Discussion: Benchmarking to Improve Quality of Care and Communicating Change
Comparing,
or benchmarking, outcomes is an important means by which health care
providers strive to improve quality of care. Although this concept
applies to all kinds of clinical care facilities, for this Discussion
you focus on hospitals so that you can make use of data on the CMS’s
“Hospital Compare” website to conduct some basic benchmarking analysis.
Using
this analysis as a launching point, you then evaluate priorities for
improvement and consider how to create a motivating environment that
supports significant, lasting change.
To Prepare
Go to http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/search.htm…
- Enter search criteria and click “Find Hospitals.” Select a hospital on which to focus for this Discussion.
- Review
all of the data on this hospital, which should include the various
Process of Care Measures and the Survey of Patients’ Hospital
Experiences (HCAHPS scores). - Compare the data for your selected
hospital with data from other institutions in the area and across the
country, as you think appropriate. (To do this, repeat the steps
described above, but this time include these other institutions in your
comparison.) - Based upon your first selected hospital’s
comparative scores, what do you think is the most important area related
to patient satisfaction/clinical outcomes to improve, and why? It may
be helpful to consider what other steps you would take to get a clearer
picture of this quality issue. - Think about how you as a leader
and manager would communicate change at the point of care (front line)
to provide service that improves one or more patient
satisfaction/clinical outcomes in your selected hospital.
Post
a brief description of the hospital and your selected outcome,
including indications of the needed improvement. Then, provide a short,
persuasive statement demonstrating how you would communicate and
motivate a nurse at the point of care (front line) to provide service
that improves the selected outcome. Support your statement with evidence
and strategies from the literature.
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