Quality Improvement Plan Essay

Executive Summarybattle of Chattanooga C argons is a privately owned, non-for-profit human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immune deficiency syndrome clinic located in downtown Chattanooga. Owned and operated by Dr. Jay Sizemore, it was founded in December 2003 to fork out medical needs for the on a lower floorserved human immunodeficiency virus positive perseverings in Chattanooga, Tennessee and 22 surrounding counties. Although its faculty is sm every, consisting of a full- date work payoff of less than 30, they serve their union by claiming AIDS testing, counseling, HIV sermon curriculums, and assistance with employment, housing, transportation, and childc ar. Chattanooga C ares has one very important determination cut the levels of complaint in HIV/ AIDS affected roles. Therefore, the management team has designed a Quality value Plan to tackle this goal. This inclination has two components the first concerns itself with the knowledge of the lodge, and the sec ond revolves nearly reducing the levels of sickness in already affected patients.Implementation begins with education of the lag in areas of HIV/AIDS protection, discourse, and counseling. Out orbital cavity programs, taught by the round, pull up stakes be offered to guide the community in AIDS awareness. Data collection musical instruments such as patient bring in formation and ailment particular hunt charts give be utilized to scrutinize the efficientness of the program. The invent-do-study-act approach to collecting info, monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting pull up stakes be utilize to ensure that constant changes rouse be made to reach our goals. Chattanooga alimonys leave behind use competitive benchmarking to determine if their levels of sickness are in line with opposite clinics in the area. Finally, each person provide compile his set of data and report to the management team for military rank of the plan. The team will use the info collected to ma ke adjustments exhalation forward. This collaboration will be completed on a monthly, quarterly, and annually basis.Chattanooga Cares Quality Improvement PlanQuality progression quarternot be follow throughed without setting the performance standards needed to determine how improvement cornerstone succeed. Chattanooga Cares, a non-profit HIV/AIDS clinic, bases its caliber improvement plan around the consumers of their services. Chattanooga Cares is a privately-owned AIDS and sexually transmitted disease clinic in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee. It consists of a small staff of medical personnel, counselors, administrative staff, and volunteers. The staff offers HIV/AIDS testing, medical treatment plans, counseling, life coaching, and economic assistance with various housing, child fretfulness, and financial institutions. The clinic derives its funding from government grants and community fund-raising events.Chattanooga Cares (2013) mission statement is, Our focus is AIDS e ducation, prevention and substantiate for all quite a little affected by HIV (About Us). Since the patient, and the patients network of friends and family, are the central elements in Chattanooga Cares mission statement, the habit of the patient is integral in flavor improvement plans. There are few goals that do not involve the client. Although the clinic is privately-owned, it proudly displays its goals to the public. Because of its grant status, the treatment center must supply statistical information to the governmental agencies that provide the grants. All this information is readily available to the clients that consume their services.Goals and ObjectivesSome of the note improvement goals of Chattanooga Cares are reducing the sum of new patients give by AIDS each year lowering the economic hardships on their clients maximizing efficiency and cost effectiveness within the bureau and increase prepare and education of staff. The clients play a major role in what perfo rmance standards are chosen. A few of the quality indicators that consumers use in regard to Chattanooga Cares are wellness outcomes and length of survival rates, blanket and treatment frequencies, and satisfaction evaluations. development feedback from stakeholders effects the way in which futurity services are conducted and funding is attained. In order to begin a quality improvement plan, certain quality performance standards need to be determined to measure the levels of improvement. Performance standards concern themselves within a health care organization.Palmer (1997) suggests that clinicians must set performancestandards on their individual practices and offer feedback to health care authorities. Two examples of these standards are defining the rate of re-admittance afterward completing a procedure and setting a limit for number of patients seen daily. Once the standards are determined and goals are set, compilation of everything is develop into the quality improvemen t plan. The quality improvement plan is the all-encompassing strategy term the performance standards are the steps needed to attain it.Scope, Description, and Quality Improvement ActivitiesThe first part of the improvement goal of Chattanooga Cares is one of reducing the circulating(prenominal) levels of HIV/AIDS in the 23 counties the organization serves (Chattanooga Cares, 2013). By reducing the number of people affected by the disease, the boilersuit health status of the community will improve and the economic effect on the health care formation will be positive. Since 65% of current patients (Chattanooga Cares, 2013) cannot currently obtain health insurance collectable to their health status, a decline in the infected population will mean less public monies are needed to support the health care of the indigent population infected by the AIDS disease.The top hat outcome of reaching this goal is a suppression of the AIDS infected population. Education in the community improv es the knowledge base of the community as they learn the risk factors of AIDS contraction and hopefully use that comprehension to make wiser choices in sexual partners and intravenous drug usage. Through careful management of current patients progress, the team at Chattanooga Cares can try and adjust the health regimen and promise that proper techniques and medication are being used.Data Collection ToolsThe main goal of Chattanooga Cares revolves around reducing the level of sickness in patients. The data needed are track patient progress by means of the treatment process, and current information of HIV/AIDS manifestation and control. Following patient progress is achieved done the usage of a reminder bring in system. As soon as a new patient is entered into the electronic medical records of the clinic, a tracking system immediately forms to trace the medical journey of the client (Hashim, Prinsloo, & Mirza, 2013). The system sends out emails, automated phone messages, ortex ts to patients reminding them of doctor and counseling appointments. It prompts the fact manager to contact the patient personally and ask them questions about their customary health, response to medication, mental state, and different factors such as housing, employment, and childcare status. By entering information into the tracking system, adjustments can be made to assure that the patient does not degrade in physical and mental health status.This tool can supporter prolong the lifespan of the patient and help them get better. Over long periods of time, as a patient has developed an effective health regimen, the system stills tracks their progress and reminds the skid manager to colour base from time to time. The strengths of this system are that a patient does not drop out of the program and their health status is continually monitored and ameliorate upon. The weakness is that the ongoing information must be entered into the system to be effective if the staff is too busy or forgets to keep abreast up, past the health of the patient may be compromised. The measurement and display of this tool could be shown through weekly reports which show the number of patients whose contact reminders discombobulate not been completed.The last data tool used to track current information on HIV/AIDS is a disease specialised flow sheet (Hashim, Prinsloo, & Mirza, 2013). This chart contains information on the steps needed to test and treat people affected by HIV/AIDS. It allows clinicians to follow a prescribed cut through of medication and counseling for patients and permits changes in the course of health management. The benefits of using this flow chart is that treatment is spelled out for to the highest degree every type of AIDS related illnesses and gives doctors a reference to follow. The notwithstanding detriment is that the clinic must make sure to have current flow sheets which show new drugs and regimens for patients. If the clinicians are using out dated materials, then trump practices are not being put to use.Quality Improvement Processes and methodological analysisThe plan-do-study-act (PDSA) approach to quality improvements is one of small cyclical changes between processes and outcomes. It focuses on making little changes instead of large, broad strokes that can some measure be too large to tackle at one time. Hughes stated (2008) that the part of PDSA is one that tries to establish a functional or causal kin between changes in processes (specifically behaviors and capabilities) andoutcomes (p. 33 Chapter 44). The PDSA cycle begins by defining the electric pig and extent of the issue, what modifications can and should be made, a strategy for a specific change, who should be participating, what should be gauged to comprehend the effect of change, and where the stratagem will be directed. Change is executed and data and materials are collected.The results are studied and clarified by using linchpin measurements that sh ow the levels of success or failure. tonic steps are developed based on the results and the process begins once more (Hughes, 2008). This approach to quality improvement is positive in that allows extensive problems to be disentangled at a rate not overwhelming to those involved. Because PDSA is readily achievable and results are easy to decipher, al about instant gratification can occur. This makes a monumental task easier to tackle much like alimentation the proverbial elephant one bite at a time. The drawbacks to this approach are that it is reactive and relies on people to accept constant change in their facility that can result in change fatigue (Hughes, 2008).To achieve the QI goal, the clinic must review continually the data retrieved from the tracking system of patients progress through the treatment process. Therefore, the methodology chosen for Chattanooga Cares QI plan is PDSA. Because this system focuses on small, continual changes, it will be ministrant in staying on track. Another reason for this choice is that the clinic is small and is used to a frantic pace, thitherfore change is commonly accepted and a part of the norm.Comparative Databases, Benchmarks, and Professional Practice StandardsHughes (2008) describes benchmarks in health care as the continual and collaborative discipline of measuring and comparing the results of key work processes with those of the best performers in evaluating organizational performance (p. 38, Chapter 44). Competitive benchmarking can be used to compare Chattanooga Cares levels of sickness to other organizations go the same services (Kay, 2007). By using reports from other HIV/AIDS clinics, Chattanooga Cares can compare their levels of sickness to the patients serviced by other treatment centers.Authority, Structure, and OrganizationThe authority structure of Chattanooga Cares is straightforward and simple. Because it is privately owned, there is no board of directors. Instead, Dr. Jay Sizemore, the physician who owns and runs the clinic is the head of the organization (www.chattanoogacares.org/, 2013). Five other positions comprised of a registered nurse, a medical assistant, an LPN, a patient health coordinator, and an office manager, finish out the authoritative staff at the clinic. Although the doctor leads the team, the other five mentioned have equal standing in decision-making and quality improvement implementation. QI issues are discussed within the confines of these six people and all decisions are handed down from them. Each holds their own position within the organization, however, out of necessity, all of them work interchangeably within other peoples job duties.CommunicationBecause of the intimate nature of Chattanooga Cares, quality plans are shared among all the staff. If a particular strategy involves fundamentally one persons performance, that person will hold most of the responsibility for implementing, measuring, and ultimately, evaluating the effective of the plan. F or instance, one goal is to improve the levels of sickness in the HIV/AIDS patients the clinic serves (www.chattanoogacares.org/, 2013). A tool for implementing and measuring this is a patient tracking system that follows a patients progress through the system.The person responsible for this quality improvement device would be the case manager for that patient. This person would monitor the tracking system, collect data through reports, assemble data for team review, evaluate the effectiveness of the QI plan, and ultimately, chip in needed improvements. Each person is responsible for his part(s) in any attached QI plan as well as gathering data and reporting such data to the team.EducationAll medical staff must be board certified and all case managers must have a background in social work and be at a minimum a licensed LPN. All education and prevention staff must be state certified in HIV/AIDS testing and prevention counseling (www.chattanoogacares.org/, 2013). yearly training and certification is required by all employed and volunteerstaff to meet conditions of state and federal grant programs. To implement the patient tracking system quality improvement plan, each person working with patients will be included in the introductory training of the software program and be introduced to the goals of the QI plan.This will be communicated by the person overseeing the process, most likely the case manager. Because staffing at the clinic is minimal, this training can take business office efficiently, with little loss of productive medical time with patients. The process will be covered from the initial contact with a patient and will continue as long as the patient wished to be under the clinics health care plan. Therefore, it is ultimately the responsibility of the entire staff and not just the case manager, to ensure that current information is uploaded to the tracking system, and that prompts by the system are met in a timely manner.Annual EvaluationThe evaluat ion of the QI plan for improving sickness levels in patients is done on monthly, quarterly, and annually bases. Because continual evaluation is needed for the plan to succeed, data must be collected before it becomes overwhelming in numbers. If this plan was left entirely to an annual evaluation, it would take weeks, if not months, to assemble, evaluate, and implement changes. The factors gauged are made of up several items reports showing the follow-up times of patients, data indicating how many patients did not receive required contact during the time period, and the time frames of between the system prompts and response intervals.When complied, this data shows the breakdown in interaction and allows the team to make changes to ensure that patients do not wishing in communication between themselves and the clinic. Monitoring the data on a weekly, if not daily basis, allows the QI plan to be more effective by making changes using the PDSA approach.ReferencesHashim, M. J., Prinslo o, A., & Mirza, D. M. (2013, Spring). Quality Improvement Tools for Chronic malady Care More Effective Processes are Less Likely to be Implemented in Developing Countries. International Journalof Health Care Quality Assurance, 26(1), 14-19. DOI10.1108/09526861311288604Hughes, R. G. (2008). Patient Safety and Quality An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. Rockville, MD Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Retrieved from http//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2682/Kay, J. F. (2007, February). Health Care Benchmarking. The Hong Kong Medical Diary, 12(2), 22-7. Retrieved from http//www.fmshk.org/database/articles/06mbdrflkay.pdf Palmer, H. R. (1997, October). Using Clinical Performance Measures to Drive Quality Improvement. Total Quality Management, 8(5), 305-11. Retrieved from http//search.proquest.com.ezproxy.apollolibrary.com/docview/219816031 www.chattanoogacares.com (2013). Retrieved on September 3, 2013 from http//www.chattanoogacares.org/about-us.html