Purpose of Presentation
The study focuses on indicating how measurements of results/process improvement leads to amelioration of patient outcomes.
Target Audience
The study targets nurses, medical directors, healthcare providers and the nursing administration. The identified practitioners are pivotal in shaping healthcare delivery to improve patient outcomes.
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Learner Objectives
Patient responsiveness is a determinant of effective outcomes
Safety, quality and patient experiences go hand in hand
Summary of Key Points
Measurement of results is a critical process in healthcare in generating reliable data on effectiveness and efficiency of programs. Assessment of outcome provides basis of gauging potential improvements in healthcare ultimately leading to bolstered patient service quality. Process improvement relies on data to realize a positive change on policies and program’s outcomes. Through process improvement, patient’s experiences of care are captured leading to increased satisfaction due to provision of care that is consistent with patient preferences and recognition of complex patient clinical needs. Additionally, process improvement enables provision of patient centered care and promotes shared decision making. Results to be measured should be related to clinical outcomes, patient experiences of care and patient reported outcomes ( Black, 2013) . Upon measurement of results healthcare providers are able to take a responsive approach that improves patient outcomes and enhances quality. The study aims at showing that process improvement ultimately helping providers to continuously improve the results measurement system.
Results measurement should be smart by taking into account tradeoffs, patient preferences and data that has richer information about factors affecting patient outcomes. Results measurement helps find out what works and how to improve the areas that can be quantified. Measurement is a vital requirement that drives healthcare processes in the right direction and helps track the effects of improvement efforts. Measurement systems creates outcomes for improvement for use by nursing administration, medical directors, nurses and other healthcare providers. Use of result measures for example targeting responsiveness benefits an entire patient population. Patient outcomes can be improved through adoption of dual purpose measurement useful for providers of care. As Black (2013) explain, a bottom up approach rather than top bottom would contribute in making constructive clinical comparisons during result measurement ultimately leading to better ways of improving patient care. Nurses for example support process improvement by collecting patient opinions on how care should be tailored to suit their preference. Process improvement or measurement of results is essential in improving patient care, promoting health of populations, reducing per capita healthcare costs and in minimizing clinician and staff burnout.
Responsiveness in healthcare is the ability of healthcare system to meet patient legitimate needs through various interactions with the healthcare providers. Improving responsiveness times helps prevent occurrence of adverse events and improves patient care. Responsiveness time can be improved through patient hourly visits by nurses to assess patient care needs. Development of systems that promptly act on staff feedback leads to improvement of patient outcomes as their needs are responded to accordingly. Improving responsiveness times brings about ease of access to services and leads to a better understanding of the patient experiences ( Mitchell et al., 2014) . Non-responsiveness or delays in responding to patient needs negatively affects staff scores and leads to decreased patient satisfaction. Responding in a timely manner and consistency of staff responsiveness leads to high satisfaction scores. Patients ought to be educated on hourly staff rounding and how they can reach out to assigned nurses for example through phone call. Strategies such as utilization of staff phone numbers, frequency of hourly rounding, nurse communication and patient education leads to process improvement and maximization of patient health outcomes.
Key Words: Responsiveness times, satisfaction scores, health outcomes, process improvement, result measurement.
References
Black, N. (2013). Patient reported outcome measures could help transform healthcare. Bmj , 346 , f167.
Mitchell, M. D., Lavenberg, J. G., Trotta, R., & Umscheid, C. A. (2014). Hourly rounding to improve nursing responsiveness: a systematic review. The Journal of nursing administration , 44 (9), 462.
