What Is Quality Improvement?

care outcomes, as well as benchmark data to assess current practice,” (Sherwood, 2014). American Nurses Association has a National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators looks for a cause for common healthcare issues, such as “surgical site infections, pain assessment, pressure ulcer development, and falls,” (Sherwood, 2014) to better understand how these things came about to possibly prevent in the future.

NHS quality improvement programs main purpose is to collect and review data entered in order to recognize the opportunities to improve business operations in healthcare. To bring changes in quality, it is necessary to respond to patient’s ideas and implement them for the better results. The key issues that are to be considered for quality-improvement NHS program, as it moves forward are the needs for the patients, necessity of the funds for quality improvements, needs of the service providers and expectations of the community. Outcomes for people and also change expertise. And to improve business operations in healthcare and also recognize opportunities.

My Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) certificate is an artifact that supports my capacity in safety and quality improvement in healthcare. This course enlightened on my role as nurses in enhancing safety and quality in my workplace. I have already proposed the need in including staff nurses in the quality improvement committee to my employer. I believe I will be among the staff nurses who will be sitting in the committee, and I am going to take the role of an informal leader and a change agent in that committee. As an informal leader and a change agent, I will devote my energy in refocusing the thinking of my colleagues, so that they are able to visualize

Now, the quality improvement department will need to determine what processes can be modified to improve outcomes. For example, if they see an increase in pressure sores and prevalence of restraints. They could use computerized charting and order entry, along with the evidence-based guidelines, to identify specific groups of patients who are vulnerable to developing pressure ulcers or closely monitoring use of restraints. With early identification, automatic orders for preventive interventions can be implemented quickly. With the assistance of the automated consults and orders, the appropriate equipment, the interdisciplinary task force, continuing education, and monitoring, the hospital system would be able to reduce unnecessary use of restraints and hospital-acquired pressure ulcer prevalence rate (Cherry & Jacob, 2010).

Quality patient care can be advanced in this situation by collecting data on specific nursing-sensitive indicators. Data on the prevalence of restraint use and consequential complications (e.g. pressure ulcers, contractions, anxiety, incontinence, and other complications) can aid in maintaining awareness of risks and allowing the nurse to take proper steps to limit their occurrence. Data on patient/family/caregiver satisfaction can help illustrate whether the quantity and quality of nursing care needs to be improved. Data on nursing satisfaction and staffing can help to assess whether changes need to be made to staffing numbers, whether more experienced nurses are needed, whether more educational opportunities are need for the hospital staff, for example.

Quality improvement is referred to as “the use of data to monitor the outcomes for care processes and use improvement methods to design and test changes to continuously improve the quality and safety of health care” (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). Data is used as the reflection of quality care that is provided by nurses and presents whether or not improvement is needed. In order for nurses to be mindful of the care that they give, they must be taught a systematic process of defining problems, identifying possible causes of those problems, and methods for trying out new solutions to prevent those problems (Sherwood & Barnsteiner, 2012). Currently, quality improvement measures are being utilized throughout hospitals to reduce the risk of patient falls and fall injuries.

Quality Improvement (QI) is an organizational approach leading to the quality of patient care and patient services through use of specific guidelines, principles, and methods to ensure quality of care for every patient and health care facility throughout the world. Quality outcomes focus on the principles of quality management. These measurements investigate the quality of care, patient outcomes and consumer needs, through being part of the participant group. This quality improvement discussion will review the foundational frameworks of QI and explanation of each framework in detail. Included in this QI report will be

The nurse is challenged with the care of patients over a lifespan. Each stage of life brings its own physical and emotional changes which directs the care needs. The care needs of the pediatric patient will be much different from the needs of the geriatric population. The geriatric population has very specific needs which has prompted the government to establish the Quality Assurance & Performance Improvement (QAPI) program. The QAPI provides the framework for nursing facilities to develop and implement changes which address deficiencies the facility was found to have. Also, the QAPI program requires practices and policy be put in place to monitor care of the residents. The purpose of this paper is to list some of the changes the elderly go through as they age, and demonstrate these changes in a quality improvement project. After review of literature, I will discuss the challenges, barriers, and solutions as related to quality improvement. Lastly, I will discuss the quality of care for the geriatric in the future.

Quality improvement data is followed in all health care setting. The use of Cerner EHRs allows data to be obtained from patient charts to analyze core measures. According to the joint commission influenza and pneumococcal vaccinations measures should be addressed in all hospital in-patients (The Joint Commission, 2015). Data can be retrieved on those patient who were diagnosed with pneumonia to determine if they received the vaccinations for pneumonia and influenza. As well as tracking the time frame between diagnosis and treatment, and additionally the patient outcome. This is captured through the documentation of the clinical staff. The information can be analyzed to determine the quality improvement changes that need to be implemented to improve patient outcomes.

In 1994 the American Nurses Association (ANA) started the Patient Safety and Quality Initiative. It was a pilot program designed to evaluate the links between nurse staffing and quality care (Montalvo, 2007). The program outcome was a set of nursing-sensitive indicators used to evaluate quality care for patients in the acute setting and the start of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI). The NDNQI is a

Hospital data on specific nursing-sensitive indicators can help a facility advance quality patient care and prevent any new adverse events through education, increased staff, acknowledgement, and accountability. The healthcare facility can post these indicators and the data associated with them including location in the facility and staffing numbers. This helps to bring these indicators to a more individual level whether it be per unit or per person. This along with acuities helps to justify the need for larger numbers in staffing. Although facilities would sometimes rather work with minimum staffing allowed, it is necessary to show that with more staff patients are receiving a higher level of quality care. These numbers might reflect this. This data might also compare the number of hospital acquired pressure ulcers with the use of restraints. This might show staff another reason for promoting a restraint free environment. It must be stressed to nursing staff that they have a direct impact on these nursing-sensitive indicators. Nursing staff could be educated on prevention and early detection of any indicators.

After the interview with my nurse manager, I came up with the PICO question which states: “Does the computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system reduce the number of medication errors compared to the common paper system being used today?” This question is important and I selected it because the population that the Belvoir Community hospital serves includes army officers of all ages both active and retired including their spouses and children. This group includes two sub groups of highly vulnerable persons which include the very young and the very old, who have a high-risk effect for medication errors because the potential adverse drug event is three times greater than an adult hospitalized patient (Levine et al., 2001). CPOE is not a panacea, but it does represent an effective tool for bringing real-time, evidence-based decision support to physicians. Nurses are the last defense level of protection against medication errors, and are solely responsible for the dispensing, administering, and monitoring of medications. In healthcare, computers can be used to help facilitate clear and accurate communication between health care professionals. When using a CPOE system it allows physicians to type in prescriptions right into the device or computer which significantly lessens any mistakes that can occur when

Nursing-sensitive indicators can be an important tool in identifying patient care issues that could potentially arise during a hospital stay. By analyzing the data on specific nursing-sensitive indicators, the quality of patient care can be optimized and patient satisfaction can be improved. The American Nurses Association (ANA) and the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) are two sources of information and guidelines for nurses and nurse managers to use in planning patient care and workloads for each nursing unit. The use of available resources, staffing by acuity and patient needs, appropriate referral indicators, and cooperation

Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) communicates the following five elements: design and scope, governance and leadership, feedback, data systems and monitoring, performance improvement projects, and systematic analysis and systemic action. The purpose of this paper is to communicate issues surrounding these topics, as well as aging problems. Are the topics evidence based? Do they have supporting documentation to put them into practice at various facilities? Can executing the aforementioned items make a difference at institutions? Now, start the journey to see how each section can be applied to your workplace.

Time and again, hospitals are often called upon to improve the quality of its various health care activities in order to better serve patients and immediate communities. A quality improvement plan thus helps in the selection of high priority areas and the utilization of evidence-based practices in conducting the improvement (Berenguer et al., 2010). In view of the healthcare improvement needs of Sunlight Hospital, this paper seeks to classify and justify five measurements of quality of care in a hospital, specify the four main features in a health care organization that can be used in the design of a quality improvement plan, and suggest the salient reasons quality of care would add value and create a competitive advantage