Benchmarking to Improve Quality of Care and Communicating Change
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.html
- 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.
BY DAY 3
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
Learning Resources
Note: To access this weeks’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.
REQUIRED READINGS
Marquis, B. L., & Huston, C. J. (2017). Leadership roles and management functions in nursing: Theory and application (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
- Review Chapter 19, “Organizational, Interpersonal, and Group Communication”
- Read Chapter 23, “Quality Control”
Auer, C., Schwendimann, R., Koch, R., De Geest, S., & Ausserhofer, D. (2014). How hospital leaders contribute to patient safety through the development of trust. Journal of Nursing Administration, 44(1), 23–29.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases Benchmarking to Improve Quality of Care and Communicating Change
Falkheimer, J. (2014). The power of strategic communication in organizational development. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 6(2/3), 124–133.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
Arroliga, A. C., Huber, C., Myers, J. D., Dieckert, J. P., & Wesson, D. (2014). Leadership in Health Care for the 21 st Century: Challenges and Opportunities. The American Journal of Medicine, 127(3), 246–249.
Copyright 2014 by Elsevier Health Science Journals. Reprinted by permission of Elsevier Health Science Journals via the Copyright Clearance Center.
National Committee for Quality Assurance. (2013). HEDIS and performance measurement. Measuring performance. Retrieved from http://www.ncqa.org/tabid/59/Default.aspx
Groysberg, B., & Slind, M. (2012). Leadership is a conversation. Harvard Business Review, 90(6), 76–84.
Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cbmp/pl/76756877/76756…
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes. Benchmarking to Improve Quality of Care and Communicating Change
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week. Benchmarking to Improve Quality of Care and Communicating ChangeAPA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score. Benchmarking to Improve Quality of Care and Communicating ChangeLate Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.