Quality Improvement Proposal
To provide quality healthcare and enhance patient safety, a healthcare organization should aim to qualify as an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). It gives patients higher confidence levels for managing their health needs and better healthcare solutions at reduced hospital costs. Evidence-based solutions such as care plans have improved patient outcomes at a reduced expense. An ACO is well aligned for using care plans to manage the patient’s complex health needs (Fraze et al., 2020).
NURS FPX 6612 Assessment 2 Quality Improvement Proposal
ACOs are recognized as successful in providing quality healthcare to patients with depression and can reduce preventable hospitalizations. A comparison is made between ACO and non-ACO hospitals, and findings indicate that preventable hospitalizations are much lower in ACO-affiliated healthcare settings (Barath et al., 2020).
Establishing coordinated medical care for the broader community and population results in improved quality and safety outcomes for patients in ACOs. Accountable Care Organization is designed to address the cost and quality of healthcare services to patients. All stakeholders in the ACO healthcare setting are held responsible for the care provided to patients at affordable and reduced rates, and waste is avoided (Moy et al., 2020).
This assessment recommends expanding an organization’s Health Information Technology (HIT) to include quality metrics. It describes the main focus of information gathering and how it contributes to guiding the development of organizational practice. It identifies potential problems that can occur in data-gathering systems.
Recommendations to Expand HIT
Health Information Technology (HIT) is utilized to provide quality healthcare to patients at an affordable cost. It gives better access to data, filters out the most relevant information, and data analytics are available to medical practitioners and caregivers with detailed insight into patients’ complex health needs. Patients’ health records are well managed through a unique medical registration number (MRN) assigned to each patient.
A directory of each individual is maintained with the health records, detailed examination, and medication prescribed. All healthcare staff, including doctors, paramedics, and nurses, can access the electronic folders and plan better healthcare for quality health outcomes at lower hospitalization costs.
HIT shall be expanded at full scale across the board in any healthcare setting for an organization to stay at par to cater to the healthcare needs of its patients. A suitable and easy access system shall be designed for timely patient care on time. Patients can view their health charts and detailed examinations on their mobile applications. In contrast, healthcare staff can access patient portfolios on hospital site computers, and remote access is also provided through hospital databases.
For example, a 61-year-old woman, Caroline McGlade’s Electronic Health Record (EHR), is available and contains information on her previous history, lab examinations, and diagnosis of a case of potential breast cancer. For effective management and provision of nursing care, health information technologies play a vital role in accomplishing desired quality improvement in patient outcomes (Alaei et al., 2019).
Focus on Information Gathering and Guiding the Organizational Development
The main focus of information gathering is the provision of good quality healthcare to patients at reduced rates and catering to complex healthcare needs. The data gathered and the use of informatics and analytics help caregivers to plan better care and remove any redundancies of information that may be present in the hospital database.
Organizations have evolved through the progressive implementation of change in using databases. A robust and dedicated health system is available for every individual. Organizational productivity has increased manifolds regarding patient outcomes and employee efficiency. All healthcare staff has shown better patient management by using digital health records.
Doctors and other healthcare staff have been given extended control over their achievements and accomplishments in performing duties for healthcare services. Performance charts and projected growth is available to all healthcare professionals at their staff portals. Employees can give feedback on their satisfaction levels of working and suggest any modifications or enquire about any query if it arises during their work hours.
NURS FPX 6612 Assessment 2 Quality Improvement Proposal
Monitoring and managing healthcare databases are challenging, though their effectiveness for organizational development is critical for an ACO hospital to accomplish the desired outcomes for patients. Artificial Intelligence and other advanced information and communication technologies can provide better solutions for the healthcare profession, particularly in nursing informatics (Robert, 2019).
Problems with Data Gathering Systems
Data gathering is challenging, and its management and handling are equally demanding. Data gathering, preprocessing relevant data, and data analysis are the three main steps to resolve the problems that arise with data gathering systems.
Firstly, if staff is not well trained in using digital health databases. This will confuse patients’ data collection and management. Information required shall be explicit, and healthcare staff must acquaint themselves with essential healthcare tools. Proper training and guidance shall be provided to healthcare staff.
Data security and access to data are critical to protecting patients’ sensitive data. Adequate protocols in information security shall be implemented to avoid any unfavorable situation of patient data breaches.
This will ensure the protection of patients’ sensitive data and that systems with the state of the art technologies are in place to monitor and safeguard sensitive information. The organization shall establish a safe and secure data protection system with the help of strong management support. Data security would be ensured through dedicated resources, so patients’ sensitive information is only shared with the concerned healthcare staff.
Handling and storing data are critical, as the data size continuously expands with rapid developments. Therefore, online data storage using cloud strategies shall be implemented to meet the data storage requirement.
The stress related to using health information technologies (HIT) daily among physicians and other healthcare staff is measurable. Healthcare organizations must be aware of this stress burnout in medical staff and take appropriate actions to overcome it (Gardner et al., 2018).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, It is concluded that the role of health information technology (HIT) is central to the development of an Accountable Care Organization. The organization must implement HIT to benefit from new and innovative information and communication technologies. Data gathered must be coordinated, and every individual patient shall have a unique MRN for better analysis of patient history and complex health needs. The major problems in data gathering systems are the collection of relevant data, its preprocessing, and data analytics. Providing healthcare professionals with formal training and guidance can address these problems. Data security, sanctity, and storage are among the significant challenges concerned authorities must consider providing good quality healthcare at reduced costs.
References
Alaei, S., Valinejadi, A., Deimazar, G., Zarein, S., Abbasy, Z., & Alirezaei, F. (2019). Use of health information technology in patients care management: A mixed methods study in Iran. Acta Informatica Medica, 27(5), 311.
https://doi.org/10.5455/aim.2019.27.311-317
Barath, D., Amaize, A., & Chen, J. (2020). Accountable care organizations and preventable hospitalizations among patients with depression. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 59(1), e1–e10.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2020.01.028
Fraze, T. K., Beidler, L. B., Briggs, A. D. M., & Colla, C. H. (2020). Translating evidence into practice: ACOs’ use of care plans for patients with complex health needs. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 36(1), 147–153.
NURS FPX 6612 Assessment 2 Quality Improvement Proposal
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-020-06122-4
Gardner, R. L., Cooper, E., Haskell, J., Harris, D. A., Poplau, S., Kroth, P. J., & Linzer, M. (2018). Physician stress and burnout: The impact of health information technology. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(2), 106–114. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocy145
Moy, H., Giardino, A., & Varacallo, M. (2020). Accountable Care Organization. PubMed; StatPearls Publishing.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK448136/
Robert, N. (2019). How Artificial Intelligence is changing nursing. Nursing Management (Springhouse), 50(9), 30–39.