PAPER FOR PRESENTATION TO BE BASED ON ATTATCHED-MSN CLASS Prepare a 10-20 slide presentation of the strategic plan you developed in Assessment 2, to be delivered to key stakeholders at a strategic vis
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Reducing Patient Falls Strategic Plan within the St. James Facility
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University
FPX 6210
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Reducing Patient Falls Strategic Plan within the St. James Facility
According to Ganz & Latham (2020), patient fall is a condition that causes patients to change their movement position, landing on the floor or ground. For chronically ill and elderly patients, falls may lead to higher healthcare costs due to additional complications, lengthened stay in the hospital, morbidity, and higher mortality risks. Patient falls are attributed to negligence and poor performance of the healthcare practitioners; therefore, they may lead to lawsuits, fines, and reduced healthcare insurance reimbursements.
When patients fall, the Medicare and Medicaid programs gradually reduce the funding to the facility due to intolerant policies about hospital-acquired diseases. Therefore healthcare facilities have to cater to the higher costs of injuries caused by falls leading to loss. Generally, falls causes harm to the patient and the facility involved, which is why appropriate measures should be implemented. Over the years, the patient fall reports have reduced gradually due to the proper implementation of Bedside shift reports and rounding per half hour.
For this paper, we will develop a strategic plan to address the patient falls at the St. James facility using the SWOT analysis program completed last week. During the process, we will understand the facility's goals, objectives, values, mission, and vision statement. There will be an alignment analysis between the strategic goals and applying healthcare stipulations, technology, cultural and ethical environments. There will be a discussion of SWOT analysis goals and leadership theories that can be used to apply the long-term and short-term goals. Lastly, there will be an analysis of leadership traits and qualities used to implement the strategic plan effectively.
The Strategic (Plan) Goals Statements and Outcomes
According to Cuevas-Trisan (2019), falls are a significant issue reported, thus increasing falls. However, in our facility, different programs have been adopted to reduce falls, including patient education, in-service training for practitioner reports generation, identification of fall risks for patients, and data collection; falls still occur in large numbers. For this strategic plan, we will understand why falls have increased and propose a five-year goal and short-term milestones to reduce falls at the St. James facility. Within our units, the fall rate is 3.12 per 1000 patient days. The short-term strategic plan will seek to reduce falls by 1.1 per 1000 patient days in the department. The fall rates will be assessed quarterly for more accurate results during project implementation.
Over the five years plan, the falls should have reduced to 1 fall per 1000 patient days; the patient falls per 1000 days is the most appropriate assessment method to provide accurate and precise numerical values about the phenomenon. During the assessment process, we will seek to improve the general practice by developing fall prevention programs and checking for the trajectory. During the quality measurement and implementation, one must assess a situation and make relevant improvements. Therefore, during the program's performance, we will count by tracking the falls.
At the St. James facility, a quality and patient safety committee meet typically every first Wednesday of the month. Therefore, during the meeting, the managers will be requested to nominate individuals to be anti-fall educators. The educator's role will be to train other practitioners on the importance of reducing falls through the proper use of equipment, charms, and bed alarms. The fall-risk patients will also be provided with yellow bands and socks. When new practitioners are hired at the facility, they will undergo a six month mentorship program followed by an evaluation to help them understand the reduction of falls process. Since our facility would like to comply with the HR and BSR regulations fully, yearly in-service training will ensure proper competencies in reducing falls.
The Values, Mission, and Mission Statements
The healthcare leadership should be strong, have visions, and adopt the proper culture to ensure healthcare practitioners perform their best. However, the standards selected by leaders should be based on the organization's values, mission, and vision. The mission at St. James facility is to ensure patients are provided with safe, reliable, and high-quality care. The facility should ensure the care provided is consistent with the patient's needs, interests, and satisfaction levels. The leaders should be determined to meet the patient's interests and alleviate the suffering for the mission to be attained.
The vision should inspire everyone in the facility to improve the care delivered. At St. James facility, the vision statement understands that patient care should be personalized and unique. Additionally, it encourages holistic care to focus on not just the treatment but also preventative care. A great culture forms the values of our facility, which means the inner traits of everyone. Our culture is related to good communication, feedback from the management, teamwork, and individual responsibility. (Morse, 2002). Our facility values the safety of patients, which is why the reduction of patient falls improves both the safety and quality of care delivered, thus leading to satisfaction.
The Ethical, Cultural, Technological, and Regulations Improvement
Over the years, nurses have understood relevant ethical issues determining how they should accomplish their roles in the healthcare facility. Ethics usually determine the nurse's actions not just to follow the law but also due to morality and to do the right thing. The ANA code of ethics ensures there is safety in the healthcare environment. While numerous technological advancements have been developed to reduce falls within the St. James facility. Hey include chair and med alarms, call bell options and technologically advanced beds for patients at fall risk.
The technology is used in assessing patients' falls after admission based on factors like age, illnesses, whether they fell previously, etc. However, falls have increased within the facility since alarms and sensors on the beds and chairs do not work as intended. Finally, numerous healthcare regulations and measures have been developed and implemented at the local and federal levels to prevent falls—an example is the reimbursement for Medicare and Medicaid patients. Additionally, facilities can be sued for negligence when falls lead to additional costs.
Goals Analysis
The SWOT analysis will be used in the evaluation of the strategic goals. St. James facility's strengths are ensuring high-quality care delivery to patients through in-service training and mentorship. Secondly is teamwork from the employees, communication, and dedication of the management to continuous improvement. The weaknesses are poor staff-to-patient ratio leading to overwhelming and burnout. Additionally, the technology needs to be appropriately implemented to meet the needs and interests of the patients. The opportunities are that we can tap the in-service training programs to improve the competencies and skills of our healthcare practitioners. (Kalisch et al. 2012). The facility can also hire more employees to improve the quality delivered and attention provided to every patient. Finally, the strategic plan's threats are the increased healthcare demand by elderly patients at risk of falling.
The Leadership and Healthcare Theory
Transformational leadership usually encourages leaders to inspire and motivate their employees toward achieving a specific goal. Therefore, transformational leadership will be needed to reduce the risk of influencing practitioners' thoughts, expectations, and perceptions toward the strategic plan. (Morse, 2008). However, the leader should be trustworthy, have an open communication policy, and be respected by employees to use the style effectively. Additionally, when making healthcare goals, employees' opinions will be more respected to ensure their loyalty and wiliness to reduce falls.
Transformational leadership should be used when expanding, improving, and promoting change to the current process to a fall-free policy in the organization. The administration should also understand the facility's gaps and room for improvement to encourage required care. However, if communication fails in the process, then transformation leadership will become unsuccessful, leading to a loss of interest in the process. Finally, there should be continuous feedback and conflict resolution programs to ensure the interests of the leaders are aligned with employees.
The Leadership Qualities and Skills
For the healthcare quality and safety strategies to be effectively achieved, Transformational leadership ensures relevant improvements are made. Therefore, the actions by the leadership should be oriented towards improving communication, teamwork, motivation, and inspiration to the employees. The traits should also meet the facility's long and short-term objectives. At St James facility, the successful reduction of falls shall be fostered through healthcare attendant's education, leadership loyalty to the plan, and stakeholder's willingness.
Transformational leaders should be good communicators to share their plans and vision with the other employees. They should also guide others through open communication forums and listen to employees' issues relating to the delivered plans. Additionally, the leader should be courageous enough to cover the challenges and make hard decisions. Courage is also used when taking risks and making changes others have ignored over the years. Finally, the leader should inspire others to make positive changes, thus achieving the needed goals.
Conclusion
The goal of St James facility is to ensure safe, quality, and adequate care is provided to the patients. Over the years, the facility has developed numerous measures to reduce falls, especially for older adults, through chair and bed alarms and sensors. However, they often fail, leading to patient risk. For our plan, we seek to provide healthcare practitioners with in-service training and mentorship to eliminate falls gradually. The leaders will also effectively provide communication, inspiration, and motivation for the staff to achieve the required goals.
References
Cuevas-Trisan, R. (2019). Balance problems and fall risks in the elderly. Clinics in geriatric medicine, 35(2), 173-183. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ramon-Cuevas-Trisan/publication/320370778_Balance_Problems_and_Fall_Risks_in_the_Elderly/links/59e0274e45851537160161ea/Balance-Problems-and-Fall-Risks-in-the-Elderly.pdf
Ganz, D. A., & Latham, N. K. (2020). Prevention of falls in community-dwelling older adults. New England journal of medicine, 382(8), 734-743. https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcp1903252
Kalisch, B. J., Tschannen, D., & Lee, K. H. (2012). Missed nursing care, staffing, and patient fall. Journal of nursing care quality, 27(1), 6-12. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Beatrice-Kalisch/publication/51475833_Missed_Nursing_Care_Staffing_and_Patient_Falls/links/5a63aefd4585158bca4ea39a/Missed-Nursing-Care-Staffing-and-Patient-Falls.pdf
Morse, J. M. (2002). Enhancing the safety of hospitalization by reducing patient falls. American journal of infection control, 30(6), 376-380. https://www.academia.edu/download/78227054/b4f3ddd4b10f51561b67ea9b509a972f5971.pdf
Morse, J. M. (2008). Preventing patient falls. Springer Publishing Company. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=7InDZGawm3gC&oi=fnd&pg=PR7&dq=patient+falls&ots=OpIzeiPizg&sig=ceTk_29OM5-YvLW4GzhYGck5lvQ
