Assignment: The Reporting of Quality Measures
One of the quality measures reported by hospitals to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services which is published on the Hospital Compare website is statistics on "surgery patients who were given an antibiotic at the right time (within one hour of surgery) to help prevent infection." Answer the following questions to reflect on your understanding of this quality measure. In a minimum of 250 words address the following:
• Why is it clinically important for patients to receive antibiotics prior to surgery?
• In regards to clinical documentation in the health record that would be reviewed to report on hospital performance of this quality measure, which portion of the record would provide the most accurate details to confirm the administration and time of administration of antibiotics prior to surgery?
• If hospital a consistently scores low on this measure, what does this indicate?
• If a hospital is scoring low on this quality measure, which clinical quality management process could be used to help the hospital understand why the performance is low, formulate a plan to improve its score, implement the plan, and evaluate results of this measure in the future?
Your initial post to the given topic of discussion should contain a minimum of 2-3 peer-reviewed references.
Source: Medicare.gov, Hospital Compare. (n.d.). Measures and current data collection periods.
Person Centered Care
Our readings from the Informational Guide on Person Centered Care identified the following nine structural elements needed to support assisted living:
1. Core Values and Philosophy
2. Relationships and Community
3. Senior Management-Owner- Governance
4. Leadership
5. Workforce
6. Services
7. Meaningful Life
8. Environment
9. Accountability
Your task this week is to discuss and identify two of the above structural elements. How do they help or hinder Person Centered Care?
The Social, Political, and Safety Environments
Answer one of the following questions:
1. Other than AARP, discuss one public interest group, aging service, or professional organization that you believe has or can have the most influence on political decisions related to LTC? Why do you believe this?
2. Research one public interest group and one professional organization that focus on LTC issues. Determine the three highest-ranking issues on their political agendas. Are their focus areas similar?
3. Laws regulating skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities vary by state. However, most states' regulations address emergency and disaster preparedness, fire safety, staff training, medication management, resident privacy, and background checks. Choose two states and research their statutes and regulations regarding LTC facilities. What do the regulations in these states say about one of these issues? Where do you see the greatest differences in regulations? To what do you attribute this?
4. In recent years, we have witnessed unprecedented shifts in societal values, some of which can offer challenges to organizational operations. Watch Gray Gays: Aging as an LGBT adult (5:56). What are two unique challenges facing the elderly GLBT population? How can the typical nursing home or assisted living facility address the unique needs of this population?
5. Select one of the following ethical and legal issues in long term care and comment on the challenges inherent for long term care administrators in effectively responding to them. Select one topic for a residential setting (i.e., assisted living or nursing home) and select a different topic for home and community based care. How can an ethics committee can help a Long Term Care administrator effectively deal with these issues?
a. Discrimination
b. Abuse
c. Privacy
d. Malpractice
e. Wrongful Termination
f. Patient Rights
g. Informed consent
h. Advanced Directives.