Healthcare Policy and Economics Paper

 Healthcare Policy and Economics Paper

 Healthcare Policy and Economics Paper

Quality is essential in healthcare. Healthcare quality generally means the degree to which the services provided by an institution to individual patients and populations are likely to meet the desired outcomes. The triple aim initiative was developed by Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) as a framework to describe an approach to optimize health system performance. It entails improving the patient’s experience of care, including quality and satisfaction, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per capita cost of healthcare (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, n.d.).

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Healthcare administrators contribute significantly to cost-effective quality care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. Additionally, they are expected t identify practices and apply them to minimize medical errors among frontline nursing staff. This essay applies the principles of the triple aim initiative to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction in acute care or long-term care settings, how I would use the role of a nursing director or healthcare administrator to contribute to the improvement of cost-effective quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety, and discuss the practices I would apply to minimize medical errors to among frontline nursing staff.

Application of the Principles of the Tripple Aim Initiative

The triple aim initiative. Also known as the IHI triple aim initiative is a framework describing an approach to optimizing health system performance. The framework is vital in guiding healthcare organizations as the focus transitions to value-based healthcare systems. It has three dimensions, which the organization believes should be developed simultaneously. These dimensions are improving the patient’s experience of care, including patient satisfaction and care quality, improving the health of populations, and reducing the per-capita cost in healthcare. Therefore, healthcare professionals can apply the triple aim initiative framework to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction across healthcare settings. Long-term care settings are one of them.

Long-term care settings mainly provide residential care to elderly individuals and people with disabilities. The most common forms of long-term care facilities include home health care providers and nursing homes. Quality healthcare services are vital in long-term care settings. The major reason for the need for quality care is that the patients or residents in these settings are at risk of different healthcare and patient safety issues, such as falls. Additionally, these are individuals who are unable to take care of themselves. Thus dependent on the care services provided. Most long-term care settings provide medical and non-medical services, which are expected to maintain high quality.

The three principles of the triple aim initiative are reducing costs, improving population health, and improving patient experience. These three principles can be incorporated to improve care quality in a long-term care setting. Improving population health and patient experience can boost the quality of care in these institutions. For instance, a long-term care facility can provide services such as health promotion aimed at improving the health and wellness of residents with chronic illnesses such as diabetes and hypertension. These health promotion initiatives would, in turn, lead to reduced complications and appropriate disease management, thus, better care quality.

Additionally, improving patient experience can enhance care quality in long-term care settings. According to Feng et al. (2020), long-term care facilities must be convenient for the patients and have personalized care to promote patient experience. In addition, good patient experience would motivate the care providers in the setting to improve their services and maintain a good patient experience, thus improving overall care quality.

Furthermore, patient safety and satisfaction are vital in long-term care settings. As mentioned earlier, long-term care facilities provide care to individuals who highly depend on assistance from their caregivers or healthcare providers. Therefore, they are more likely to be affected by patient safety issues, such as patient falls, adversely affecting their outcomes and quality of life. I would apply the three principles of the triple aim initiative to promote patient safety and satisfaction by striving to enhance patient-centeredness, provide after-hour access to care, timely access to care, and prevent avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department visits. Thus, patient care will be more personalized, and given more attention to reducing hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and complications, hence improving patient safety. Additionally, easy access to care will improve patient satisfaction.

The Role of a Healthcare Administrator in Improving Cost-Effective Quality Care, Patient Safety, and Patient Satisfaction

Healthcare administrators are at the frontline in leading and contributing to effective changes in their healthcare institutions. According to Michaels and Wagner (2020), healthcare administrators’ primary role is to oversee the day-to-day administrative operations in hospitals or other healthcare organizations, meaning that they plan and supervise all medical activities, as well as monitor budgets and update healthcare records in an institution. Therefore, healthcare administrators have a great stake or influence in the running of an institution and hence can contribute to cost-effective quality care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction.

Cost-effectiveness in healthcare is a way of measuring the costs of delivering healthcare services against the care outcomes of these services (Vaness et al., 2021). Cost-effective care ensures reduced costs while maintaining desirable care outcomes. However, maintaining quality care while minimizing costs is essential. As a healthcare administrator, I would contribute to improving cost-effective quality care in several ways. First and foremost, I would create an efficient and balanced team based on the services needed. Creating an efficient team would mean doing away with staff whose services are not always needed and contracting them when their services are needed. It would also mean getting the team’s best talent/skill set. Therefore, I would reduce the cost of keeping excess staff while improving quality by having the best staff, thus leading to cost-effective quality care.

Secondly, I would maximize planning, setting care goals and communicating them with the team. Planning for the institution’s resources, tasks, and activities would help maximize resources and avoid wastage, thus avoiding unnecessary expenses. In addition, setting clear care goals and communicating them to the team would help them work together, using the available resources, to meet the goals. Thus, the institution will be able to provide cost-effective and quality care services.

Furthermore, I would play my healthcare administrator role to enhance patient safety in my institution. I would promote patient safety by practicing patient-centered care, building a rapid response system, developing patient safety policies and practices, ensuring all staff and care providers are aware of the policies, and establishing a safety and health management system. As a major organizational stakeholder, I would push for patient-centered care. Research shows that patient-centered care is one of the most effective ways to promote patient safety since more emphasis is put on caring for patients as individuals (Hwang et al., 2019). Additionally, I would build a robust response system, and patient safety policies and practices, making them known to all staff. A response system and patient safety policies/practices will help prevent patient safety issues and report them early enough for action taking. A safety and health management system would also support these.

As a healthcare administrator, I would also work with other institutional stakeholders to promote patient satisfaction. Fang et al. (2019) note that patient satisfaction is essential for a healthcare institution since it leads to patient loyalty and adherence, better clinical outcomes and increased referrals. Therefore, I would promote patient satisfaction by upgrading outdated systems, providing culturally sensitive and personalized services, enhancing cleanliness and improving patient comfort, especially inpatients.

Practices to Minimize Medical Errors Among Frontline Nursing Staff

Medical errors entail diverse event categories varying in magnitude and potential patient harm. According to Rodziewicz et al. (2023), medical errors include surgical, diagnostic, medication, devices and equipment, systems failures, infections, falls, and other healthcare practices that have preventable adverse effects on care. In addition, they are a significant public health concern and a leading cause of death, thus, should be prevented. Various practices that can be used to minimize medical errors among frontline nursing staff exist.

I would emphasize infection prevention and control practices among the nursing staff. Infection control and prevention services would help the nurses prevent hospital-acquired infections, which pose a threat to patient safety. Among the infection prevention and control practices I would encourage the nurses to use include hand hygiene, safe injection practices, personal protective equipment, and sterilizing instruments and devices before and after use.

Additionally, I would apply the correct patient identification practices to prevent medical errors related to patient misidentification. The nursing staff plays a significant role in patient identification. Therefore, they must uphold the appropriate patient identification practices (Rdziewicz et al., 2023). For instance, I would encourage the nursing staff to confirm patients using two or more patient identifiers, such as the date of birth and the assigned patient identification number. In addition, the nurses should double-check the patient’s details before a patient is taken in for surgery or before receiving medication to prevent wrong surgery and medication errors. The nurse should confirm that the patient is going for the right surgery and on the right body part.

Furthermore, I would cultivate a culture of accountability and reporting. Although it is difficult to promote reporting due to the related consequences, it is an essential practice for learning and preventing further errors. Knowing that the nursing staff will be held accountable for preventable medical errors, the staff are more likely to be more careful, thus minimizing errors. In addition, Rodziewicz et a. (2021) note that reporting practices enable other nurses and care providers to learn, thus preventing and minimizing preventable medical errors.

Conclusion

Patient experience, safety, and healthcare costs greatly influence the quality of care in healthcare institutions. The triple aim initiative principles can be used to promote cost-effective quality care, patient safety, and satisfaction in long-term healthcare settings. As a healthcare administrator, I would strive to improve cost-effectiveness through planning and developing a balanced team. I will also promote patient safety and satisfaction by using patient-centered care and developing policies to improve patient comfort factors. Among the practices I would apply to minimize medical errors include patient identification, infection prevention and control, and accountability and reporting practices.   

 References

Fang, J., Liu, L., & Fang, P. (2019). What is the most important factor affecting patient satisfaction – a study based on gamma coefficient. Patient Preference and Adherence, 13, 515–525. https://doi.org/10.2147/PPA.S197015

Feng, Z., Glinskaya, E., Chen, H., Gong, S., Qiu, Y., Xu, J., & Yip, W. (2020). Long-term care system for older adults in China: policy landscape, challenges, and future prospects. Lancet (London, England), 396(10259), 1362–1372. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)32136-X

Hwang, J. I., Kim, S. W., & Chin, H. J. (2019). Patient Participation in Patient Safety and Its Relationships with Nurses’ Patient-Centered Care Competency, Teamwork, and Safety Climate. Asian Nursing Research, 13(2), 130–136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anr.2019.03.001

Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.). The Tripple Aim Initiative. Accessed 15^th July 2023 from https://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/TripleAim/Pages/default.aspx

Michaels, D., & Wagner, G. R. (2020). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and Worker Safety During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA, 324(14), 1389–1390. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.16343

Rodziewicz, T.L., Houseman, B. & Hipskind, J.E. (2023). Medical Error Reduction and Prevention. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Accessed 15th July 2023 from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499956/   

Vanness, D. J., Lomas, J., & Ahn, H. (2021). A Health Opportunity Cost Threshold for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis in the United States. Annals Of Internal Medicine, 174(1), 25–32. https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-1392

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Assignment Description:

Reflect upon the patient experience, patient safety, and healthcare cost as well as Joint Commission’s role in quality healthcare. Write a paper that addresses the following questions:

How would you apply the principles of the Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety and satisfaction in the acute care or long-term care setting?

Reflect on your current or future role in healthcare. How you would you, in the role of director of nursing or healthcare administrator contribute to improving cost effective quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety?

What practices would you apply to minimize medical errors among front-line nursing staff?