Discussion Post: Reengineering Health Care
Quality improvement in health care is necessary to provide evidence-based care which is safe and effective to the population as it enables the organization to achieve its goals. To maintain a culture of safety, health care organizations use teams to collect and analyze data on areas of concern and develop a plan of action to improve those areas. (Helbig, 2018). An example of a continuous quality improvement that I can identify from my previous workplace is how to reduce surgical case cancellations by improving preoperative patient preparation practices. Inadequate preoperative patient preparation leading to cancellation of the surgery is a stressful experience to the patient and the family not forgetting the wastage of resources planned for the activity which is a loss to the organization. Cancellation of elective scheduled operations on the day of surgery leads to an inefficient use of operating room (OR) time and a waste of resources. It also causes inconvenience for patients and families. (Kaddoum, et al. 2016). Factors that lead to elective surgical cases being cancelled on the day of surgery include laboratory investigation values that are out of required range, not observing the starving period, poor communication on time of surgery, incomplete medical evaluation, or lack of financial clearance. Quality improvement strategy that can be applied to address the problem would be developing a standard operating procedure where the preoperative preparations for the patient are reviewed 24 hours before surgery and documentation of the communication to the patient, surgeon, anesthesia care provider and the OR manager is done before confirming the scheduling.
Continuous quality improvement (CQI) is the responsibility of all nurses and is vital when addressing the challenges of the health care industry. Provide an example of how you would apply CQI in your current or past position.
The response should include a reference list. Using one-inch margins, Times New Roman 12 pnt font, double-space and APA style of writing and citations.