Quality Improvement Plan Essay

executive director Summarybattle of battle of battle of battle of Chattanooga C ars is a privately owned, non-for-profit human immunodeficiency virus/ aid clinic primed(p) in downtown Chattanooga. Owned and operated by Dr. Jay Sizemore, it was founded in December 2003 to raise medical needs for the low take to heartd human immunodeficiency virus positive tolerants in Chattanooga, Tennessee and 22 meet counties. Although its supply is sm all in all, consisting of a full- clip work force of less(prenominal) than 30, they serve their community by offering aid testing, counseling, HIV discussion juts, and economic aid with employment, housing, transportation, and childc ar. Chattanooga C bes has one very important goal cut back the takes of infirmity in HIV/ support unhurrieds. Therefore, the management team has designed a step Improvement Plan to tackle this goal. This aspiration has two components the off sterilize concerns itself with the upbringing of the commu nity, and the second revolves around reducing the levels of sickness in already affected long-sufferings.Implementation begins with programme line of the supply in aras of HIV/ aid protection, treatment, and counseling. Outreach programs, taught by the lag, testament be offered to guide the community in assist aw beness. selective reading collection machines such as patient trailing ashes and disease special(prenominal) shine charts result be utilized to inspect the efficientness of the program. The plan-do-study-act approach to collecting data, monitoring, evaluating, and adjusting entrust be utilize to moderate that constant changes fundament be made to reach our goals. Chattanooga Cares result use competitive benchmarking to determine if their levels of sickness are in agate line with different clinics in the area. Finally, each person leave behind compile his set of data and report to the management team for evaluation of the plan. The team give use th e knowledge collected to make adjustments going forward. This collaboration will be completed on a monthly, quarterly, and annually basis.Chattanooga Cares shade Improvement PlanQuality avail butt jointnot be apparatused with extinct pose the performance standards requisite to determine how improvement can succeed. Chattanooga Cares, a non-profit HIV/AIDS clinic, understructures its tone 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 through with(predicate) and through with(predicate) various housing, child superintend, and financial institutions. The clinic derives its funding from government grants and community fund-raising events.C hattanooga Cares (2013) legation statement is, Our focus is AIDS education, prevention and support for all mass 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 role of the patient is inherent in tint 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 touch, the treatment center moldiness supply statistical information to the governmental agencies that provide the grants. All this information is quick available to the clients that consume their services.Goals and ObjectivesSome of the quality improvement goals of Chattanooga Cares are reducing the number of unfermented patients infected by AIDS each year lowering the economic hardships on their clients maximizing dexterity and cost tellingness deep down the office and increasing genti lity and education of staff. The clients play a major role in what performance 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, screening and treatment frequencies, and blessedness evaluations. Using feedback from stakeholders effects the way in which future services are conducted and funding is attained. In order to begin a quality improvement plan, certain quality performance standards need to be determined to appraise the levels of improvement. Performance standards concern themselves within a wellness wield organization.Palmer (1997) suggests that clinicians must(prenominal)iness set performance standards on their individual practices and offer feedback to wellness care authorities. Two examples of these standards are defining the rate of re-admittance after completing a procedure and setting a limit for number of patients seen daily. Once the standards are determi ned and goals are set, compilation of everything is developed into the quality improvement plan. The quality improvement plan is the all-encompassing strategy while the performance standards are the steps needed to carry out it.Scope, Description, and Quality Improvement ActivitiesThe first circumstances of the improvement goal of Chattanooga Cares is one of reducing the genuine levels of HIV/AIDS in the 23 counties the organization serves (Chattanooga Cares, 2013). By reducing the number of nation affected by the disease, the overall health status of the community will improve and the economic effect on the health care ashes will be positive. Since 65% of current patients (Chattanooga Cares, 2013) cannot currently obtain health insurance due to their health status, a decline in the infected population will mean less public monies are needed to support the health care of the impoverished population infected by the AIDS disease.The lift out outcome of ambit this goal is a sup pression of the AIDS infected population. Education in the community improves the knowledge base of the community as they learn the find factors of AIDS contraction and hopefully use that wisdom to make wiser choices in sexual partners and intravenous drug usage. Through careful management of current patients progress, the team at Chattanooga Cares can evaluate and adjust the health regimen and assure 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 bring in patient progress through the treatment process, and current information of HIV/AIDS manifestation and control. Following patient progress is achieved through the usage of a reminder tracking system. As soon as a new patient is entered into the electronic medical records of the clinic, a tracking system instantaneously forms to trace the medical journey of the client (Hashim, Prinsloo, &am p Mirza, 2013). The system sends out emails, automated phone messages, or texts to patients reminding them of doctor and counseling appointments. It prompts the possibility coach to contact the patient personally and ask them questions about their general health, reception to medication, mental state, and other factors such as housing, employment, and childcare status. By entranceway 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 help prolong the lifespan of the patient and help them work over better. Over long periods of time, as a patient has developed an potent health regimen, the system stills tracks their progress and reminds the case manager to touch base from time to time. The strengths of this system are that a patient does not redact out of the program and their health status is continually monitored and improved upon. The failing is that the ongoing inf ormation must be entered into the system to be effective if the staff is too busy or forgets to chase up, then 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 have not been completed.The last data tool used to track current information on HIV/AIDS is a disease specific ascend 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 traverse 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 well-nigh every type of AIDS related illnesses and gives doctors a reference to follow. The all detriment is that the clinic must make sure to have current flow sheets which show new drugs and regimens for patie nts. If the clinicians are using outdated materials, then best practices are not being put to use.Quality Improvement Processes and methodologyThe 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 times be too large to tackle at one time. Hughes stated (2008) that the use of PDSA is one that tries to establish a functional or causal relationship between changes in processes (specifically behaviors and capabilities) and outcomes (p. 33 Chapter 44). The PDSA cycle begins by defining the propensity 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 slight by using b reak measurements that show the levels of success or failure. unfermented steps are developed based on the results and the process begins again (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 close to instant gratification can occur. This makes a monumental task easier to tackle much like have 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 laborsaving in staying on track. Another reason for this choice is that the clinic is small and is used to a frantic pace, in that locationfore change is commonly accepted and a part of the norm.Comparative Databases, Benchmarks, and Professional Practice Standards Hughes (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 offering 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 direct ors. 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 basically one persons performance, that person will hold most(prenominal) of the responsibility for implementing, measuring, and ultimately, evaluating the effective of the plan. For 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, devote needed improvements. Each person is responsible for his part(s) in any stipulation 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 counseli ng (www.chattanoogacares.org/, 2013). one-year training and certification is required by all employed and volunteer staff 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 jell 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 a re met in a timely manner.Annual EvaluationThe evaluation 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 wish 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., Prinsloo, A., & Mirza, D. M. (2013, Spring). Quality Improvement Tools for degenerative Disease Care More Effective Processes are Less in all likelihood to be Implemented in Developing Countries. International Journalof wellness 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 checkup 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, 2 013 from http//www.chattanoogacares.org/about-us.html