The primary purpose of this healthcare policy and clinical practice guidelines and associated procedures is to offer standardization in routine operational activities in the selected healthcare setting (Mercy Medical Center). The creation and enforcement of policy and clinical guidelines is essential in offering clarity when responding to core issues and activities that are considered integral in health and safety, regulatory requirements, ethical standards and legal liabilities. The document covers the key policy areas and clinical practice guidelines that will lead to improvements in quality performance associated with the benchmark underperformance reported at the Mercy Medical Center.
Correa et al. (2020) established that the creation of healthcare policies and practice guidelines can become a meaningful starting point through which a healthcare facility may attain sustained improvements in efficiency and productivity, and hence avoiding some of the core issues revolving around readmissions, patient safety, documentation errors, medical errors and other adverse events. Therefore, the centrality of the proposed policy and practice guidelines is basically to communicate to the employees of Mercy Medical Center the desired outcomes, demystify their responsibilities and roles, and establish a clear foundation for the speedy provision of high quality, safe and cost-effective care and support to patients and the respective communities they serve (Stone & Hoffman, 2017).
Based on the findings, the current benchmarks for Mercy Medical Center revealed that the healthcare facility recorded higher rates of readmission, (3% higher than the national rate of 34%); higher rates of patient falls ( rose from 3.56 to 11.5 per 1000); increased cases of medical errors; and the eminent lack of proper electronic tracking technology to assist in the proper and accurate documentation of medication and patient information, a pertinent issue that might be contributing to increased rates of documentation and medication errors.
In the healthcare field, Correa et al. (2020) established that benchmarking is a highly crucial method for continuous improvement through the development and adoption of best practices, policies and procedures. However, the benchmark underperformance at the Mercy Medical Center as revealed in the healthcare dashboards indicated the need for adopting requisite interventions and programs aimed at enhancing quality of care and performance of the healthcare entity. Similarly, Irving (2016) noted that systemic failure by a healthcare organization to achieve acceptable performance is practically reflected by the performance gaps in quality outcomes, patient safety, high rates of readmissions, and growing number of documentation and medical errors. Therefore, not making any changes to address benchmark underperformance might greatly undermine the process of performance improvement, and hence exposing the Mercy Medical Center to some of the severe legal, regulatory and ethical pressures associated with non-compliance with the established standards, regulations and performance measures (American College of Physicians, 2017).
As identified by the American College of Physicians (2017), some of the practice guidelines to be followed at Mercy Medical Center on prevention of medical errors include:
As identified by Rodziewicz et al. (2021), number of patient safety goals must be pursued by the healthcare organization as well as healthcare practitioners in developing and maintaining a safety practice contexts for patients, providers and other stakeholders. They include: