One of the critical roles of healthcare professionals is to continuously implement quality improvement strategies to enhance the safety and quality of care provided within healthcare organizations. Therefore, healthcare organizations must utilize effective leadership skills, a supportive work environment, interprofessional collaboration, effective collaboration strategies, and evidence-based strategies to create a safe culture. Accordingly, nurse leaders have a vital role in developing a patient safety culture to influence healthcare outcomes within their organizations. Hire our assignment writing services in case your assignment is devastating you.
One of the responsibilities of nurse leaders is to maintain the quality of care in the clinical and nursing departments. This role will be outlined using the example of data from the SAMC’s in-home hospice program. As part of the yearly evaluation of the organization’s quality, the organization’s medical support services department conducted an analysis of dashboard metrics for adverse events in hospice and home health for the years 2014 and 2015. This Quality and Safety Report was released in 2016. The hospice program data included near misses and adverse events that resulted in some harm or potential harm to the patient. Subsequently, four quality indicators were used. They consist of the length of stay (LOS) less than seven days, IPU admission, pain level between 7-10 for more than 24 hours, and inadequate symptom relief for more than 24 hours.
The results of the analysis reveal that the hospice program performed below the organization’s benchmark in two quality indicators: pain levels of 7-10 for more than 24 hours and inadequate symptom relief for more than 24 hours. The ideal score for these two indicators should be zero. This proposal will analyze the relationship between these quality indicators and the service of nurses in hospice programs for a quality improvement program. This program will evaluate the correlational patterns between quality indicators data, identify assumptions guiding nursing characteristics and care quality, determine root cause analysis methods for quality issues and recommend a protocol and interventions to enhance quality outcomes for the hospice program.
The hospice program provides end-of-life care and comfort for patients with terminal diseases. This program does not offer urgent care or life-saving interventions. Instead, this program aims to treat symptoms. Both patients and family members are recipients of care. Due to the vulnerable nature of patients in the hospice program, the quality and safety of care are the primary priorities. There is a regular assessment of quality and safety indicators. Accordingly, nurses, hospice physicians, volunteer coordinators, chaplains, and social workers are part of the multi-disciplinary team in the hospice program.
Table 1: Hospice and Home Health Adverse Event Data 2014-15
| Unit-Year | LOS less than 7 Days | IPU Admission | Pain Level Between 7-10 for More than 24 Hours | Inadequate Symptom Relief for More than 24 Hours |
| Hospice 2014 | 50 | 47 | 13 | 13 |
| Hospice 2015 | 46 | 27 | 17 | 22 |
The data from the Hospice and Home Health Adverse Event Report in Table 1 indicated that the LOS of less than seven days reduced from 50 in 2014 to 46 in 2015, while the number of IPU admissions reduced from 47 in 2014 and 27 in 2015. However, the pain levels between 7-10 increased from 13 in 2014 to 17 in 2015. Inadequate symptom relief also increased from 13 in 2014 to 22 in 2015. Thus, this shows that the quality of care based on the two quality indicators has reduced between 2014 to 2015. This data should be a cause of concern for the hospital since it can affect healthcare professionals, patients, and the hospital in many ways. Public reporting involves providing data on healthcare outcomes to the general public. Subsequently, this allows them to compare performances and make informed healthcare decisions on hospitals to take care of (Prang et al., 2021). If the hospital’s quality outcomes are not up to standards, the hospital may lose clients since patients will prefer other hospitals. Patients with terminal conditions have extreme pain due to medications or t
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