Functioning Effectively in Health Organisation

Question: Discuss about the Functioning Effectively in Health Organisation. Answer: Introduction The healthcare organizations in Australia are trying hard to increase their efficiency so that they can provide better quality and much safer services to the patients. For ensuring the safety and quality, various standards have been developed by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. The healthcare organizations are required to work in compliance with these standards and guidelines. There are various nursing strategies which help in delivering better patient outcomes as well as few ways are mentioned through which there can be significant improvements in the safety and quality of services provided to the patients in the healthcare organizations (Chaboyer, et al., 2013). An understanding of quality and safety in healthcare Quality can be explained as the degree or extent to which the services related to healthcare for the populations as well as for the individuals enhance their likelihood of required health results and are constant with the present set of professional knowledge (Mitchell, 2016). Quality in healthcare can be determined as the best possible and effective results given the accessible resources and circumstances, relied with the patient-centric care (RACGP, 2011). Safety in healthcare can be explained as the minimizing the risk and uncertainty of pointless harm to a standard minimum level. The safety of the patients can be understand as the freedom from risks and threats because of the medical errors occurred in the general practice and it is identified as one of the primary dimensions of the general practice quality framework (TriStar Horizon Medical Center, 2010). The chances of arise harm in healthcare are increasing due to the inappropriate working environment, by commission or by omis sion. Organizational and nursing strategies for care delivery There are various nursing and organizational strategies for implementing care delivery. There are various goals which are required to achieve and respectively there are the strategies for accomplishing those goals so that there can be care delivery in the health service organizations. The first goal is to ensure the transformational leadership at every level of nursing. The strategies to accomplish this objective include the identification of a proper assessment technique for conducting the gap analysis regarding the present stage of knowledge of the safety of the patient and the quality, and there is a need to train the nurses for having knowledge of the care process and to achieve quality improvements (Vanderbilt, 2010). Another goal or objective is the redesigning of the care so that the nurses can optimize professional knowledge and expertise. For achieving this, the strategies needed to be implement are assessment and securing of the organizational synergy so that there can be e ffective redesigning of the nursing care as well as there must be securing of the proper resources which can collaborate with the CCI so that there can be development of appropriate methodology identifying the chief drivers of extremely trustworthy personalized care (Einstein, n.d.). The next goal is to enhance the engagement of the nurses for working with the other affiliates of the healthcare organization so that there can be reliable and safe care. For this, the strategies needed to be incorporate are firstly the involvement of the nurses must be enhanced at every level of the execution and development related to the designing of the care team and there must be creation of discipline and passion regarding the conversion of the evidences into practicality which will going to optimize the outcomes of the patients (ACSQHC, 2011). The next goal is to implement processes and structures which ensures that the care offered is highly patient centric. For this the strategies required to b e execute are implementing and developing of improved education processes and materials related to the patient, enabling the nurses to work jointly with healthcare teams so that the requirements of the patients can be reliably matched by enhancing the involvement of the family and the patient in the decision making and take use of the Family and Patient Council for getting the feedbacks related to the ways for the improvement of the quality and safety of heath care (Seago, n.d.). Evaluation of standards of care There are majorly ten standards of National Safety and Quality Health Service which are the set measures which are applied over all the applications of healthcare and safety. The standards includes firstly the governance for quality and safety in the organizations which provides health services, this standard provides the framework for the quality which is required by the organizations who provide health services so that there can be implementation of safe systems (ACSQH, 2016). The second standard is partnership with the customers which provides the information related to the strategies and systems which can help in building health systems which are highly customer centric by enhancing the involvement of the customers in the design and development of improved health care systems. The third standard focuses upon the controlling and preventing the infections which associated to the healthcare, it explains the strategies and systems which aids in preventing the infections of the patien ce to pass within the system of healthcare and to effectively manage these infections if they occur so that the consequences which are associated with these infections can be minimized. Fourth standard emphasize over medication safety which describes the strategies and systems which helps in ensuring that there is prescription of proper, adequate, dispense and clinically safe medicines to the informed patients. The fifth standard is for procedure matching and identification of the patient which shows the strategies and systems for identifying the patients effectively and matches the treatment correctly with their respective identity (ACSQHC, 2015). The sixth standard is for clinical handover which mentions the strategies and systems for having efficient clinical communication at the time when the responsibility and accountability related to the care of the patient is transferred. The seventh standard is primarily for the blood products and the blood which states the strategies and s ystems for enabling the appropriate, effective and safe management of the blood products and blood for ensuring that the blood provided to the patients is safe. The eighth standard is for the management and prevention of the pressure injuries which illustrate the strategies and systems for preventing the patients from the development of the pressure injuries as well as the best and most effective management is practiced whenever there is occurrence of any pressure injuries. The ninth standard is focused on the respond and recognition to the clinical deterioration within the acute health care, it states the relevant processes and systems which are required to be incorporate within the organizations who offer health services son that there can be offered effective and rapid response to the patients at the time when there is deterioration of the clinical conditions. The tenth and the last standard is for prevention of the falls and the associated harms of the falls, it describes the st rategies and systems for minimizing the case of falling of the patients in the healthcare organizations and to implement effective practice management if there is occurrence of any such incidence (ACSQH, 2010). The aims and core business of health institutions from the perspective of both the organisation and the nursing sector within the organisation The core business and objective of the health organizations from the perspective of the nursing sector and the organization is to promote an objective of universal health safety and care so that individuals can obtain adequate health services which they require without facing monetary issues and financial hardships at the time of paying for those services. The main aim is to provide fair means of backing the operations, effective response towards the expectations of the individuals and to provide good health to all the citizens. There is a responsibility of each group of people associated with the healthcare organization that they ensure that there is efficient delivery of the services in a healthcare organization so that the patients do not undergo any kind of difficulty during its treatment or health service (Bloland, et al., 2012). Process Data and Outcome Data in relation to quality and safety in health care and nursing Process Data and Outcome Data in Nurse Staffing: The efficacy of nursing can be easily shown on the outcomes of the patients. There are number of cases where there can be found a link between negative patient outcomes, skill-mix and nurse staffing. There are vital risks associated with the safety of patients such as enhanced rate of adverse happenings such as death or injury resulting not because of the condition of the patient but due to the health care intervention, increased rate of mortality and morbidity, diminished standard of quality care and compromised safety of the patients. All these factors are the cause behind increased stay of the patients at the healthcare organizations (Armstrong, 2009). Process Data and Outcome Data in nursing workload: Both nursing workloads and nurse staffing are linked intrinsically. When there is shortage of nurses in a healthcare then as a result the workloads of the nurses increased. This states that the average time spent over the activities such as meal breaks, counselling, paperwork, patient education, nutrition, wound care, hygiene and routine observations etc. will going to decrease due to high workload. The high workload not only reduces the competence and ability of a nurse to deliver effective care but also increases the risk of making errors and getting fatigue at the time of their work. The outcome over the patient is negative as the care required is not been offered to the patients as well as the nurses have to run in-between the time of providing care (Dykes and Collins, 2013). Process Data and Outcome Data in nursing skill-mix: Skill-mix refers to the proportions of diverse levels of the nurses. To have an in-depth understanding of the implications of nursing skill-mix there is a need to comprehend the way in which the nurses are educated and trained in Australia. A nursing skill-mix with possess greater proportion of listed number of nurses made statistically a substantial reduction in the rates of failure to rescue, pulmonary failure, physiologic derangement, shock, sepsis, gastrointestinal bleeding and decubitus ulcers. There has been found a strong link between the patients outcome and nursing skill-mix by the US AHRQ. There is a significant improvement in the patient outcome with the increase in the nurse staffing and skill-mix (Stone, Hughes and Dailey, 2016). Process Data and Outcome Data in work environment: The improvement in the working environment directly links with the reduction in the negative patient outcomes and conversely, the poor working environment increase the chances of errors which directly result into poorer and negative patient outcomes. (Clarke and Donaldson, 2016) One example of a clinical care activity in relation to safety and quality, for which process data and outcome data are identified Clinical Care Activity- Decrease Sepsis Mortality Rates by 22% MultiCare Health Systems which is a Tacoma, Washington based is recognized as an integrated organization which provide health services. It holds around 500 healthcare providers, multispecialty centers, number of urgent care clinics, several primary care clinics and four hospitals. In the year 2012, MultiCare experienced the outcomes of a journey of around 12 months for minimizing Septicemia.tn September 2010, a warehouse for adaptive data related to the Health Catalyst was implemented by MultiCare which was a particular data model of healthcare and successive process and clinical improvement services for measuring and effecting the care by the process and organizational improvements. For this the major process data includes the clinical data for driving improvement by simplifying the data and making it available at a single source, system-wide collaboration of critical care which included a collaborative efforts of the analysts, technologists and clinicians, the combined efforts help ed in effective delivery of quality care, early identification and standard of care definition. The outcome data which was identified was the decrease in the rates of Sepsis Mortality by a significant amount that is 22 percent (Healthcatalyst, 2016). Improving quality and safety of healthcare services for patients For improving the safety and quality of the services provided to the patients there are various best approaches and practices that can be used by the healthcare organizations. Improving the culture i.e. the processes and the organizations: If any healthcare organization which does not possess a culture which values its environment, accountability and teamwork experience various quality related issues. If there is implementation of civility in the culture i.e. in the processes of the organization than it can improve the environment so that the patients will feel more comfortable and there will be effective communication for any change required in the organization (Hughes, n.d.). Improving the clinical/healthcare analytics: Healthcare analytics plays a vital role in the sustainable and scalable quality improvement, there are various issues which are required to be solved in a heal service organization such as the necessity to integrate the data sources which comprises of operational data, financial data and data related to patient satisfaction, the long-interval in receiving reports from IT department and requirements related to performance and growing regulatory. The data is an important element in improving the quality and safety of the patients. But data in absence of abovementioned supportive organizational practices or culture will not be as effective (HRSA, n.d.). Improving the evidence-based practices i.e. the content: From last so many years, there has been a notion which is regulated in the health and care sector that medicine is considered to be an art instead of science but now with the evidence-based content and analytical platform towards the operational standard, there is implementation of care practices which are highly effective. In the patient care, there are several exceptions and unique cases; there the clinical analytics must be leverage so that care providers can spend much more time over these unique and difficult cases, and ensuring that the quality standards are provided in all of the cases. Improving the adoption of the practices: Approved and well-established and evident-based practices, while critical elements which ensures the quality and safety of the patient care are effective and operational only when they are properly adopted. There are various elements which are a part of adoption such as effective teamwork with the clinician leadership so that there can be adoption of best practices, engaging partners and providing training and education to the health care workers and the frontline clinicians. There is a need to hardwire the evident-based practices by effectively entrenched in the frontline practices so that there can be improvements in the quality and safety of patient care (Falk, 2016). Conclusion From having an in-depth understanding of the safety and quality standards at the healthcare organizations, it can be analysed that the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care is working significantly to improve the healthcare services offered to the patients. The ten standards guides the healthcare organizations in what way they must work effectively and providing better services to the patients so that there can be generation of positive outcomes. For having significant improvements in the safety of the patients the healthcare organizations are adopting various nursing strategies and other various measures to obtain effective outcomes and to offer the individuals the best possible healthcare services. References: Armstrong, F. (2009), Ensuring quality, safety and positive patient outcomes why investing in nursing makes $ense, Australian Nursing Federation, Pp.49. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://anmf.org.au/documents/reports/Issues_Ensuring_quality.pdf Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, (2010). National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards and their use in a Model National Accreditation Scheme. Pp.34. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://ris.dpmc.gov.au/files/2010/11/ACSQH_Consultation_RIS.pdf Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, (2011), National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards, ACSQHC, Sydney. Pp.80 Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, (2015). Guide to the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards for health service organisation boards. Sydney. Pp.52. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, (2016). National Safety and Quality Health Service Standard 2: Partnering with Consumers. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.safetyandquality.gov.au/our-work/patient-and-consumer-centred-care/national-safety-and-quality-health-service-standard-2-partnering-with-consumers/ Bloland, P., Simone, P., Burkholder, B., Slutsker, L. And Cock, K.M.D. (2012). The Role of Public Health Institutions in Global Health System Strengthening Efforts: The US CDC's Perspective, Which PLOS Journal. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1001199 Clarke, S.P. and Donaldson, N.E., (2016). Chapter 25Nurse Staffing and Patient Care Quality and Safety, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2676/ Dykes, P.C. and Collins, S.A., (2013), Building Linkages between Nursing Care and Improved Patient Outcomes: The Role of Health Information Technology, The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, Vol.18. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.nursingworld.org/Nursing-Care-and-Improved-Outcomes.html Einstein, (n.d.), Nursing service organization strategic plan. Pp.4. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.einstein.edu/upload/docs/Einstein/Nursing/nursing%20strategic%20plan.pdf Chaboyer, W., Chamberlain, D., Hewson-Conroy, K., Grealy, B., Elderkin, T., Brittin, M., ... Thalib, L. (2013). CNE article: safety culture in Australian intensive care units: establishing a baseline for quality improvement.American journal of critical care,22(2), 93-102. Falk, L.H., (2016), Improving Patient Safety and Quality through Culture, Clinical Analytics, Evidence-Based Practices, and Adoption, Explore Health Catalysts Insights, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.healthcatalyst.com/improving-patient-safety-and-quality-in-healthcare Healthcatalyst, (2016). How to Reduce Sepsis Mortality Rates by 22%, Explore Health Catalyst Success Stories, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.healthcatalyst.com/success_stories/how-to-reduce-sepsis-mortality-rates-by-22 HRSA, (n.d.), Quality Improvement, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:https://www.hrsa.gov/quality/toolbox/methodology/qualityimprovement/gws_rd=crei=Jt_ZV6SiOYrMjwPTlpxI Hughes, R.G., (n.d.), Chapter 44Tools and Strategies for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety, Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2682/ Mitchell, P.H., (2016). Chapter 1Defining Patient Safety and Quality Care, Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2681/ RACGP, (2016), The RACGP Curriculum for Australian General Practice 2016, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://curriculum.racgp.org.au/statements/quality-and-safety/ Seago, J.A., (n.d.), Chapter 39. Nurse Staffing, Models of Care Delivery, and Interventions, U.S. Department of Health Human Services, Pp.8. Accessed on: 14th September, 2016, Accessed from: https://archive.ahrq.gov/clinic/ptsafety/chap39.htm Stone, P.W., Hughes, R. and Dailey, M., (2016), Chapter 21Creating a Safe and High-Quality Health Care Environment, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2634/ TriStar Horizon Medical Center, (2010), What Does Quality in Health Care Mean?, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://tristarhorizon.com/about/newsroom/what-does-quality-in-health-care-mean Vanderbilt, (2010), Nursing Quality and Performance Improvement Plan, Accessed on: 14th September, 2016. Accessed from: https://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/documents/Magnet%20Website/files/Nursing%20Quality%20Plan.pdf