Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Patient safety and quality care delivery are essential in improving patient outcomes and meeting regulatory requirements advanced by policies like the Affordable Care Act and value-based purchases (Slonim, 2023). However, organizations grapple with different health issues, key among them hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) like catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) (Caparro et al., 2020). The purpose of this paper is to discuss HAIs as a pertinent healthcare issue that impacts healthcare organizations and providers.

Hospital or Healthcare Associated Infections (HAIs)

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) asserts that healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) are among the most prevalent complications in healthcare facilities. On its part, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2019) says that one in every 31 hospitalized patients gets HAI implying that close to 633,000 get infected each year in the U.S. healthcare system. These infections cause morbidities and, in some cases, mortality that can be mitigated. The implication is that over a million infections occur in the U.S. leading to the loss of billions of dollars, lives, and other resources that could be channeled elsewhere.

In our organization, the rate of infections, especially CAUTIs and ventilator-associated ones has been rising with the recent data showing that close to 100 infections occurred over the last year. This is an increase from 60 infections recorded over the same period two years back. As such, the organization asserts that it is critical to address the rising rate of infections to ensure patient safety and quality of care as well as get reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CDC, 2019). These infections should be contained in both the short and long term to attain value-based care for the patients and their families.

Summary of Reviewed Articles

The first article is by Caparro et al. (2020) who propose effective interventions to reduce HAI rates in healthcare settings. Through their focus on adult geriatric patients, the authors assert that infection control practices like strategic methodologies to lower the risk of HAIs are essential. The authors suggest having an effective reporting system and evidence-based practice interventions that include a non-blame culture but focus on the root cause of such incidences as the best way to lower such events.

The sentiments shared in the above article are supported by Bearman et al. (2019) who assert that HAIs are preventable when providers and organizations focus on the tenet of “no harm”, which will allow them to develop prevention programs and interventions that are not only reliable but also sustainable and practical. The article also implores providers and organizations to develop and use evidence-based practice strategies that focus on creating a patient safety environment as the primary tool for excellent care delivery. These articles demonstrate that effective strategies must emanate from providers and organizational safety and quality care policies to reduce the rates of infections.

Organizations across the healthcare industry are addressing infections through effective strategies founded on evidence-based practices and need to meet the value-based purchase requirements by the CMS. As such, these organizations have safety and quality policies and organizational cultures that focus on reporting systems and collaborative efforts to reduce infections and other adverse events like medication errors (AHRQ, 2019). These entities prioritize nurse-led interventions like reporting, feedback, better shift handover as well an organizational safety culture that holistically focuses on patients and providers.

Summary of Strategies and Impact on Organization

Addressing healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) entails using evidence-based approaches as demonstrated by the resources used in this paper. These include having a safety culture and reporting policy, using EBP interventions focused on developing prevention programs to meet patient and health population needs, and increased adherence to regulatory requirements based on the Quadruple Aim framework (Puro et al., 2022). Further, providers must work collaboratively to implement strategies that align with the overall quality expectations in the organization for nurses and patients as well as their families.

These strategies may affect our organization positively as they will lead to better care delivery increased patient satisfaction and improved experience. On the flip side, these policies require increased investment in surveillance and resources as well as not pinpointing anyone which may not be practical in any setting (Bearman et al., 2022). As such, the strategies focus on the positive aspects but ignore the possible and critical unintended consequences that may arise from their implementation.

Conclusion

National health stressors like hospital-acquired or associated infections are safety concerns that require effective interventions. As demonstrated, organizations continue devising strategies to help them deal with this stressor and reduce its overall negative effects. As such, implementing evidence-based best practices will help healthcare entities to deal with the stressor in both the short and long-term.

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) (2019). Health Care – Associated

            Infections. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/health-care-associated-infections

Bearman, G., Doll, M., Cooper, K., & Stevens, M. P. (2019). Hospital infection prevention: how

much can we prevent and how hard should we try? Current Infectious Disease Reports, 21, 1-7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11908-019-0660-2

Caparros, A. C., & Wyckoff, M. (2020). Infection Control Interventions to Improve Hospital-

Acquired Infection Rates in Adult-Geriatric Patients. Journal Of Prevention and Infection Control, 6(2). DOI: 10.36648/2471-9668.6.1.01

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2019). Healthcare-Associated Infections

(HAIs). https://www.cdc.gov/hai/patientsafety/patient-safety.html

Puro, V., Coppola, N., Frasca, A., Gentile, I., Luzzaro, F., Peghetti, A., & Sganga, G. (2022).

Pillars for prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections: an Italian expert opinion statement. Antimicrobial Resistance & Infection Control, 11(1), 1-13.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s13756-022-01125-8

Slonim, A. (2023). Top challenges facing healthcare: Back to basics. Physician Leadership

            Journal, 10(2), 12–14. https://doi.org/10.55834/plj.2064149664

Sample Answer 3 for Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

The selected national stressor in the healthcare sector for the assignment is medical errors. Medical errors have been defined as the failure of undertaking or completing planned actions as intended or completion utilizing a wrong plan. Medical errors results in negative health outcomes such as harm to patients (Makary & Daniel, 2016). Medical errors are a critical issue being experienced in the US healthcare systems. It is estimated that medical errors account for 3.9% of all the events in patients hospitalized with cardiac problems. The incidence of medical errors in the U.S. healthcare system is estimated to be 25 in every 100 outpatients. This rate makes medical errors the most frequent cause of injury caused by medical care in not only the US but also other developed economies. It is further reported that between 44000 and 98000 people in the US die on an annual basis from adverse events due to medical errors (Ohta et al., 2019).

Impact on My Organization

The issue of medical errors is not only affecting the state but also our organization too. The impacts of medical errors are evident in the institution. One of them is the increased hospital stay among the admitted patients. Patients who suffer adverse events of medical errors often stay too long in the hospital due to unintended care needed by them. The other impact is the increase in the operational costs. The insurance reimbursement claims due to incidences of medical errors have also been high in the institution. The hospital also has to spend its resources in lawsuits due to harm in care. The last impact is the rise in the mortality rate in the affected patients. Patients with chronic conditions such as heart failure and kidney disease often die due to the complications of medical errors (Kaur et al., 2019). Therefore, these effects of medical errors have affected the ability of my organization to achieve its objectives.

Article Summary on How the Issue is Being Addressed in Other Organizations

The articles that were selected to explore the issue of medical errors include those by FDA (2019) and Pérez et al. (2019). The article by FDA (2019) reveals that the incidence of medical errors in the US is high. The number of reported medical errors annually in the state is more than 100,000. The outcomes of these errors include disability, hospitalization, and death. Pérez et al. (2019) echo similar assertions in their research where medical errors were identified as the leading stressors experienced in not only the US healthcare system but also globally too. The articles by Pérez et al. (2019) and FDA (2019) provide practical solutions that health organizations in America can embrace to address the issue of medical errors. They include container labelling and proprietary branding to minimize the risk of confusion in drug dispensing. The articles also point the need for provider training, prioritized counselling to providers, and refresher training opportunities to minimize the risk of medical errors (FDA, 2019; Pérez et al., 2019). Health organizations in my state have embraced a number of interventions to address the issue of medical errors in their setting. They include increasing nurse to patient ratio to minimize burnout, adopting technology use to increase efficiency, improving inter-professional communication, and incident reporting and review to minimize the risk of future occurrence of medical errors.

Strategies Used to Address the Impacts of the Stressor and Impact on my Organization

Studies have been conducted to identify and determine the effectiveness of various strategies utilized to address the issue of medical errors. The research by Zikhani (2016) provides a seven-step approach that health organizations can use to prevent and minimize the risk of medical errors. The seven steps include health provider education and training, development of rules and policies, implementation of protocols such as checklists and reminders and simplifications and standardization of procedure. The steps also include automation and computerization of organizational functions and forcing function. According to Zikhani (2016), an effective use of these seven steps of preventing and minimizing medical errors creates patient safety culture in an organization. Consistent findings to the above are seen in the study by Adelman et al. (2017) where automation and computerization of operations in the NICU resulted in the significant reduction in wrong-patient orders. Distinct naming of drugs and ID re-entry was also associated with a significant reduction in the overall incidence rate of medical errors. Other strategies proposed by Rishoej et al. (2018) in their study include standardization of procedures, provide education, refresher training for skill acquisition, and the adoption of double-check processes to minimize the risk of confusion.

The above strategies have significant implications to our hospital. They increase the need for the provision of training to the healthcare providers on different types of medical errors and ways of preventing them. They also raise the need for the provision of refresher training courses to the healthcare providers to ensure that they remain up-to-date on the effective strategies to address the issue of medical errors. The other implication is the need for the development and implementation of policies and regulations that relate to medication errors in the organization. The hospital needs to develop policies that guide the manner in which medical errors in the institution are prevented and addressed. The last implication is the need for provider transparency and responsibility in communicating error incidences. Medical errors should be utilized as a learning tool rather than for punitive purposes. The lessons learned from the errors are used to prevent similar occurrences in the future. Therefore, the strategies have a positive impact on the organization.

References

Adelman, J. S., Aschner, J. L., Schechter, C. B., Angert, R. M., Weiss, J. M., Rai, A., Berger, M. A., Reissman, S. H., Yongue, C., Chacko, B., Dadlez, N. M., Applebaum, J. R., Racine, A. D., & Southern, W. N. (2017). Evaluating Serial Strategies for Preventing Wrong-Patient Orders in the NICU. Pediatrics, 139(5). https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2863

FDA. (2019). Working to Reduce Medication Errors. FDA. https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-information-consumers/working-reduce-medication-errors

Kaur, A. P., Levinson, A. T., Monteiro, J. F. G., & Carino, G. P. (2019). The impact of errors on healthcare professionals in the critical care setting. Journal of Critical Care, 52, 16–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrc.2019.03.001

Makary, M. A., & Daniel, M. (2016). Medical error—The third leading cause of death in the US. Bmj, 353.

Ohta, Y., Miki, I., Kimura, T., Abe, M., Sakuma, M., Koike, K., & Morimoto, T. (2019). Epidemiology of Adverse Events and Medical Errors in the Care of Cardiology Patients. Journal of Patient Safety, 15(3), 251–256. https://doi.org/10.1097/PTS.0000000000000291

Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., García, E. J., Pérez, C. D., Fuentes, P. S., & García, E. J. (2019). Addressing medical errors: An intervention protocol for nursing professionals. Revista Da Escola de Enfermagem Da USP, 53. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1980-220×2018012703463

Rishoej, R. M., Lai Nielsen, H., Strzelec, S. M., Fritsdal Refer, J., Allermann Beck, S., Gramstrup, H. M., Thybo Christesen, H., Juel Kjeldsen, L., Hallas, J., & Almarsdóttir, A. B. (2018). Qualitative exploration of practices to prevent medication errors in neonatal intensive care units: A focus group study. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 9(7), 343–353. https://doi.org/10.1177/2042098618771541

Zikhani, R. (2016). Seven-step pathway for preventing errors in healthcare. Journal of Healthcare Management, 61(4), 271–281.

Sample Answer for Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue

Introduction

It is not new that the nurses and other healthcare departments undergo immense stress and burnout during the hours. A nurse’s role is always stressful, leading to stress and the generation of burnout.  The nursing profession is a very demanding job, and sometimes the expectations are that they work for more hours than the duration of their duty (Poghosyan et al., 2018). The discussion aims to know more about the nursing profession’s stress and burnout, the reasons behind it, and the available options to solve the issue from both the nurses and the organization. The topic is essential to address concisely to help the organization and the nurses cope with stress and burnout in the work area.

Stress in current times is known as that prevalent phenomenon everywhere: domestic, family, or the workplace (Burton et al., 2017). Some reports claim that 26% of the nurses leave the job because of the nursing profession’s stress that they cannot cope up and exit from the position. Burnout is one of the reasons also for their leaving. The lack of adequate staffing in the organizations put immense pressure on the nurses to work extra, adding to their workload. It generates job dissatisfaction, ultimately leads to stress in nurses’ lives, which eventually compels them to decide concerning the job’s continuation (White et al., 2020). Reports say that for about 50% and above nurses, the European employees experience stress in the health care department and America. The cost for managing stress generated from an individual’s collective reasons has been calculating to 50 billion dollars in Great Britain. The NHS guidelines for treating illness concern the generation of pressure estimated from 5% to 10% of GNP in the country (Odigie, 2016).

Literature Review

According to Koinis et al. (2015), job stress leads to the emergence of disturbances in the family matters of the nurses’ personal life. Nurse’s burnout is nothing but the exhaustive feeling of the nurses they experience in their workplace, and the reasons accounted for this behavior are the lack of motivation and the development of frustration, resulting in the efficiency of their work. The study was done three months from July 2010 to October 2010, considering 200 mental healthcare facilities with professionals of age 21-58 years. There was a great deal of stress in the department staff by having the questionnaires get filled by the facility staff’s different levels and a deficient level of stress management practices employed by the organization to reduce stress on the teams.

According to Mudallal et al. (2017), power reflects the ability to control or influence others concerning their behaviors and attitudes. Workplace empowerment is to be encouraged, which will enable the nurses to access all the organization’s vital resources and support to do their work efficiently by having all the opportunity to gain all the necessary experience in their work by accomplishing the goal assigned duty. Burnout is one of the major problems that is a costly one for both the employee and the organizations, characterized by the reductions in the nurses’ physical activity, which has very much required for the patient’s efficient care. It can also lead to the development of insomnia, depression, and fatigue in the nurses, leading to absenteeism, turnover rates, and the patient’s quality of care in a health care department.

Impact on the health care organization

The system gets very severely affected by the stress of the nurses and the issues of burnout. The reasons, as discussed above, are major ones to get the nurses on the verge of the pressures and burnout. Some reports say 34.6% of the nurses suffer from emotional exhaustion or EE, 28.8% of nurses are suffering from high depersonalization or DP, and 95.7% of nurses are suffering from the reduced level of personal accomplishments or PA (Wei et al., 2018). The requirement of the long working hour required in the healthcare facility due to low workforces generates stress and burnout in the nurses. The nurses cannot do the assigned duty with the utmost competency necessary to provide holistic care (Palumbo et al., 2017). The nurses start to skip out on the work, and then they gradually leave their job. It ultimately adds up to the organization’s loss, and the reputation of the facility comes at stake. Not only physically but the nurses are also affected psychologically, which can be a potential reason to harm the patient when the mental status of the nurse is not stable enough to look after the patient. Due to this, the organization may face some legal issues if the patient files any case in the name of the concerned facility, which will impact the organization on a large scale on a large platform. Getting the revival strategy will become more complex.

Strategies to be adopted by the organization.

The nature of the management strategies for coping with stress in an organization’s staff is one of the main criteria to be looked upon by the organization’s hierarchical authorities. It includes specific steps to be followed, consisting of the strategies to be developed to modify the jobs to sustain them. Socializing the employees and selecting is to be done in a very organized way by giving the full description of the job requirements to get a clear head before the necessary work (Udod et al., 2017). Another strategy to be employed by the organization is to manage the changing requirements of the staff. Change is constant and must address every situation, and the approach needs to be modern enough to understand the condition (Nahavandi et al., 2015). Getting adequate numbers of staff is also essential. Healthcare forces need to be reconfiguring and redesigned (Rickets & Fraher, 2013).

Conclusion

The study has dominantly shown that workforce shortage is one of the prime reasons for the generation of stress and burnout in the staff of the organization, which needs to look after. The research shows that stress impacts the healthcare department’s environment negatively, resulting in the decrement of the quality of life, illness concerning both the nurses’ physical and mental health, resulting in the organization’s overall poor outcome. Intervention is to focus on the leadership style in the healthcare department, and it needs some transformation from time to time so that the staff can cope with the emerging situation.

References

Burton et al., (2017). How effective are mindfulness‐based interventions for reducing stress among healthcare professionals? A systematic review and meta‐analysis. Stress and Health, 33(1), 3-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2673

Koinis et al., (2015). The Impact of Healthcare Workers Job Environment on Their Mental-emotional Health. Coping Strategies: The Case of a Local General Hospital. Health psychology research, 3(1), 1984. https://doi.org/10.4081/hpr.2015.1984

Mudallal, R. H., Othman, W. A. M., & Al Hassan, N. F. (2017). Nurses’ burnout: the influence of leader empowering behaviors, work conditions, and demographic traits. INQUIRY: The Journal of Health Care Organization, Provision, and Financing, 54, 0046958017724944. https://doi.10.1177/0046958017724944

Nahavandi et al., (2015). Organizational behavior. Sage Publications.

Odigie, A. (2016). Stress Management for Healthcare Professionals. Core.ac.UK. March 2021. https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/45600493.pdf

Palumbo, M. V., Rambur, B., & Hart, V. (2017). Is health care payment reform impacting nurses’ work settings, roles, and education preparation? Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(6), 400-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.11.005

Poghosyan, L., Norful, A. A., & Laugesen, M. J. (2018). Removing restrictions on nurse practitioners’ scope of practice in New York State: Physicians’ and nurse practitioners’ perspectives. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 30(6), 354-360. https://doi:10.1097/JXX.0000000000000040

Ricketts, T. C., & Fraher, E. P. (2013). Reconfiguring health workforce policy so that education, training, and the actual delivery of care are closely connected. Health Affairs, 32(11), 1874-1880. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0531

Udod et al., (2017). Role stressors and coping strategies among nurse managers. Leadership in Health Services. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHS-04-2016-0015

Wei et al., (2018). The state of the science of nurse work environments in the United States: A systematic review. International Journal of Nursing Sciences, 5(3), 287-300. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352013218300309

White et al., (2020). Nursing homework environment, care quality, registered nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. Geriatric Nursing, 41(2), 158-164. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0197457219303325