2012).  There are multiple measures that providers can utilize to monitor patient safety.  Healthcare facilities have quality Assurance team that continues to monitor and measure performance.  However, its the responsibility of all staff members to implement safety measures and strive to continue to improve safety goals and quality goals.  Some simple measures implemented include such measures such as monitor safety and performance in all departments, provide the community with data and/reports of quality scores, use performance data in an effort to create programs aimed at improving patient care and safety, educate staff on quality and safety controls, and involve patients, families, leadership, and health care providers on ensuring and improving quality and safety performance. (Longo, Hewett, Ge, & Schubert 2005).

There are a variety of methods to collect data and studies used to rate patient safety, clinical quality, use of technology, patient satisfaction, patient outcomes, etc.  The data that is collected is put into reports and scorecards and is evaluated by administrative staff so they can monitor progress and make informed decisions on how improvements should be made. (Longo, Hewett, Ge, & Schubert 2005).  This data also helps with implementing policies related to the day to day operations of the health care organization related to patient care and safety.

Re: PATIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY

posted by JENNIFER BOWERS

Dec 04, 2014, 1:09 PM   

Because of the seriousness of managing health care quality outcomes in a patient-safe environment, what do you believe a patient satisfaction survey will show if providers are not required to comply with regulatory and accreditation rules and guidelines?

Patient satisfaction surveys are very important for determining quality care. Surveys can provide valuable information, and helps the medical staff and facility improve. For instance, if a patient felt the medical facility was unclean he or she could report this on a survey. Once the surveys are read by the medical staff they will know there needs to be an improvement in the cleaning department. I think a patient satisfaction survey will show a significant amount of pencil marks if providers were not required to comply with regulatory rules and guidelines. In previous years before there was a regulatory and accreditation medical doctors and staff worked and treated individuals in deplorable conditions. Patients left sicker then they did arriving because the patients were exposed to bacteria, viruses, and many other conditions that could have been prevented if there were regulatory agencies. Improving quality of care diminishes the likelihood of further infection or contamination. Patient surveys help determine a medical facility’s problem areas and without them the facility will falter. I think if regulatory agencies and accreditation did not exist what would be the point of a patient survey, because there is not requirement to uphold quality measures.

Re: PATIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY

posted by CARLITA GIBBONS

Dec 04, 2014, 12:59 PM   

Hospital patient satisfaction survey can be an important tool in understanding and identifying ways to reduce costs and improve operational performance. By capturing the patient perspective across the entire care continuum, a patient satisfaction survey provides a clear picture of where the process is failing to meet patient needs and expectations. A hospital patient satisfaction survey can pinpoint areas of concern problems in communication or perceived lack of compassion, for example – and help organizations identify the areas where specific change could yield dramatic results. By improving their patients’ experience, a hospital can achieve significant results, including increased reimbursement under new payment models, which not only impacts your bottom line, but also affects your reputation and market share. My family practice uses patient surveys after each visit or hospital stay and they are issued by a company called Press Ganey. A health care satisfaction survey  is just the first step in driving operational performance. Press Ganey also offers advanced analytics and strategic advisory services that help transform the insights gleaned from survey data into action plans for continuous improvement. Our advisors and consultants can help hospital administrators understand the data from a hospital patient satisfaction survey, diagnosis problems and recommend solutions, and help to implement initiatives that will have a measurable impact on patient satisfaction and operational performance. The surveys will show if the patient was satisfied with the services they received and if there are any rooms for improvement from the staff and how they are handling the issues and care management of the patients.

Re: PATIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY

posted by CARLOS RAIZ ENCISO

Dec 04, 2014, 1:50 AM   

Because of the seriousness of managing health care quality outcomes in a patient-safe environment, what do you believe a patient satisfaction survey will show if providers are not required to comply with regulatory and accreditation rules and guidelines?

According to the scenario it looks that the health care organization is not affiliated to any accreditation and regulatory agency, and these days federal programs like Medicare and Medicaid require that in order for a provider to be reimbursed needs to compliance with high standards in quality of health care services delivered because now the reimbursement from payers to providers is not based in pay for service, now is based in evidence based medical practice. In the event that this health care organization did some patient satisfactory survey, its results will vary depending what kind of survey method distribution was used, the following will represent the possible survey results according to the method: when the patient was survey by mail the response rate was not higher than 50 percent, when the method  of delivery was by phone the response rate was less than 60 percent, when the survey was deliver by E-mail  the response rate it won’t be  more than 40 percent, when the survey was provided online the response rate it won’t exceed  the 30 percent, if the survey is delivered as a paper survey in a group setting, the response rate will be less than 50 percent, and the last modality of survey delivery will be face to face interview and it is expected that the response rate won’t be higher than 70 percent. As we see the health service qualification according to the patient’s perspective is poor, and reflect an extreme low quality in health care services delivered. These days the majority of health care organizations adopt the Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (CAHPS), which is require as a part of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid services’ Reporting Hospital Quality Data for Annual Payment Update program, so the health care organization should be aligned to all these quality and patient safety requirements in order to be reimbursed, otherwise the organization will suffer severe reduction in finances, having less income.

Re: PATIENT SATISFACTION SURVEY

posted by JESS MOYERS

Dec 03, 2014, 3:05 PM   

This is a very tricky question to answer.  Many of the patients do not know all of the rules and guidelines that are established in health care.  The patient satisfaction survey is based on an experience with either a person or the organization.  Where we will see the correlation with surveys and regulatory scores is if the patient has a bad outcome or experience.  The actual experience of a person will have more impact on how they score their survey versus how compliant the facility is with regulation.  The same comparison can be made within a restaurant; we don’t get to see the kitchen so our basis of satisfaction comes from the service and the quality of the food.  I will say that if the dining room is dirty and unorganized the presumption that the kitchen is the same way.  What we view as a satisfactory experience can be altered by so many variables in a health care setting, with the main focus being placed on staff relationships.  I would agree that if a facility is failing to meet the set standard of regulations that the patient satisfaction scores would be similar, however if the staff creates positive relationships with the patients some of the results may look positive.