NHS 6004 Assessment 2
Policy Proposal
Name
Capella University
NURS_FPX6004
Instructor’s Name
September 20th, 2024
Policy Proposal
Among the key performance indicators that hold promise to ensure compliance with the legal requirements as well as healthcare services quality, the patient readmissions rate stands alone. First, it is essential to consider that high readmission rates not only influence the patients’ outcomes but also hurt the financial side and organizational performance. The expectation is that with this policy proposal, the issues of underperformance in readmissions, treatment continuity, patient education, and follow-ups will be solved (Chiu et al., 2021). By implementing focused ideas, healthcare companies can improve patient satisfaction, reduce unnecessary readmissions, and comply more with local, state, and federal legal requirements for the healthcare industry. In line with this context, the proposed policy aims to look at the root cause of high readmission rates and achieve a patient-centered and sustainable solution that is beneficial to the organization and the stakeholders.
Need For Creating Policy And Practice Guidelines To Address A Shortfall In Meeting
Due to several reasons, it becomes necessary to expound on the matter of high patient readmission and formulate key policies and practices to address the vice. High readmission rates imply that patients have been discharged without adequate treatment, and recidivism makes patients’ conditions worse, costs increase and authorities may punish a healthcare center (Dolan et al., 2022). Patient safety and continuity of treatment are considered to be the priorities by the local, state, and federal health care legislation; thus, not meeting this criterion undermines the legal goals and decreases the level of care. The repercussions for this poor performance are very disastrous to the patients since their quality of life is at stake and vulnerable to complications from other illnesses that are left untreated. Patients also tend to be readmission thus the hospitals may receive less amount of money from the insurance providers while their expenditures are increasing.
Hospital readmissions particularly affect various stakeholders such as community-based health facilities, organizational managers, and personnel. Handling challenging circumstances and resolving non-happy customers adversely affects the providers thus reducing their job satisfaction level (Matahela et al., 2024). These organizations may monitor the activities of administrators better and use financial penalties which are embarrassing to the organization in the society. Community health organizations can always find it hard to respond to the needs of the uncovered groups that suffer high readmission rates in their hospitals. The inaction on this issue is likely to lead to a vicious cycle of declining performance, meaning that stakeholders must come up with pragmatic interventions that will enhance the patient’s condition and treatment plan coherence.
Analyzes The Potential Effects Of Environmental Factors
By incorporating comprehensive discharge planning, enhancing patient knowledge about their conditions, and systematically planning follow-up care, the proposed organizational strategy aims to reduce high patient readmission rates (Keller et al., 2024). The practice guidelines highlighted having follow-up sessions after discharge to ensure that the patients comprehend and adhere to their plans having a collaborative care plan for patients involving various professionals and improved communication between the patients and the providers. These steps are meant to optimize the coordination of care, minimize issues at discharge, and, consequently, preventable readmissions.
Several factors in environmental interaction can influence the achievement of these practice guidelines. In the context of home care assistance, patients’ financial status, and availability of transport, for example, pose a clear relationship with their ability to respect discharge directives and attend follow-up consultations. Even if the release procedures were well planned and developed, some of them would not prevent readmissions if these problems were not solved (Easton et al., 2022). However, workload pressures and the number of personnel in hospitals might influence the quality of patient information and discharge planning. Busy or limited-staffed employees may lack the time or means to explain effective care to patients, which may contribute to patients’ ignorance of their treatment regimens and thus result in avoidable readmissions. If the suggested guidelines are to be effectively implemented, some key aspects concerning the environment need to be considered.
Ethical, Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines To Improve Targeted Benchmark Performance
Three main areas are the emphasis of the proposed ethical, evidence-based practice guidelines to lower patient readmission rates: the promotion of effective implementation of care coordination, patient education as well as discharge planning. As for the patient’s safety and readiness to handle their health conditions after being discharged, these guidelines prioritize developing an individualized discharge plan based on the patient’s medical condition and social context (Al et al., 2020). Moreover, patient information should be considered as a priority to ensure that patients and their carers have sufficient information about their treatment, dosage, and appointments. Finally, follow-up appointments and calls should also be recurrent, regulating the healing process and answering any questions or concerns in time.
These shifts will prove influential in practice to all stakeholders. These recommendations enhance the health of the patients, thus enhancing the satisfaction level since the patients are provided with a better understanding of the path to recovery with minimal chances of other complications. Fewer hospital readmissions mean improved patient well-being, allowing staff members to focus more on ambulatory services than interventionist treatments (Fu et al., 2021). On the operational level, lower readmission rates might translate into saving money which would otherwise be paid in fines, as well as increasing insurance provider reimbursements; these savings may be used to improve staff training and patient care.
Of course, the rationale for each of these recommendations can be backed by substantial evidence. The studies undertaken show that systematic follow-up treatment and discharge planning directly correlate to significantly reduced readmission rates, as well as enhanced patient outcomes (Tang et al., 2019). Providing tailored solutions that take account of each patient’s context also pursues relevant ethical principles including equal treatment and patients’ self-determination. These evidence-based strategies can enhance general healthcare organization performance, increase readmission rates, and ethically deliver better treatment standards.
Explanation of Why Particular Stakeholders And Groups Must Be Involved In Further Development And Implementation Of Proposed Policy And Practice Guidelines
The stakeholders involved also include community health organizations when it comes to tackling outside socioeconomic factors that influence patients’ status upon their discharge. they can avail of various services such as home care, transport facilities, and monetary aid which is almost inappropriate for minimizing the readmission ratios in such patients (McArthur et al., 2021). As it involves patients and their families in the development of the policy, it also ensures that the policy is understandable and feasible by including their perspectives and problems. Thus with the involvement of all of these parties, the policy assumes a more systematic and practical shape and can facilitate practice change that could help improve patient and healthcare organization quality outcomes tomorrow.
For the proposed policy aimed at reducing rates of patient readmissions to be effective, Specific parties need to be involved in this policy’s creation and execution. The clients include the physicians, nurses, or case managers involved in the planning of discharge of the patients and outlining of follow-up care (Ulitsa et al., 2021). They interact with patients most of the time, and thus, are in a better position to contribute useful perceptions of patients’ real-life challenges as they help in the development of useful and patient-friendly groups of guidelines. Managers in the hospital must also be involved in allocating the necessary funding, ensuring compliance with the new policy, and overseeing the process of implementing the policy into the existing practice. This support is vital in monitoring the impact that the policy has on organizational performance and ensuring the sustainability of the policy.
Strategies For Collaborating With A Stakeholder Group To Implement Proposed Policy And Practice Guidelines
In conjunction with these stakeholder groups and major stakeholders the feelings of the community, including other professionals in the healthcare sector, the policy and practice of the guidelines suggested above to reduce the readmission rates have to be implemented. One of the practical strategies includes developing doctor-nurse case manager-social worker integrated teams (Yamaguchi et al., 2022). These teams can come to a meeting regularly to discuss any patient case, treatment plan as well as discharge plan with special reference to the needs of each patient. Community health groups should also be included as early as possible to ensure that issues of transport or financial support to patients are well addressed before release reducing chances of readmissions.
The fact that stakeholders are partly or fully responsible for the outcome of the patient treatment is the reason that can be used to justify the cooperation (McClinton, 2022). Administer, providers and other organizations that are part of the community improve the quality of service delivery. That is why, although potential objections might be considered utopian, some essential objections should be addressed, such as concerns regarding the increase of efforts or lack of resources.
To ease such concerns, stakeholders should know that by working together, the workload is then divided more fairly, thus reducing fatigue and ensuring all the patients are well supported. There is, therefore, a need for cooperation as the long-term benefits of reducing readmissions include lower penalties, increased patient satisfaction, and efficiency in resources (Ayuso et al., 2023). In cases when it is possible to take into account the perspectives of the stakeholders and analyze the potential benefits of the particular policy in general, the need for cooperation appears to be quite reasonable and essential to achieve the goal and deliver the policy into practice.
Conclusion
Efficient stakeholder engagement is needed for the adoption of the presented policy and practice recommendations to reduce patient readmission rates. Engaging administrators, community organizations, and healthcare providers ensures the best shot has been made in attempting to address the factors that lead to high readmission rates (Laugaland et al., 2023). Combined, these parties can increase the value to the patients, reduce the burden on a particular individual employee, and also provide consolidated patient care. Cooperation is valuable and may be strengthened in case of possible objections with the help of open-minded decision-making and cooperation. Lastly, this particular strategy will culminate in enhanced patient satisfaction, optimal management of resources besides attaining a stronger and consistent focus on legal requirements as well as enhanced quality delivery of patient satisfaction.
References
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