Introduction
An organization’s quality of services is essential in ensuring that the organization builds itself into one of the most outstanding care delivery facilities. In addition, focusing on the quality of service deliveries can greatly influence the business sector of an organization because the primary objective of any an organization is to maximize profits and because the provision care has its choice of business. This paper will discuss a proposed quality improvement initiative, the target population, benefits associated with the quality improvement initiative, the interprofessional collaboration, cost justification of the initiative and the basis of evaluation for the program.
The Purpose of the Quality Improvement Initiative
The best quality improvement initiative which can enable an organization to achieve its primary objectives and goals on service efficiency is the termination of discharge delays. This project’s primary objective is to establish an effective discharge program that would allow nurses to monitor and alert when patients achieve their discharge objectives. Discharge delays are barriers to effective patient flow. They can lead to higher costs to all associated stakeholders; it would be essential to establish an initiative to help control such problems within the organization. This initiative’s primary focus is to meet the requirements of all patients and discharge them when they are medically and psychologically ready rather than concentrating on some of the new customers.
The Target Population
The target population for this quality improvement initiative the management team within the organization and the supervisors because they are responsible and vital during the decision-making process. The responsible parties responsible for implementing the change might not consider the project proposal if the supervisors fail to provide their support. Also, hospital management performs the role of bankrolling the quality improvement initiative and assure the organization’s system that it will conclude the implementation process. It is the major reason for including it as part of the target population.
The Benefits of the Quality Improvement Initiative
There are multiple benefits associated with the initiative to the involved stakeholders and the entire organization. The quality improvement initiative provides assurances for consistency for communications between patients and health care providers, regardless of the time. It makes it easier to monitor and assess the patients who achieve discharge objectives. Also, the initiative’s structure for the discharge of patients will ensure that nurses discharge patients when they believe they are ready but not when they require more beds for new patients (Statile et al., 2016). Therefore, it assures high-quality health care that would emphasize the patients, impacting their satisfaction. According to the services offered, the level of patient satisfaction impacts the profit in which the organization gains because it decides whether to make the recommendation to individuals. The initiative will also help ensure there are enough beds within the health facility to cater to high acuity individuals considering the effectiveness of the discharge approach. The initiative also minimizes the operational expenses by reducing the periods in which a patient should stay in a health organization.
Interprofessional Collaboration
Interprofessional collaboration refers to when different health workers from different professional departments join efforts with patients families, and even the community to deliver the best health care services. In this case, nurses and other healthcare providers must collaborate and share with others, including the patients, rather than operating as individuals (Vega & Bernard, 2016). During the implementation of the quality improvement initiative, the performance would be great when the team’s professionals communicate and collaborate.
Cost Justification
In cases where patients extend their stay in health facilities for different reasons, the organization’s cost of operations increases mostly because of their maintenance. Also, the extended-stay affects the patient’s flow within the organization, and as a result, it causes a decrease in profits (Roberts, Holloway & George, 2018). implementing a quality improvement initiative is a cost-effective process, and it focuses on minimizing every sought of expense experienced within the organization. For instance, if a health facility spends approximately $3,000 per in-patient a single day, the ability of the initiative to advance the patient’s discharge rate in three hours by 40% means that the organization can achieve around $6.2 million in cost savings and it portrays the extend of initiative’s impact. Regarding the initiative’s implementation, individuals do not require any costs throughout the process because most of the necessary and useful tools are available within the organization.
Basis of Evaluation
Conducting regular monitoring would be an essential evaluation method to determine and understand the initiative’s impact. Nurses and other healthcare providers should use the number of nurses they discharge from the hospital to monitor the process by conducting daily records. At the end of every month, health care providers should conduct an evaluation and analysis of the recording they made each day. It would be essential to introduce graphical data to represent the impact observed by the initiative.
Conclusion
In conclusion, discharge delays are barriers to effective patient flow, and they can lead to higher costs to all associated stakeholders. It would be essential to establish an initiative to control the barriers. The structure used by the initiative for the discharge of patients will ensure that nurses discharge patients when they believe they are ready but not when they require more beds for new patients.
References
Roberts, D. E., Holloway, R. G., & George, B. P. (2018). Post-acute care discharge delays for neurology inpatients: Opportunity to improve patient flow. Neurology: Clinical Practice, 8(4), 302-310.
State, A. M., Schondelmeyer, A. C., Thomson, J. E., Brower, L. H., Davis, B., Redel, J., … & White, C. M. (2016). Improving discharge efficiency in medically complex pediatric patients. Pediatrics, 138(2).
Vega, C., & Bernard, A. (2016). Retrieved 27 March 2021, from https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/857823
