Leading A Change : Patient Rounding

Management is important in any environment, but especially so in the healthcare field.  As the health care system continues to evolve, sound management is critical to the survival of health care institutions (Johnson, 2005). The management team in a healthcare environment must always aim to improve the efficiency of the day to day activities and constantly plan for ways to improve the productivity and efficiency. Every manager’s main duty is to succeed in helping the organization achieve high performance while utilizing all of the organization’s human and material resources. On a daily basis health care managers must recognize performance problems and

Implementing change among all organizations is necessary to achieve success; within the health care industry change is constant and it is the role of management teams to assess, plan, implement and evaluate change to ensure satisfaction. Considering this among the other aspects of running a successful organization it is essential to ensure that there is minimal resistance and familiarity to change. Demands of the consumers and staff as well as regulations are continuously changing. The responsibility of managers is to successfully lead these inevitable changes.

The results of the study showed that significant increase in patient satisfaction scores, decreased call light usage, and reduction in patients fall rates. One-hour rounding shows higher satisfaction than two hour- rounding. Hypothesis supported the study because the research shows rounding can reduce patient call light usage (Meade, Bursell, Ketelsen , 2006). The theoretical framework that forms the basis of the research is that consistent nursing rounds can meet the basic needs of patient and ultimately reduce call light use and [pic]improve management of patient care while also[pic] increasing [pic]patient satisfaction and[pic] safety.

Hourly rounding, also known as “intentional” or “comfort” rounding is essentially when the nurse or tech routinely checks on a patient at scheduled times to anticipate individual needs prior to the activation of the call bell alarm (Harrington et al., 2012). In a recent study, authors imply that hourly rounding is an effective process for improving patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes (Brosey and March, 2015). I feel that the implementation of hourly rounding will improve multiple aspects of care, including patient and nurse

Rounding allows nurses to gather information in a structured way. It’s proactive, not reactive like call light responses. It’s a great way to get a handle on patient problems before they occur. It’s all about providing the best patient-driven health care… The great thing about hourly rounding is that it doesn’t benefit only the patients. (¶ 4).

Hourly rounding can be defined as proactive nursing intervention, at regular intervals in order to ensure patients needs have been met. Nurses attending to patients’ comfort, safety and

Leader patient rounding (LPR) is an evidence-based practice that allow leaders to be actively involved in the patient care system provided within the healthcare organization, and allowing real time for leaders to resolve issues that the patient / family may deem inappropriate care. LPR is not only for the patient / family, it enables leader visibility for the staff to interact with the leader. Therefore education / learning can be provided to the staff immediately when problems are identified. During LPR visits leaders address the 3 Ps: pain, position, and potty, the patient’s comfort, assess their environment, and identify the time someone will return before leaving the room. If follow up is warranted please ensure it happens.

Nursing-sensitive indicators are important in all aspects of patient care. A great deal of bedside care is given by nurses. Nursing-sensitive indicators are factors that rely directly on the nursing care of the patient. Quality nursing care improves patient care and therefore patient outcomes. Nursing-sensitive quality indicators promote patient safety and quality patient care. Since these quality indicators are reflective primarily on bedside care provided by nursing staff it is important that all nursing staff be aware of these indicators and their role in promoting quality patient care. There are specific indicators that could have been taken into account to promote patient

The purpose of the study was to identify the effect of regular nurse rounding on patient fall rate, call light usage and patient satisfaction in a medical surgical unit. A literature review using three studies from Medline and

Improving patient safety and increasing patient satisfaction while in the hospital is an ongoing issue in hospitals. Developing a plan to make changes within hospitals is the first step in accomplishing this task. The design plan for change is to improve patient safety, decrease risk of falls and increase patient satisfaction by implementing intentional hourly rounding for older adult patients (over the age of 65) admitted to a 40 bed telemetry unit at an acute care hospital. For each hourly round preformed a preselected group of question will be asked by the nurse or nurse’s assistant as well as informing the patient when the next hourly round will be conducted.

Olrich, T., Kalman, M., & Nigolian, C. (2012). Hourly Rounding: A replication study. MEDSURG Nursing, Jan/Feb2012; 21(1): p23-36.

In the article entitled “Lewin’s Theory of Planned Change as a Strategic Resource”, the author, Shirey (2013) stated that Lewin’s approach to change involves looking at the forces that are needed to diminished or strengthened in order to bring about change within an organization. Burnes and Cooke (2012) added to Shirey’s point by noting that it is important to understand the psychological forces influencing peoples’ behavior at a given point in time before change can be made. Both authors main point of agreement is that there are a number of forces that drive, restrain or balance peoples’ behavior. These authors stated that organizational change is necessary to meet consumer needs. Also, as technology changes, such as the change from the paper medical record to the EMR, health care organizations have to adopt these changes to improve patient safety. In addition, change provides a learning opportunity for employees and allows

Hourly rounding contributes in several key areas to achievement of high levels of patient satisfaction, including quality of care and patient safety. This puts patients at the center of care by building on the fundamental aspects of care, which are so important. Thus by checking in on patients in wards regularly to see whether they are comfortable and have everything they need can produce a number of positive results. Nurses

While many health care practitioners are willing to change, the issue is that change is often mismanaged by leaders whom are either incompetent or lack the resources to follow through in the implementation of change. An example was documented in a study of a California hospital unit where patient satisfaction scores rose and immediately fell. At the time, the hospital was going through transition. The nurses in the unit saw this as an opportunity to improve patient satisfaction score. They initiated the process by recommending that the new chief executive officer (CEO) change the current procedure to one that could led to the improvement of patients’ satisfaction. The result, in a few months

Fixing problems that face health care in many health facilities demand a system wide set of solutions. The systems used in these facilities must be assessed and redesigned to identify factors that will aid in the achievement of the set goals. The enormous task of achieving the goals should be undertaken collaboratively by all the key stakeholders, who include, health care professionals, planners and policy makers, administrators, payers, and patients and their families. These partnerships must begin with a common understanding of the problems together with a shared commitment to cooperate and work together to eliminate the problems. With this knowledge, therefore, an action plan for redesigning the health care system can be developed and later implemented. For a successful health care service to be realized, there are various factors which should be employed and which are not found in the traditional business setting. These include unique economic processes, proper regulatory requirements and the perfect quality indicators. This creates a need for every leader within the healthcare industry to create or develop unique skill sets that will harmonize both organizational leadership and the inter-professional team development. It is, therefore, important to understand the comprehensive approach to the management of patient care and also how the concepts of team development and organizational leadership support healthcare leaders in creation of a patient-centric