Develop a 2 to 3 page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing
Assignment: Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.
Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances.
Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.
In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.
To Prepare:
- Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
- Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
- Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (2–3 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 2 to 3 page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
- Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
- Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
- Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.
Expert Answer and Explanation
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
There is a significant number of national healthcare stressors that healthcare organizations in the United States are faced with. Addressing these pertinent healthcare issues and stressors is vital for the government to ensure the effective functioning of the United States healthcare system for its to achieve the desired national healthcare outcomes. The occurrence of medical errors not only affects the patients and their families but also has emotional and mental effects on the healthcare providers involved in the making of the error (Robertson & Long, 2018).
This paper seeks to address the pertinent healthcare stressor of preventable medical errors in the US healthcare system, provide a summary of the information from resources concerning the stressor, and the strategies to address the organizational impact of the stressor as well as the positive and negative impacts of the strategies on my organization.
National healthcare issue
The national healthcare issue that this paper will focus on is the issue of preventable medical errors which have had a significant economic impact on the US healthcare system while negatively affecting the patient treatment outcomes. Research indicates that a significant number of adverse medical events are a result of medical errors that are preventable including diagnosis and drug use errors, technical errors, and failure to prevent injuries from happening (Gates et al., 2018). When the healthcare providers suffer from the mental and emotional effects, it reflects negatively on the quality of their work in providing care to the patients.
This healthcare issue has had a significant impact on my organization indicated by an increase in return visits to the emergency room as a result of medical errors. Some patients are losing trust in the quality and safety of care in the organization threatening its stability. There have also been some lawsuits against the organization for medical errors that were committed by the nurses and physicians in the organization. This has significantly strained the organization and threatens its future.
Article Summary on preventable medical errors
A study by Melnyk et al (2021) associates preventable medical errors with the physical and mental health of healthcare providers. The authors are of the opinion that preventable medical errors can be reduced if the mental and physical health needs of healthcare providers are taken care of. The article suggests evidence-based wellness support and programming, building cultures of wellness, and resolving system issues as effective approaches to reduce the risk of medical errors and improve the quality of care.
This problem is especially common among healthcare providers working in critical care settings. The safety culture can make it easier for healthcare professionals to report errors and better manage the psychological effects that they suffer as a result of those errors because they will have better ways of avoiding the errors.
Ozeke et al (2019) report that medical errors are the third leading death cause after cancer and heart conditions. While the unintentional errors and complications will always be part of the healthcare delivery process, they can have a significant effect on the quality of life of the patient involved and possibly causes post-traumatic stress disorder in the healthcare provider involved. This is why formal support programs are important for healthcare providers and patients. The authors of the article suggest that awareness should be raised concerning the issue of preventable medical errors and respond to it appropriately for the well-being of patients, their families, and healthcare providers.
Other healthcare organizations are addressing the issue of preventable medical errors by adopting interventions that are aimed at reducing burnout among healthcare providers. This is because burnout is one of the most significant factors that increase the risk of medical errors by healthcare providers. Addressing the issue of shortage of healthcare providers is also another way that other organizations are addressing the issue of medical errors. With enough healthcare personnel in the healthcare organization, the healthcare providers can work for reasonable hours and have enough time to rest reducing the risk of committing errors.
Strategies
Several strategies can be used to address the impact of the stressor on the organization. The first strategy is to adopt the use of the latest medical technologies like electronic medical records and prescribing to facilitate the reduction of medical errors (Roumeliotis et al., 2019). Electronic prescribing has been associated with reducing medical errors and harm from those prescription errors. Monitoring vulnerable populations like the elderly, children, and those struggling with mental health disorders to ensure that they take their medication following the prescriptions.
These strategies will positively impact the organization because they will help reduce the risk of medical errors resulting from physician burnout and failure to monitor medication intake among vulnerable populations. Electronic prescribing will help minimize errors related to prescribing like failure to have information about any allergies the patient may have. The negative impact of the strategies is that the organization may have to incur more economic costs to facilitate its implementation.
Conclusion
Preventable medical errors are a major cause of death in the United States as established by the findings in the research above. The fact that they are preventable means that something can be done to help reduce and eventually avoid them completely in the healthcare system. Healthcare organizations and the government should work together in the establishment of strategies that can help address this issue to facilitate the enhancement of healthcare outcomes. This will also be important in helping ensure that patients have access to quality and safe care, without worrying about preventable errors that could negatively affect their treatment outcomes.
References
Gates, P. J., Meyerson, S. A., Baysari, M. T., Lehmann, C. U., & Westbrook, J. I. (2018). Preventable adverse drug events among inpatients: a systematic review. Pediatrics, 142(3).
Melnyk, B. M., Tan, A., Hsieh, A. P., Gawlik, K., Arslanian-Engoren, C., Braun, L. T., … & Wilbur, J. (2021). Critical care nurses’ physical and mental health, worksite wellness support, and medical errors. American Journal of Critical Care, 30(3), 176-184.
Ozeke, O., Ozeke, V., Coskun, O., & Budakoglu, I. I. (2019). Second victims in health care: current perspectives. Advances in Medical Education and Practice, 10, 593.
Robertson, J. J., & Long, B. (2018). Suffering in silence: medical error and its impact on health care providers. The Journal of emergency medicine, 54(4), 402-409.
Roumeliotis, N., Sniderman, J., Adams-Webber, T., Addo, N., Anand, V., Rochon, P., … & Parshuram, C. (2019). Effect of electronic prescribing strategies on medication error and harm in hospital: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of general internal medicine, 34(10), 2210-2223.
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