Leading Management Solutions: quality of care

Showing posts with label quality of care. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Enhance Patient Satisfaction Using these EHR Strategies

Originally published on December 22, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

As of the year 2014, 83 percent of physicians were utilizing EHRs, and reaping the benefits of their reduced long-range costs, more effective storage, better informational accessibility, improved security and loss prevention, and enhanced accuracy and readability.

In spite of all the positives, however, EHR still can get in the way of patient satisfaction. As a matter of fact, the main physician complaint concerning EHRs is that they’ll worsen patient service by reducing face-time with patients, as well as interfering with doctors’ capability of seeing more patients. Plus, of the admittedly smaller proportion of doctors who are not using EHR, 40 percent state that it is because they interfere with doctor/patient relationships.

Nowadays, you cannot afford sub-par patient satisfaction ratings; therefore, below are four methods of keeping EHR from dragging down a patients’ happiness with care.

Concentrate on training

It is never too late to spend the time training doctors on EHR. Lean on a vendor — allow them to come in and display tips and hints for more effective use, and request that they assist you in connecting with other doctors who use the same version of EHR. Observe these other doctors in practice, talk about daily solutions, and bring this knowledge back to your practice. Keep in mind: Training does not end just because a software was installed.

Implement human solutions

Health IT isn’t the be-all, end-all. A human touch never can be completely replaced by technological options. ‘One of patients’ largest let-downs would be as their physicians keep glancing between their screens and them,’ wrote one physician. ‘Therefore, if we’re actually serious about bettering patient satisfaction and health care experience, how can we allow this situation to go on?’ Utilizing scribes to record every patient encounter, recording all details in real time, will restore the connection between patient and doctor. Rather than looking distracted or staring at a screen, scribes are able to do all of the administrative work, allowing doctors to get the most details out of all encounters and boost patient satisfaction all at the same time.

Pursue interoperability

Be certain the EHR software will interact with additional EHRs within your community in order for data-sharing to be seamless; this will have two important effects. Firstly, interoperability leads to transparency in clinical data, provider performance and prices, all of which are assisting in driving the Department of Health & Human Services’ movement towards reimbursement for effectiveness and quality of care. Secondly, it’ll mean that patient records are easily added to and transferred between additional providers.

Alleviate the administrative burden

One recent study showed that interns ‘currently spend only about 10% of the day being involved in direct patient care in the hospital and nearly 50 percent of the time on computers.’ Scribes may input commonly utilized codes, and produce the encounter/operative note, removing a ton of work on the back end. Doctors ought to be spending time seeing their patients — which will increase access to care (therefore boosting patient satisfaction) and possible revenue — and then signing off papers they know are correct and complete. There isn’t any sense in applying all of that time in medical training to administrative activities over patient care.

Leading Management Solutions helps medical practice leaders identify ways to improve operations to increase revenue, employee engagement, and patient satisfaction. Learn more about us at www.lmshealthpro.com.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

When is a Medical Error Considered a Crime?

Originally published on November 22, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Anita Haridat, Ph. D

Although there have been many advances in health care, there are still many issues that surround adverse events. The rates of medical errors are increasing even though multiple strides have been made in order to facilitate quality care. With all of the implications that have surrounded the field, when is a medical error actually considered a crime?

From all of my professional experiences within hospitals in New York, it seems that an organization’s “reason for being” is to provide the best possible health care when needed. Unfortunately, I’ve also learned that problems arise when the hospital’s mission is “to generate a profit”, to “advance science”, or any other mission that might be at odds with providing the best possible care in the short term. The same applies to individual clinicians and clinical teams within the hospital.

Then, I thought about a common patient safety movement commandment “errors represent system problems.” In a sense, it also represents the fact that “thou shall not blame.” Like most complicated issues in life, the truth lies somewhere between these polar views. Overall, the “no blame” view is right – most errors are committed by good, hardworking doctors and nurses, and finger-pointing simply distracts us from the systems fixes that can prevent the next fallible human being from killing someone.

Yet, taken to extremes, the “no blame argument” has always struck me slightly naïve. Let’s look at a case from just this year in April. A 24 year old received a routine wisdom teeth removal and woke up coughing during the procedure. He was given the powerful anesthetic propofol, but his condition quickly deteriorated and he was transferred to a hospital, where he died three days later. According to the patient care report, the paramedics said that the patient woke up during the procedure, started coughing and was given propofol. When the patient stopped breathing, CPR was started and the paramedics were called.

After they arrived, the paramedics found two pieces of surgical gauze in the patient’s airway as they tried to intubate him. How can such a careless mistake lead to the death of an innocent man?

What’s most shocking is the healthy 24-year-old goes in for an operation as routine as having his wisdom teeth removed and dies in the process. So the question remains- when is a medical error a crime?

According to dozens of enterprises for risk management, there are three kinds of behaviors that can lead to errors:

Human error – inadvertently facilitating a process other than what should have been done; a slip, lapse, or mistake.

At-risk behavior – a behavior or process that may increase risk or recognition that the behavior is mistakenly justified.

Reckless behavior – a choice that is made to disregard unjustifiable risk in a conscious manner.

Were the surgeons involved with the case criminally prosecuted? I doubt it. There was legitimate remorse and regret towards the family. However, I will go so far as to say that there should have been counseling, suspension or arguably firing done. The case is still open- just like so many other medical error cases and unfortunately, my main question still stands. What are your thoughts?

About the Author:

Anita Haridat has her Ph.D in healthcare/business administration and her master’s degree in clinical nutrition. She has several publications in sources such as EGO Magazine, Natural Awakenings Magazine, Syosset Patch, Our USA Magazine and many more. Her passion for health and wellness has created multiple stepping stones for paving the way of creating a positive well being. Her first book can be found here:

A Ph.D Takes Your B.S to a Whole New Level: Survive Grad School with the Right Mentality

Understanding Patient Satisfaction: Why It Is Important

Originally published on November 4, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Kristen Brady

One of the most commonly used methods to evaluate the performance and/or quality of service of a healthcare institution is Patient Satisfaction. Simply put, it is the power granted to patients to rate the quality of healthcare they received in a healthcare establishment based on various criteria. As this rating allows federal agencies to measure the general satisfaction level of patients that have received treatment or consultation from your hospital, it is a critical aspect of healthcare that must be maintained to a high standard at all costs.

The survey, named HCAHPS (Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) is a mandatory survey, required by the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) for all healthcare establishments in the United States. Questions asked in this survey range from the communication quality of doctors and staff to food quality provided to the patient.

Its importance stems from the fact that this survey offers an insight into the experience of patients with regards to the service they received at a hospital. Moreover, these results are published on the internet for the public, hence, bad scores will severely cripple the reputation of any healthcare institution. Furthermore, one of the most important reasons of Patient Satisfaction being one of the top concerns of any hospital is the fact that the federal government disburses funds to institutions based on their HCAHPS score, which is a rating ranging from 1-10.

There are 3 factors that affect this score, doctors, patients and the establishment itself:

First, Doctors are a crucial element of the patient experience, as the majority of their satisfaction is affected by the results of their treatments. Studies have shown that patients who received quick and efficient treatments to their issues, were happy with the hospital as a whole. Hence, doctors that focus on understanding and diagnosing a patient’s problem proficiently, increase the satisfactions of inpatients by a large margin.

Secondly, understanding what a patient expects from a hospital can go a long way in understanding and improving your Patient Satisfaction or HCAHPS score. Generally, patients appreciate – constant communication, courtesy, state-of-the-art facilities and cordiality.

Lastly, the establishment itself plays a role in affecting Patient Satisfaction. It is not unheard of, for a hospital with the best facilities, doctors and staff to have a low Patient Satisfaction score; it is a result of the fact that hospital policies and rules also affect the overall experience of your patients. Hospitals that are known to shunt patients from department to department, floor to floor, in order to complete simple tasks, will inevitably score low in these ratings.

Understanding how this rating works will help you identify the problem areas that need attention. Improving and fine-tuning these factors require extensive management and training, however, this effort will be well-rewarded with a significantly higher Patient Satisfaction rating that will boost your reputation, thereby increasing patient influx to your establishment. Additionally, it will help in securing higher disbursements from the federal government, which will strengthen the hospital’s financial situation further by a significant margin.

About the Author:

Kristen Brady is the founder and owner of Kaboom Social Media, your social media marketing and content specialists! Follow her on Twitter: @kb54927

Safety and Quality: Healthcare Leadership

Originally published on September 16, 2016 at www.lmshealthpro.com.

By Anita Haridat, Ph.D

Throughout most health care organizations, there is a strong desire to ensure that quality care is set into place with very high standards. For leaders, this is a significant concept because there is an ability to create a strong infrastructure even through a changing environment. Unfortunately, based on an AHRQ survey that was administered in 2010, very few hospital directors placed quality care as one of their priorities. Without the push for patient safety, there is a strong susceptibility that there can be an increase in accidents, adverse events, etc. It is beneficial for leaders to speak with employees so that each person is aware of the established guidelines that should be developed moving forward.

In many cases, people tend to use the word safety and quality in an interchangeable manner. Health care leaders should take the time to educate the employees on the key differences. For example, the concept of safety refers to an instance in which there is limited amount of harm. In turn, quality refers to an instance where there are effective processes that are set into place so that patients are treated and protected while they are undergoing care. Additionally, safety refers to the avoidance of negative events while quality refers to taking part of processes that are done with high standards.

When organizational leadership can prioritize both patient safety and quality care, there will be growing recognition for that specific facility. It is beneficial for health care managers and administrators to ensure that patients are being treated properly, but they should also address the needs of their employees as well. This is an important task towards improving safety and facilitating a monitoring process as time progresses. Overall, leadership can readily influence safety and quality care by setting specific goals within an organization. They should also create quarterly performance boards so that the entire process can be ingrained in the actions of health care providers. With applicable intervention, there is a strong chance that quality care standards can increase so that patients are kept safe.

About the Author:

A Ph.D Takes Your B.S to a Whole New Level: Survive Grad School with the Right Mentality