How to write an essay on Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction (Solved)

Patient safety is important in the provision of quality healthcare. Adverse events that occur due to unsafe patient care have been identified as one of the major causes of death and disability worldwide. The promotion of patient safety is among the significant goals of the world organization. Patient safety is aimed to prevent and reduce risks, errors as well as harm occurring to patients while being provided with care (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). Medical errors have contributed to compromising the safety of patients. Medical errors are preventable if the healthcare professionals adhere to the laid out protocols and procedures while providing care to patients.

How would you apply the principles of the Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction in the acute care or long-term care setting?

The triple aim initiative was started by the institute for health improvement (IHI) in 2007. It is aimed at helping healthcare organizations improve the health status of the populations by ensuring quality, accessible and reliable services while at the same time lowering the cost (McCarthy & Klein, 2010). These objectives enable healthcare organizations to provide safe, timely, effective, efficient, equitable, and patient-centered care to individuals and patient-centered populations. This ensures resources are directed to the activities with the greatest impact on health.

Patients’ needs vary from one individual to another, even when they have a similar diagnosis or healthcare condition. Provision of patient-centered care ensures that the individual needs along with that of significant others are met. Designing care models that involve families and individuals should be used (McCarthy & Klein, 2010). This can be achieved by ensuring healthcare professionals involve the patients and communities in decision-making that involve their healthcare. They should also ensure that communication is transparent and honest without using medical jargon to make informed choices. Healthcare professionals should adequately educate patients concerning practices and procedures with health their benefits and harm clearly explained to them.

Provision of quality, safe, and satisfaction of patients depends on the health services management. The right foundation for population management should be created because this ensures that the governance structure involves individuals with power who have patients’ needs. Those who are willing to ensure that costs for healthcare services are affordable to the patient population without them encountering catastrophic expenditure. Teamwork and collaboration between specialists should be fostered to promote better coordination of services and prevent fragmented care from being provided to patients. Patient satisfaction is enhanced due to the continuity of care, especially with patients in long-term care settings.

The triple aim initiative aims to decrease the per capita cost of healthcare services. Improving disease prevention and health promotion will reduce the costs significantly. This is because most disease suffered by the patient population develops due to the sedentary lifestyle that is lack of exercise and practicing unhealthy habits such as taking drugs. Educating the community about the importance of healthy habits enables them to lead lives that promote health hence preventing the development of common conditions such as cancer (McCarthy & Klein, 2010). Consequently, a decrease in the cost will be noted since resources that would have been used to treat preventable diseases are diverted to other activities. An increase in preventive care, better chronic disease management, and healthy behaviors contribute to minimal use of resources and overall lower cost of care for the population.

Proper system support system integration and execution ensure efficient use of resources in healthcare organizations. The population’s needs should be assessed to ensure that the services provided are what they need. Strategic planning allows the optimal utilization of resources and economy in operations. Unnecessary operations and input reduce the purchase price of materials and other inputs, hence lowering health expenditure costs. Inadequate planning will worsen the ever-rising health spending, which hinders quality care leading to increased costs and poor results.

Reflect on your current or future role in healthcare (future role …Case management).

Cancer is one of the leading causes of mortality in the world. Cancer refers to a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrollable growth of abnormal cells in any part of the body. One of the most common cancers reported includes lung and breast cancer, which affects a large population. It is caused by individual genetic factors, and external agents termed carcinogens. The carcinogens can either be physical, chemical, or biological. Cancer occurs most of the time due to an unhealthy lifestyle such as tobacco smoking and a sedentary lifestyle that includes a lack of eating, a healthy diet, and exercise. Cancer can be prevented by minimizing the risk factors and educating the community on the importance of living a proactive life concerning their health.

As a healthcare provider, it is my role to champion the health promotion of the health status of the community. Cancer is a leading cause of death, yet it is also preventable by ensuring that the community takes control of its health. The community should know healthy habits to ensure optimal health. They should also be taught the proper techniques of self-breast exams done monthly, which goes a long way in aiding the early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer. Regular screening such as mammography, Pap smear, and HPV test should be done on the populations at risk to identify cancer enable early diagnosis and treatment, which eventually leads to reduction of the disease burden on healthcare.

How would you, in the role of director of nursing or healthcare administrator, contribute to improving cost-effective quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety?

Patient safety and high-quality care are two notions that are intertwined. A nursing director’s top priority is to guarantee that patients receive high-quality, safe care. Although safe nursing care has the lowest risk of causing harm to patients, high-quality nursing care has the best chance of achieving the best possible outcomes. As a result, the director of nursing should make sure that nurses know that it is their responsibility to drive patient safety and quality improvement initiatives.

Creating a safety culture will enhance and promote patient safety in the hospitals. Safety culture is defined as a blame-free environment where the nursing staff and other healthcare personnel who provide services to the patients are comfortable reporting errors and near misses. Employee safety is also a priority. The staff are engaged and empowered to focus on why the error was made rather than who made the error (Beauvais, 2018). This will facilitate the development of ways to prevent such errors, thereby enhancing patient safety. Also, standardization of procedures entails the nursing directors giving clear guidelines on what is expected of nurses leading to a just culture.

Establishment of good safety performance as a healthcare organization goal. A goal is a desired result towards which efforts are directed. The nursing staff should see safety as an important goal that leads to quality improvement to corporate into their daily nursing activities. Everyone should establish safety performance as dynamic and continuously improving (Beauvais, 2018). Involving the staff in decisions will motivate them and help them develop measures that promote patient safety while efficiently implementing initiatives created by the organizations to improve safety and quality. Patient satisfaction is enhanced when they are assured of their safe services.

Fostering teamwork among the nursing staff and other healthcare providers is paramount in providing safe services. Teamwork promotes coordination of all activities and reduces fragmentation of care. It also ensures effective referrals and smooth transitions of patients between two or more healthcare providers. Patient safety depends on effective communications between the care providers, patients, and their families. Communication breakdown could result in jeopardized care. Involvement of everyone, including the staff, patients, and community, enables them to take ownership hence ensuring that care provided meets the required standards.

Directors of nursing should also determine what to monitor and determine the priorities in monitoring services to improve quality care. Activities that provide pay and assume responsibility should be monitored to ensure that they meet the expected performance level and all activities that hinder patient safety. Errors in performance that occur frequently should be detected early and corrected. They should use a combined approach in assessing the quality of care and recognize that poor performance could be attributed to the structure or process. These activities will lead to increased quality of care and patient satisfaction.

What practices would you apply to minimize medical errors among front-line nursing staff?

Medical errors are identified as the failure of a planned activity to be accomplished as intended (error of execution) or the implementation of an incorrect action to achieve an objective (error in planning). They are deviations from the process of care, which may harm the patient. Medical errors compromise patient safety this is because these errors are preventable (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). Most common errors in the medical field include error or omission, which occurs when appropriate action is not taken, such as failure to assess the patient after surgery. The error of commission occurs when a wrong action is taken, such as failure to follow the aseptic technique in performing a procedure. Other errors include adverse events, near misses, negligence, and noxious episodes.

Prevention of these medical errors should be a priority to ensure patient safety. Prolonged hospital stays, increased readmission rates, patient morbidity, and mortality contribute to major financial losses in healthcare (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). Nursing staff employed should be competent and have the appropriate level of education. There is a need for nurses to apply evidenced practice in the workplace to avoid medical errors. Nurse educators should consider developing holistic and comprehensive tools that can provide nurses with the necessary knowledge, experience, and attitudes to minimize errors such as incidences of medication administration-related errors. Organizations should frequently do regular educational programs to equip the nurses with the knowledge and skills to mitigate medical errors.

Staff shortages among the nursing staff contribute significantly to medical errors. The increased workload of the available nurses who pull double shifts or take care of many patients leads to burnout and fatigue hence compromising patient safety. Ensuring that nurses have the required number of patients allows them to double-check patient identification before administration of medications or before performing a procedure and allows them to spend extra time with critical patients. This will minimize the occurrence of errors that would have otherwise been avoided (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). Also, nurses should be given time to recuperate and reenergize to provide optimal and safe by limiting shift durations to prevent errors due to fatigue.

There should be standardized procedures and processes displayed in the procedure and patient examination rooms. Some of the processes include careful labeling of medications careful handoff of patients from shift to shift using appropriate techniques such as SBAR and I-PASS (Rodziewicz et al., 2021). Also, proper documentation using clear, legible, and appropriate language that everyone understands. The staff should be encouraged to practice effective communication techniques and etiquette because this promotes a safe working environment for healthcare providers.

Nurses are involved on a one-on-one basis with the patient caring for them in one way or the other. Patient needs should be met with utmost consideration on the laid down protocols and practices. The nursing staff should be staffed and scheduled appropriately, depending on their education and expertise. This will help in the mitigation of medical errors of any kind. It is the collective responsibility of all healthcare providers to ensure that patients are provided with safe, quality, and affordable care.

REFERENCES

Beauvais, A. M. (Ed.). (2018). Leadership and Management Competence in Nursing Practice: Competencies, Skills, Decision-making. Springer Publishing Company.

McCarthy, D., & Klein, S. (2010). The triple aim journey: improving population health and patients’ experience of care while reducing costs.

Rodziewicz, T. L., Houseman, B., & Hipskind, J. E. (2021). Medical error reduction and prevention.

How to write an essay on Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction (Solved)

How would you apply the principles of the Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction in the acute care or long-term care setting?

How would you, in the role of director of nursing or healthcare administrator, contribute to improving cost-effective quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety?

What practices would you apply to minimize medical errors among front-line nursing staff?

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