Healthcare Quality

The goal of Greenville Healthcare Systems is to improve outcomes, create more satisfied patients and better value all across the hospitals system. We are focused on developing data-based, patient-focused metrics for every aspect of quality that includes clinical care, patient satisfaction and safety and improving our process development. We are dedicating our teams of top professionals to find better ways to achieve those goals. As a Quality Officer for Greenville Health Systems, my goal is to improve outcomes, create more satisfied patients and better value, throughout the hospital system. One quality initiative is to use computerized information technology. Once health care providers have access to complete and correct data, patients will receive better medical treatment. Electronic health records (EHRs) can increase the ability to diagnose illnesses and reduce or prevent medical errors, which will improve patient care. In addition, EHRs can uncover potential safety issues and will help the organization to prevent further serious consequences for patients and will lead to better patient results. The second initiative is to improve communication with mobile technology.

Communication between providers and patients is complicated. Currently, hospitals in the U.S. waste over $12 billion a year because of the inability to communicate with providers. Mobility is a priority for the Nursing Smart Care strategy and the team is working with IT and wireless communication professionals to overcome challenges in hospitals. Healthcare organizations are starting to evaluate how mobile devices can support voice communication, messaging, and task list prioritization. A communication strategy is being established for nurses with a technology foundation that is flexible. The goal is to improve patient safety and clinician efficiency. With nurses being the largest workforce within the healthcare delivery system, they play a significant role in planning and the implementation of new ways of treatment and the essential technology results to improve quality outcomes. The third initiative I would use is interactive technology to improve patient satisfaction.

A recent study by The Beryl Institute found that hospitals that used interactive technology to communicate with patients showed an increase in patient satisfaction by approximately 10 percent (beckershospitalreview.com). They also found a greater percentage of satisfaction with the hospital educational resources and courses. Interactive patient technology gives patients quicker access to hospital workers and amenities. For example, several hospitals used an interactive in-room monitor to allow patients to ask a variety of questions about their treatment, give feedback, make requests, and get discharge information. They found that this technology was beneficial for hospital workers because they could use the interactive monitor to respond to small requests and the workers were able to prioritize their response based on urgency or need. Moreover, the technology provided hospitals real-time patient feedback and service alerts, which helped revise the existing processes to improve patient satisfaction.

Since the reform, hospitals are being forced to find new ways to cut expenses and increase effectiveness while continuing to be aware of the processes and supplies needed to keep the business moving forward. Each year an estimated $5 billion will be spent due to the implantable device supply chain as a result of waste, ineffectiveness and lack of visibility (hitconsultant.net). Organizations that can get a better grip on managing their healthcare organization’s supply and demand will save a numerous amount of money the organization and increase constructive patient care. Supply chain management is the second most expensive cost of labor and hospital are looking for a more reasonable way to cut expenses and continue to be efficient. There are five ways that healthcare organizations can utilize supply chain management to save more money and still be efficient. The first way to use the supply chain is by automating manual processes. Healthcare organizations can recoup missing costs by using e-commerce solutions for automating manual processes.

Using e-commerce solutions like expense management software will save time and money once it’s correctly implemented. Also, by creating necessary connections between the organization and functions will provide visible data and enable better management of data that is usually incorrectly. By accurately capturing data from the start is the key to reducing cost. The second way is to establish efficient trade partner relationships. The capability of connecting with interchanging partners through a supply chain community will allow more precise and effective e-business relations that will evolve throughout the industry. The relationship with merchandisers is essential to getting the product to the patient. Therefore, great alliances with the key players will decrease costs and build up profits. In addition, having flexible contracts will allow for better movement of these key players to continue to look for better options or lower costs for high priced items. The third way is to reduce waste and excess product. By utilizing the data from the supply chain and using it to get a better handle on how much product is needed and the right time.

Healthcare organizations cannot afford to waste supplies and products they have on hand. The Supply chain represents up to 45 percent of hospital operating cost. Furthermore, by using the supply chain programs, organizations can effectively track and monitor inventory, therefore reducing costs, improving customer satisfaction and meet compliance and administrative requirements. The fourth way is to capture data for business requirements. The more accurate data a healthcare organizations can achieve substantial savings from fewer errors and less costs from better communication and improve revenues by having correct data. Thus, helping the business to run more smoothly. The fifth way to utilize the supply chain is by permitting automation amongst local care systems. Today, hospitals and sub-acute care facilities are undersupplied by healthcare technology. The supply chain automation tools will help serve these systems and give them the capability, data clarity and cost savings needed to survive.

Moreover, providers need to increase their investments in the tools that will allow them to use electronic order exchange with suppliers. For example, an e-commerce foundation will create connectivity and an alliance that will enable them to share data with each other. Thus, building trust and distinguishability to improve the supply chain management. With the increasing number of costs and supplies, it would benefit healthcare organizations to reevaluate their current supply chain and make the need changes. There are several differences between free market health care and a single-payer government system. We will begin with some aspects of the free market health care system. A free market health care requires little or no government involvement. With this system, prices for healthcare goods and services are determined by the consumers and health care providers. In addition, patients can pick and choose who they go to for treatment and how much they will spend. Physicians or Suppliers can also determine what services they will provide and at what price.

However, they will have to compete for individual patients based on the rate and quality of their services. Under the free market system, Insurance companies will offer policies that meet the diversified resources for consumers. In theory, a free market health care system will increase competition and make the environment a better place for health insurers, and the cost of health insurance will decrease. On the other hand, single-payer health care is described as a type of financing system. In healthcare, a single- payer system is set up as a one entity government run organization that collects and pays out all healthcare fees. There are three differences in the single-payer system that are access and benefits, payment, and financing. In the single-payer system, everyone would receive comprehensive medical benefits. The coverage would include all medically necessary services.

The care would depend on the need and not the ability to pay. In the payment aspect, hospital billing would non-existent. Instead, hospitals would receive a lump-sum payment one a year from the government to cover operating expenses also known as a “global budget” (single-payernewyork.org). Under the financing part, everyone pays their fair share. For example, all employers and employees will pay a reasonable payroll tax. The payroll tax will produce dramatic savings for private companies, and state and local governments that pay for health insurance for their employees. There are several common law initiatives that are still found in 21st century. One example of a common law initiate is a Medicare Rule, which requires hospitals to make sure all patient records are confidential. For instance, they must make sure no unauthorized person cannot gain access to patient records or they only be released to authorized person according with the law. Another example is the Bill of Rights that set civil rights and accountabilities for patients and health care providers. One crucial role of A Patient’s Bill of Rights is informed consent.

Informed consent recognizes a patient’s need to understand the procedures, surgery, or treatment before they make a decision whether to have it or not (lustgarten.org). It is also the patient’s right to refuse treatment and is a result of the doctrine of informed consent. For example, the case Cruzan v. Harmon (1989), parents refused treatment for their daughter after she became in a vegetative state. They specified that their daughter would not want to live the rest of her life in her current circumstance. It is important to Greenville Health Systems to provide high-quality care to their patients. Quality health care is defined as doing the right thing, at the right time, and in the right way, to achieve the best possible outcome (ncqa.org). Quality has different meanings to different people. Some patients think receiving quality health care means seeing a physician in a timely manner, being treating respectfully by hospital staff, or the doctor spending more time with them. As a hospital, we understand and agree that these perspectives are important. Providing high-quality health care means more lives saved and less time in the hospital.

The Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) reports To Err is Human, and it has revealed that each year between 44,000 and 98,000 American die due to medical errors. In addition, the total cost of medical errors that result in injury are estimated at 17 to 29 billion with healthcare costs with encompassing over half of the cost. These statistics make it essential for our organization to ensure that our patients are receiving quality health care. There are several examples why quality health care is vital to our organization. One is patient safety, as an organization we want to avoid injuries to patients from the care that is intended to help them. Another example is effectiveness, and we want to provide our services based on scientific knowledge to all patients that will benefit from it. Also, we look to avoid underuse and overuse of treatment to our patients. Finally, it is important for our organization to give our patients treatment in a timely manner.

HIPAA Privacy Rule is the standard for individually identifiable Health Information. It established the first national standards to protect patients’ personal health information (PHI). Issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the rule focuses on limiting the use and disclosure of sensitive PHI. The law protects the privacy of patients while still allowing relevant health information to flow through the proper channels. In addition, this rule gives patients the right to access their medical records. My plan to protect patient information that complies with all legal requirements is to use the five-step to HIPAA Privacy Rule Compliance. The first step is to put someone in charge. The Privacy Rule requires you to assign responsibility to someone to implement the Privacy Rule, which is called the Privacy Officer. Their job is to make sure all other steps in this guideline done and kept in place. The second step is to keep protected health information (PHI) secure and private. To be compliant with this part of the Privacy Rule, you must accept responsibility and use your best judgment to keep all PHI private and secure.

It means you need to make a reasonable effort to prohibit unauthorized access to PHI. The third step is to set up office policy, procedures and training for your employees. It is the privacy officer’s job to train the current and future staff on the Privacy Rule. While, in the training sessions, the privacy officer will go over all forms of PHI in the practice and how it must be securely and privately kept. After the staff meeting, everyone must sign a form stating they understand the material, and it will be enforced as office policy. The fourth step is to inform patients of their rights and support those rights. Under the HIPAA rule patients must be informed of their privacy rights which includes their right to see, change or amend their PHI. Finally, the fifth step is to limit access to patient information to business outside the practice. By restricting access, this rule means you cannot sell patient information to other companies without the patient’s consent. People from other companies or non-staff that visit your organization do not have to sign any agreements.

References

Dunn, L. (2011, March 10). Study: Hospitals’ use of interactive technology improves patient satisfaction. Retrieved May 16, 2015, from http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/…technology/study-hospitals-use-of-int… Five steps to HIPAA security compliance – HIPAA.com. (2013, October 16). Retrieved May 16, 2015, from https://www.hipaa.com/five-steps-to-hipaa-security-compliance/ Improving patient outcomes and diagnostics with EHRs. (2014, March 19). Retrieved May 16, 2015, from http://www.healthit.gov Patient “Bill of Rights” and Informed Consent. (2009). Retrieved May 17, 2015, from http://www.lustgarten.org/get-informed/patient-bill-of-rights-and-informed-consent Pennic, J. (2013, May 13). 5 ways supply chain can reduce rising healthcare costs. Retrieved May 16, 2015, from http://hitconsultant.net/