Three Ways to Improve Quality of Care & Patient Outcomes in a Hospital

Three Ways to Improve Quality of Care & Patient Outcomes in a Hospital.

Jon Willis

American Military University

Abstract

Many of the problems in delivering quality health care, and improving patient outcomes, today relate primarily to medical errors, variability in health service use and under/over/misuse of services (Crosson, 2002). CEO’s can improve quality by taking research based measures such as reducing readmissions, reducing hospital error and implementing best practices to prevent system errors. Readmissions account for nearly 20% of inpatient Medicare discharges and cost $17.4 billion annually. Nearly 1.7 million hospital infections occur annually and result in around 99,000 deaths. Methods such as CPOE, programs that address care practices to reduce readmissions and implementation of best practices have been shown to improve quality of care and moreover, improve patient outcomes. Many of the problems involved in changing behavior of providers lay in the culture of the facility, but engagement of physicians has been shown to be crucial in the success of any quality improvement program.

Introduction

Many of the problems in delivering quality health care, and improving patient outcomes, today relate primarily to medical errors, variability in health service use and under/over/misuse of services (Crosson, 2002). CEO’s can improve quality by taking measures such as reducing readmissions, reducing hospital error and implementing best practices to prevent system errors.

Reducing Readmissions

Readmissions estimates suggest that almost 20% of inpatient Medicare discharges from a are readmitted within 30 days, resulting in an estimated annual cost of unplanned readmissions of $17.4 billion (Boulding, Glickman, Manary, Schulman, Kand Staelin, 2011). Readmissions can have many sources. One of the primary sources is that the patient deteriorates after the primary admissions, and must be readmitted. This deterioration can be due to inadequate management or misunderstanding of how to manage an existing condition, or lack of access to appropriate services such as primary care for chronic disease management, or lack of access to medications (Silow-Carroll, Edwards, and Lashbrook, 2011).

Reducing readmissions reduces cost to the patient and the hospital, and more importantly means there is less disruption to the patient that occurs with an admission and helps improve patient outcomes. Ways to reduce readmissions are manifold & effective. Research indicates that patient education and follow up phone calls can reduce