NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Introduction
The healthcare industry has experienced a significant transformation with the introduction of technology. These technological advancements have presented solutions to common challenges in healthcare service delivery. As healthcare facilities strive to enhance the quality, accessibility, and affordability of health services, the adoption of innovative technologies has seen a substantial increase.
In today’s healthcare system, nurses and administrators must be well-versed in the technologies utilized to ensure patient safety, measure outcomes, and manage healthcare informatics. The reliance on handwritten orders and paper charts for patient status tracking and documentation has been replaced by information technology, which has become an integral part of the nursing profession.
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Ensuring patient safety is a top priority for nurses and healthcare facilities alike. It serves as the foundation for delivering quality nursing care, and together with information technology, it must continuously evolve to improve patient outcomes.
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center (EHMC) recognizes the need to enhance patient safety and satisfaction in discharge planning. Continuous quality improvement is crucial for the ongoing success of any healthcare organization.
This essay aims to provide insights into the technologies employed for data gathering in quality improvement, the role of nursing informatics, and the utilization of healthcare information technology at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center.
Types of Information Technology Systems
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, passed by President Barack Obama in 2009, had a significant impact on the adoption of electronic health records (EHR) in healthcare organizations (Lavin, Harper, & Barr, 2015).
This led to a rapid expansion in the use of EHR systems, bringing about improvements in the quality, safety, efficacy, and cost of care within the healthcare industry. One notable benefit of EHRs is the reduction of medication errors resulting from illegible handwriting. Additionally, there is a portable computer system known as the Computerized Patient Record System (CPRS), which links to the electronic health record and aids healthcare staff in accessing patient information.
The field of nursing informatics plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of quality management initiatives and promoting patient satisfaction and quality of care. CPRS plays a crucial role in enhancing patient safety by enabling providers to bring portable computers directly to patient care areas, facilitating quality time-out procedures and bedside documentation.
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Barcode scanning is another significant aspect of healthcare technology utilized to enhance care delivery and patient safety. Medication errors, such as incorrect medication, dosage, or frequency, can result in prolonged hospital stays due to adverse reactions and non-compliance. To ensure successful patient discharge, medication education is essential in promoting patient satisfaction and compliance, ultimately preventing readmissions and costly visits to the emergency department.
Implementing barcode scanning empowers nursing staff to verify medication accuracy and provide education before patient discharge, thus reducing hospital costs, improving the quality of care, and enhancing patient satisfaction (Khammarnia, Kassanie & Eslahi, 2015).
The implementation of secure messaging via the Patient Portal system can play a significant role in promoting compliance and providing re-education to patients regarding their discharge plans, thereby reducing the likelihood of readmissions.
With secure messaging, discharged patients can easily connect with healthcare providers through various channels such as computers, telephones, or Zoom, enabling them to ask questions and seek clarifications once they are back home.
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Although healthcare information technology has multiple benefits, there are some downfalls as well. Weak designs of healthcare technology, shy technology interfacing, and imperfect conservation designs may lead to undersupplies of healthcare technology( Bowles, Dykes, & Demiris, 2015).
Another aspect of patient safety in the problem is preserving cases strictly to confidentiality under the Health Insurance Portability and Liability Act. It is meaningful to train cases on the confidentiality of their healthiness data.
Applying Nursing Informatics
Nursing informatics is a specialty that joins nursing knowledge and data knowledge into data information for streamlining care in nursing practice( Murphy, 2010). antedating new technologies, understanding confirmation used to be on paper and recorded in every case’s envelope in an office or provider’s office.
With the progressions and accomplishment of nursing informatics into clinical practice, there has been a considerable change in the provision of patient care and the face of nursing. Nursing informatics proposition in accepting the incorporation of electronic health records ( EHR) in the chamber as an evidence tool that yields information helpful in upgrading patient safety and security, assessing care quality, expanding productivity, and estimating staffing essentials( Lehmann, 2011).
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
In 2012, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center launched McKesson go live. McKesson was a first-generation EHR nursing informatics system that led to multiple difficulties. Mckesson wasn’t easy to use for the sitters and didn’t cross over to a patient portal system in which cases were competent to see their health records and discharge planning.
Mckesson was ineffective to achieve the asked rank of nursing informatics. In 2017, EHMC composited with Hackensack University Medical Center, a large healthcare college in the Meridian Health System. This combination allowed EHMC to get relief from Mckesson and switch to a more effective EHR.
EpicCare is one of the most straightforward to exploit, a total configuration that can be used to participate data apiece through a whole health care network adequately. Epic has the most complete, simple to- exercise use, for individual croaker practices, yet for arising an EHR that can be correctly partaken by a whole natural services network. imperial can be exploited for the registry, clinical data, planning cases, and patient billing.
Most importantly EpicCare has the competence to hand over cases access to a patient hatch in which they were competent to penetrate all of their medical information to better their satisfaction. While different architectures have a portion of these capacities and capabilities, EpicCare at EHMC has bettered the case’s satisfaction regarding discharge planning by bettering the case’s understanding of their care former to being discharged. NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Influence of Information Technology on Patient Care
Electronic healthcare record integration is vital for healthcare chambers. Integrated systems can work together to collect all of the patient’s information from a variety of different sub-systems to bring about a full and complete electronic healthcare record( Bowles, Dykes, & Demiris, 2015). The use of integrated systems also allows cases to penetrate their information including laboratory results and other information( Bowles, Dykes, & Demiris, 2015). NSG557: Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
The use of a fused system can enhance patient satisfaction by amplifying patient participation as a part of the interdisciplinary band and help them make informed conclusions about their healthcare plans Bowles, Dykes, & Demiris, 2015). The use of healthcare information technology and electronic health records can amend patient care outgrowths by bettering productiveness, de-escalating medical offenses, and aggrandizing quality of care.
A possible wall that can impress information technology employment in patient care, is the quantity of time that’s involved. As a nanny, it is important to always stay focused on patient care and not offend out from interacting with cases because of technology. Staff may show resistance to change in harnessing electronic health records if the charting process is excessively clunky as it was with McKesson at EHMC.
Employment of the SMART discharge planning note title erected into the CPRS system will guarantee proper education and case follow-up has been completed foregoing to the case being discharged. continual auditing of the SMART aspiration confirmation can be completed through the electronic system, to assess nursemaid completion and furnish designs for re-education.
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
By bettering discharge education, patient satisfaction will amend in the case discharge experience and the case feeling equipped to look out for themselves at home. employment of the CPRS system will contribute to the charge of change at EHMC.
Health and Medicine Division Recommendations for Integrated Information Systems. The recommendations by the Health and Medicine Division( HMD) hung on high-profile reports hand the bottom for which brotherhoods hand over healthcare and the healthcare gurus therein can amend with a compliment to delivering quality, affordable and dispassionate care.
More specifically, the recommendations deliver a well-organized roadmap through which associations can meet the aims of care. The preface and operation of attestation- to find a basic practice, interdisciplinary armies, informatics, and case-centered care is necessary for creating a standardized system for all healthcare exponents( Institute of Medicine, 2003).
Management and Maintenance
In order to ensure the successful integration, management, and maintenance of EpicCare, the EHR system at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, multiple departments are involved with distinct roles and responsibilities. The Implementation Manager holds the responsibility of assigning tasks and monitoring the progress of all implementation assignments.
This individual provides regular updates to the team, highlighting the progress made, obstacles overcome, and upcoming challenges. As a collective, the team collaborates to develop strategies for effectively addressing any challenges that may arise.
The successful implementation of EHR systems relies on an IT/Informatics Leadership group that possesses a comprehensive understanding of the specific limitations of the proposed interventions. Managing and maintaining such projects also require the utilization of additional software products to provide a comprehensive range of solutions necessary for an efficient practice (McGonigle and Mastrian, 2015).
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Integration of various systems, such as appointment-reminder systems and interfaces with lab and imaging frameworks, is crucial for operational efficiency. To ensure the security of the implemented EHR software, antivirus software is installed to protect against potential threats. The antivirus program scans the computer systems for viruses or worms, promptly identifies any potential risks, and eliminates malware (Cassano, 2014).
In line with ensuring patient safety, the Health and Medicine Division recommends the establishment of a governmental agency tasked with monitoring and enhancing safety standards across healthcare facilities. This includes strict monitoring of nurses to foster and promote patient safety (Donaldson, Corrigan & Kohn, 2000).
Additionally, implementing a reporting system for identifying and learning from errors is essential in the pursuit of continuous improvement.
Englewood Hospital and Medical Center (EHMC) is dedicated to utilizing information technology and alternative applications to enhance quality improvement initiatives. The organization’s robust quality improvement is driven by strong leadership and healthcare providers who embrace accountability for their work.
NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
EHMC aligns performance and quality measures with its mission, vision, and strategic plan, focusing on delivering quality patient care and ensuring safety through the use of data.
Health information technology (HIT) tools play a vital role in supporting quality improvement efforts by facilitating performance tracking, monitoring the impact of modifications on patient experience, and striving to reduce costs while improving patient health outcomes.
Alternative technologies such as smart TVs and mobile devices offer additional avenues to improve patient satisfaction beyond computerized charting. Smart TVs and mobile devices, like tablets, can provide educational resources on medications, procedures, and post-discharge instructions.
These smart technologies also enable patients to report pain levels and other indicators, maximizing nursing efficiency. Point-of-Care technology serves as an alternative means for nurses to collect patient data, including medications and test results. With Point-of-Care data collection, nurses can develop care plans that ensure patients are educated and understand the trajectory of their care. NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
Conclusion:
In conclusion, the integration of technology plays a crucial role in improving patient satisfaction and enhancing their hospital experience. The utilization of Electronic Health Records (EHR), specifically EpicCare at EHMC, has significantly improved the quality of care and accessibility of patient information through the patient portal and SMART system for discharge information.
It is essential for nurses to effectively incorporate information technology alongside their clinical expertise and compassionate bedside manner to achieve optimal patient outcomes. By combining these skills, nurses can ensure the delivery of high-quality and safe care to patients.
Information and technology skills also serve as valuable resources for nurses, providing additional references and opportunities for double-checking actions to prevent medical errors, such as barcode scanning.
Nursing informatics plays a vital role in enhancing patient care coordination and discharge planning through the effective utilization of information technology. NSG 557 Patient Satisfaction Quality Improvement Project
References
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Cassano, C. (2014). The right balance-technology and patient care. On-Line Journal of Nursing Informatics, 18(3).
Donaldson, M. S., Corrigan, J. M., & Kohn, L. T. (Eds.). (2000). To err is human: building a safer health system (Vol. 6). National Academies Press. Institute of Medicine. 2003. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
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Khammarnia, M., Kassani, A., & Eslahi, M. (2015). The Efficacy of Patients’ Wristband Barcodeon Prevention of Medical Errors. Applied Clinical Informatics, 06 (04), 716-727. doi: 10.4338/aci-2015-06-r-0077
Lavin, M., Harper, E., & Barr, N. (2015). Health Information Technology, Patient Safety, and Professional Nursing Care Documentation in Acute Care Settings. Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 20(2).
Lehmann, H. P. (2011). Aspects of electronic health record systems. New York: Springer.
Lin, C.-J., Cheng, S.-J., Shih, S.-C., Chu, C.-H., & Tjung, J.-J. (2012). Discharge planning. International Journal of Gerontology, 6(4), 237-240.
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McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G.(2015). Nursing informatics and the foundation of knowledge. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Murphy, J. (2010). Nursing informatics: the intersection of nursing, computer, and information sciences. Nursing Economics, 28(3), 204
