Measurable Healthcare

MEMO

To:                                   The Inpatient Department

Through:                          The Manager Hospital Registration

From:                              The Patient Registration Desk    

Revised Patient admissions protocols

The healthcare sector has been under the spotlight in recent times. The growing need for expedient healthcare services has heralded dramatic transformational alterations in the healthcare sector. Such changes have seen the restructuring of management and re-evaluations of stratagem to ensure the achievement of better healthcare outcomes. As such healthcare service providers have progressively embraced evidence based health care practice, particularly in nursing and patient care.

Structured measures: The proportion of certified physicians and doctors at the facility. It also includes the filing system used to store patient medical records at the facility- whether the hospital uses electronic patient medical records or Medical order systems (MOS)

Process measures: the percentage of people who have received preemptive medication against certain pathologies including immunization, and medical screening.

Outcome measure: the percentage of people who underwent successful surgery at a certain medical facility.

Structured measures are organizational practices that lay the foundations for the operations at healthcare facilities. These tenets highlight the capacity of a healthcare facility in terms of physical and medical infrastructure as well as the human resources available to deliver standard practice to patients (Haywood, Marshall, & Fitzpatrick, 2006). Structured measures inspire patient confidence in the healthcare facility. Additionally they enable the patient to predict the convenience and efficiency of pre-treatment and certified-physician treatment services at a healthcare facility.

Process measures are the metrics through which both positive and negative health outcomes are achieved. Such measures include the time frame between the physician’s recommendation of patient admission and the actual time the patient is admitted. It also includes the entire time a pharmacist takes to ensure medication reaches the patients (Bradley Et al , 2006). In practice, physicians prevent bedsores in risk patients immobilized in the intensive care unit by first assessing the patient predisposition to pressure ulcers using the Braden Scale. Risk patients are therefore taken through preemptive and preventive protocols stipulated at the healthcare facility.

Outcome measures involve the analysis of change in health status of patients within a populace. Such change in health status should be consistent with a particular intervention. Evaluation of health care outcomes involves the analysis of pre-medication health status, analysis of the intervention and post intervention health status of the patient (Rubin, Pronovost, & Diette, 2001). Feedback from such evaluations and analysis gives insights on the safety and effectiveness of a particular intervention on the populace. Outcome measurement plays a major role in future decision making processes within the healthcare setting.

What are the numerator and denominator?

These are proportions used in the evaluation of the quality of a healthcare system. They are constructed through a system of percentages with the numerator representing the proportion of persons that received a particular stimulus, medication or adversity. The denominator represents the entire population from which the proportion represented by the numerator is drawn from. For instance, from a population of 45 patients receiving aspirin for treatment of myocardial infarction, 6 patients experienced adverse reactions including respiratory failure and peptic ulcers (Bradley Et al, 2006).

If the measure does not require a numerator and denominator, explain why

In such cases the subject represented in the numerator is not contained within the denominator.  As such the population cannot be assigned discrete enumeration due to its inconsistency. Cases of medical negligence and or transfusion reactions are tabulated as discrete figures and not as ratios. Such is the practice due to the seldom nature of such events most of which call for further investigation. Therefore the magnitude of such events does not allow for comparison with practice at other healthcare facilities (Rubin, Pronovost, & Diette, 2001) (Rubin, Pronovost, & Diette, 2001).

During the admission process whether through the emergency section or casualty section, the responsible members if staff should save the patients’ personal information into the hospice’s database. The information captured should include: the patient’s name; Address; phone number; occupation; emergency contact information; insurer and insurance cover; patient allergies to food and medications; religious affiliations; and previous medications regimens.

Primary information should be got from the patient referred for admission if the patient is in a position to communicate. If the patient is incapacitated, the patient’s aide may provide such information. If no such aide is available, the respective physician may provide such information.

To ensure better patient monitoring and measurement of such parameters of healthcare, I propose that the facility adopt practicum that documents the patient’s state during their admission into our healthcare facility. Having the patients’ information at the time of admission provides an origin of the pathology and or condition. It can also be used to ascertain the course and or adversity of a certain disease based on the patient characteristics. The patient’s stay at the facility should be captured and such information as reaction to medications during the stay documented.  Such data would be of particular importance in establishing undocumented reactions the patient may have towards the medication. Additionally the patients’ state after the intervention should be documented. Information obtained from post treatment measures shows the plausibility of a certain remedy or medication in combating certain pathologies.

References

Bradley, E. H., Herrin, J., Elbel, B., McNamara, R., & Magid , D. (2006). Hospital quality for       acute myocardial infarction: correlation among process measures and relationship     with short term mortality. JAMA , 296 (1), 72-78.

Haywood, K., Marshall, S., & Fitzpatrick, R. (2006). Patient Participation in the consultation    process: a structured review of intervention strategies. Patient education and counselling , 63 (1-2), 12-23.

Rubin, H. R., Pronovost, P., & Diette, G. B. (2001). The advantages and disadvantages of         process-based measures of health care quality. International Journal for quality in health care , 13 (6), 469-474.