Accountability for Clinical Outcomes and Promoting Safety and Quality
Introduction
Throughout your education, patient safety and improving the quality of patient care have been examined. Through numerous readings and media pieces, you have heard about Never Events.
These are serious and costly medical errors that are preventable, such as wrong-side surgery, medication errors, and hospital-acquired infections. Each of these types of medical errors is preventable. The consequences of such errors are now financial as well as legal and emotional. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services no longer reimburse for medical errors classified as Never Events.
As a nurse, how can you help to prevent these types of medical errors? What is your accountability for clinical outcomes? There are standards and core measures in place that guide nursing practice. In addition, the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) examines those components of clinical care that are specific to nursing.
The NDNQI quantifies, or assesses, these nurse-sensitive components and provides specific feedback on how well nursing practice is being executed in those areas related to patient care.
This week, you will consider a series of articles that focus on strategies for ensuring safety and quality care for patients. You will also explore how successful, efficient teamwork between nurses, nursing leaders, physicians, and other medical personnel can help prevent many of the Never Events from occurring and decrease the likelihood of such events in the future.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
Analyze the core measures and standards for nursing practice that promote patient safety and quality of care outcomes
Analyze the impact of the nurse's role in clinical outcomes for organizations
Analyze nurse-specific challenges for influencing change in quality improvement
Analyze the role of the nurse in supporting the organization's strategic agenda in improving clinical outcomes
Discussion: Promoting Safety and Quality
In the article "Managing to Improve Quality: The Relationship Between Accreditation Standards, Safety Practices, and Patient Outcomes," the authors discuss the growing trend by medical insurance companies to eliminate reimbursement for Never Events.
As these types of mistakes should be easily preventable, hospitals have developed protocols to lessen or extinguish the occurrence of these events.
In addition, The Joint Commission (TJC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have developed core measures to guide health care providers' efforts in improving patient safety and the quality of care delivered.
Health care organizations have developed strategic agendas to help meet these standards and reduce the incidence of Never Events.
Nurses significantly influence the overall quality of health care provided and play a pivotal role in improving patient outcomes.
For this Discussion, you will consider the standards that are in place for nurses and how they can be used to improve quality of care.
To prepare for this Discussion:
Review the information at the Joint Commission and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services websites on the core measures and standards presented in this week's Learning Resources.
Consider the nurse's role in supporting the organization's strategic agenda as it relates to improving clinical outcomes.
Conduct an Internet search for either a Never Event or a core measure, and select one to address in your post.
Respond to the following:
How has the emphasis on quality of care, patient safety, and clinical care outcomes been impacted by specific standards emanating from TJC and/or CMS? Cite your selected core measure or Never Event in your response.
What is the impact of the nurse's role in clinical outcomes for the organization?
Discuss nurse-specific challenges in influencing change in quality improvement.
How does this influence the ability of the organization to achieve its strategic agenda?
Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature.
Attachment:- Learning Resources.rar