Unity Medical Center is a community hospital with 80 members of staff. The facility provides treatment and health prevention services to Valley Community, a rural farming community, most of the community members have limited resources for healthcare services. The community is cosmopolitan and multiracial with people from varied ethnic groups, including minority groups. However, the hospital has been facing some challenges in the delivery of healthcare services. In particular, the facility has recently experienced a rise in mistakes made in the maintenance of proper records, additionally, the facility has also suffered from errors in diagnosis and medication. For instance, there has been a recent increase in the readmission rates of diabetic as well as hypertensive patients served at the facility. Further, staff shortages have caused enormous strain among existing staff members. The healthcare service provision industry is undergoing tremendous changes with the increasing advancements in research and technology. Patient attitude is also changing, and the facility is facing an urgent need to improve the quality of care and patient satisfaction.
Dashboard Metrics Evaluation
Policies and laws governing the provision of healthcare services have evolved with the changes in the industry. Organizations must therefore employ healthcare metrics as well as key indicators of performance to monitor their progress and ensure adherence to local, state as well as federal laws.
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The metrics used in the assessment of health service provision are varied. However, the quality of care provided by a facility is vital metrics. This includes the standard of care provided and the adequacy of communication form the healthcare providers to their patients. Unity hospital does not meet the required benchmarks for care as well as communication to their patients. In particular, care for diabetic and hypertensive patients should be improved in the facility. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 mandates all health facilities to provide optimal standards of care for their patients (Otay, 2017). All stakeholders at the facility should be engaged in discussions on how to improve the quality of care as well as the effectiveness of communication methods offered to patients.
Challenges Meeting the Benchmarks
Unity Medical Center faces some significant challenges in their efforts to achieve the required benchmarks. For instance, understaffing is a huge challenge in the improvement of the quality of patient care. The strain on the human resource available to provide services to their patients harms the quality of care offered at the facility. The ration of healthcare providers to staff is very big, hence one member of staff is required to see many patients. This results in fatigue and burnouts which harm the quality of care offered to patients (Si, 2017). More staff members should be recruited to improve the healthcare worker to patient ratios, this will ultimately improve the quality of care.
Additionally, medical equipment and other resources should be utilized efficiently to improve health outcomes for their patients. In particular, the management of heart failure patients needs to be improved. Readmission rates for heart failure patients are higher than the rest in other health facilities in the states as well as the rates across the country. This may suggest inadequate treatment of patients or inefficient utilization of medical equipment in the provision of care. Staff should be aware of their statistics in the facility, and how they compare with other health facilities, locally, in the state as well as across the country. This will challenge the staff to improve their won outcomes. Staff should also be familiar with all the recent surveys and guidelines from other facilities to improve their own.
The pharmacy is also an important part of the facility. Proper records must be kept at the pharmacy to ensure all patients receive their proper medication. Errors in record keeping at the pharmacy may result in patients getting the wrong medication, which can be fatal for patients. All staff members, particularly the staff at the pharmacy should receive training on proper record keeping. The facility should cooperate with other health organizations to ensure that they compare their records to identify any sources of errors and the areas available for improvement.
Internal Benchmarking
United hospital can also benefit from internal benchmarking between the patients and the members of staff. Staff members should keep proper records of all the services offered to the patient. The patients should also have an avenue to provide feedback on the services received and assess the quality of care they received at the facility. At the moment, the facility lacks appropriate feedback channels, apart from the dashboard evaluation. Patient feedback should be made available to the members of staff to aid their work performance. The administration of the United Medical Center should also receive regular feedback to improve their work environment. A boost in staff morale and satisfaction will result in an improvement in the quality of care and patient satisfaction.
Opportunity for overall quality
Communication provides the greatest opportunity for growth in the performance of the facility and in the quality of care offered in the facility. Regular communication with staff members keeps the staff members updated on the latest guidelines as well as healthcare laws and policies. On the other hand, proper patient communication improves the perceived quality of care by the patient, improves the quality of their time at the facility, and patient satisfaction (Hejduková, 2016). This improves the performance of the hospital. Importantly, adequate communication also reduces patients' lawsuits, eliminating harm to the hospital's reputation.
Stakeholders and Policy Action
The patient is the most important stakeholder in the healthcare industry. Services offered to the patients can be lifesaving, and errors could be fatal for the patient. Patients' needs and opinions must, therefore, be taken seriously by all other stakeholders in the facility.
The clinicians at the United health center are also an important stakeholder. All healthcare workers must have the highest standard of skills and training in their fields of practice. Additionally, they should undergo continuous medical education to keep updated with the latest clinical guidelines and research.
Additionally, policymakers of healthcare directives that govern healthcare practices at the local, the state as well as the federal levels of government are an important stakeholder in healthcare provision. Policymakers utilize the best evidence available to regulate medical practice (Braithwaite, 2017). The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ( PPACA ) mandates all healthcare providers to provide optimal services for their patients. The Affordable Care Act ( ACA ) safeguards families from financial jeopardy by providing insurance for low resource families. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations ( JCAHO ) evaluates health organization performance to ensure they meet the required standards. The agency for healthcare research and quality researches the required quality of health services and supervises organizations to meet them. All stakeholders must work together to improve the performance of health facilities, patient experience with the healthcare industry and to realize improved health status for the overall community.
Benchmarking is an important process in the assessment and the improvement of services offered in the healthcare industry, the health processes that affect performance, and the overall performance of the industry. United health center can use the above standards to improve their quality of care, communication practices as well as collaboration with other facilities. This will result in an increase in profits, improved patient satisfaction and health outcomes, and staff fulfillment.
References
Braithwaite, J. H. (2017). Health system frameworks and performance indicators in eight countries: A comparative international analysis. SAGE open medicine, 5, 2050312116686516.
Hejduková, P. &. (2016). National health systems’ performance: evaluation WHO indicators. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230, 240-248.
Otay, İ. O. (2017). Multi-expert performance evaluation of healthcare institutions using an integrated intuitionistic fuzzy AHP&DEA methodology. Knowledge-Based Systems, 133, 90-106.
Si, S. L. (2017). Identifying key performance indicators for holistic hospital management with a modified DEMATEL approach. International journal of environmental research and public health, 14(8), 934.
