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Quality Improvement
St. Thomas University
NUR 419: Nursing Leadership
Professor Roseann Fibbio
July 25th, 2021
Improvement of the quality of healthcare is an essential aspect of any society. Professionals in the healthcare department often do various quality improvement projects, but they are not done to the required levels of the demands in the healthcare sector. The research below introduces work that incorporates all quality improvement work by deriving the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) matrix, involving all stakeholders 9clinical professionals) to help assist in the improvement of clinical variation to improve the performance of the healthcare sector. Clinical interpretation refers to the application of different methods of healthcare services to patients that are different from the known arrangements. This could either be underuse of healthcare services, further use of these services, or overuse that leads to different results. Clinical variation has been evident in a wide range of chronic specialties and acute cases in many hospital cases. It has been noted in almost every area in the healthcare sector where it has been looked for.
SWOT analysis has been applied to address clinical variation as well as the strategic planning processes. This technique (SWOT) makes it possible for healthcare professionals to have full knowledge of the analysis and thereby get fully involved in implementing healthcare improvement. SWOT-analysis helps clinical professionals build on their capabilities, address their weaknesses, and minimize risks while taking full advantage of opportunities to succeed in the healthcare sector.
Strengths of clinical variation
Being observant of clinical variation in the medical profession is an excellent move to keep an eye on the efficiency and effectiveness in the delivery of care. Such information is crucial in the examination of how policy decisions relate to clinical findings. Clinical variation in the delivery of care in the health sector unleashes opportunities that minimize cost and add the value of the care delivered without affecting the consideration for the patients. Variation in clinical care is essential for comparing different healthcare spending in different paths, which gives policymakers the chance to determine the reason for disparities in healthcare spending in other parts of the country. The use of an evidence-based approach to decision-making in the clinical sector helps hospitals minimize inappropriate variation in the industry.
Weaknesses of clinical variation
The variation that does not provide value to patients is unwanted. Unwanted clinical interpretation has an impact on both the clinical and financial aspects of the healthcare system. Assessment done on different healthcare facilities proves that negative clinical variation hurts the execution of outcome improvement, the competency level at the organization level, facility, and departmental levels (Di Giulio, Finetti, Giunco, Basso, Rosa, Pettenati & Toscani, (2019). The effects of clinical variables were evident in the following parameters within the departmental level; analytics, financial alignment, leadership, governance, and adoption. Several healthcare facilities were seen to trail behind the benchmark set for organizational competency in all these parameters. Clinical variation increases variable costs due to poor decisions in the management. It also increases the length of stay of patients in the medical facilities. Clinical interpretation hinders efforts by healthcare facilities to improve sustainable outcomes, such as capabilities to get credible data. It slows improved competency in adoption, affecting development because the necessary tools may not have been put to proper practice. Clinical variation hinders the need to concentrate on improving the clinical aspect of a healthcare organization, therefore, sabotaging efforts to attain best practice.
Opportunities of clinical variation
Variation can be good if it reflects services in health that can assist in catering for the different preferences of patients to how their needs can be approached. One area where policymakers in the healthcare sector can use as an opportunity is abandoning current healthcare technology and avoiding investing in inefficiently used healthcare technology. They can do this by identifying the existing technologies in the health sector that increase the cost of operation. Experts should focus on investment in technologies to assess variation in the genome while understanding the effects of variance in the genome on health and diseases. They should introduce genomic medicine or the use of genomic information of a person as part of the clinical care (Popejoy, Vogelsmeier, Galambos, Flesner, Alexander, Lueckenotte, & Rantz, (2017). This may hint at genetically inherited conditions, thereby being in apposition to assess the risk of diseases and improve the safety of drugs and efficiency. An improvement of the competency in best practice is also an opportunity for clinical variation. Healthcare experts should concentrate on the progress of the clinical department to attain best practices to concur clinical interpretation. Clinical professionals can use the opportunity for analysis of organizational priority. They can analyze areas where they can counter variation and improve outcomes most efficiently. This can be done by selecting projects depending on how beneficial they are and how fast they can be executed.
Threats in clinical variation
Clinical variation causes a disparity in the healthcare processes between different healthcare levels. It is not wanted if it does not help patient preferences of how their needs can be sorted; therefore, it can be costly.
In conclusion, evaluative health should be given etiquette to improve the health outcomes for populations. This will reduce high costs in referral hospitals, thereby enabling society to access treatment easily. An appropriate variation can be good for parity in the quest for services among different classes of individuals. A comparative study should be put in place to note different patterns of practice in the healthcare sector and do rectifications where necessary.
References
Di Giulio, P., Finetti, S., Giunco, F., Basso, I., Rosa, D., Pettenati, F., … & Toscani, F. (2019). The impact of nursing homes staff education on end-of-life care in residents with advanced dementia: a quality improvement study. Journal of Pain and symptom management, 57(1), 93-99.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0885392418307759
Popejoy, L., Vogelsmeier, A., Galambos, C., Flesner, M., Alexander, G., Lueckenotte, A., … & Rantz, M. (2017). The APRN role in changing nursing home quality: the Missouri quality improvement initiative. Journal of nursing care quality, 32(3), 196-201.
https://journals.lww.com/jncqjournal/fulltext/2017/07000/the_aprn_role_in_changing_nursing_home_quality_.3.aspx
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