Process Tools Application Nursing Essay
Introduction
In whatever organization, including hospitals, processes are used often to perform organizational functions, business functions or many other functions that align with both the short and long term organizational objectives. In a hospital environment, various processes are applied to various functions right from the time a patient is received at the hospital up to the time care and treatment is extended to the patient before finally discharging the patient. In all these processes, it is important that they flow efficiently. This is because inefficient processes lead to stressed patients and hospital staff, increased operational costs and degradation in the quality of service all culminating in high levels of patients’ dissatisfaction (Stempinak, 2013). This paper discusses how the process of admitting a new patient at the hospital. Specifically, it analyses the inefficiencies associated with this process and suggest various solutions to improve the efficiency of this process. These are detailed through sections 1 to 6 of the Process Tools Application Nursing Essay.
Process Tools Application Nursing Essay Section 1
The process that the group has chosen to improve is the inpatient admission process at the hospital. This process begins with the arrival of the patient at the admission desk and follows right through to the time the patient is assigned a bed and commences the appropriate treatment. The problems with this process major around unnecessary lengthy wait times. The long delays that patients and staff have to endure throughout the process impacts negatively on the motivation of the staff and consequently how the patients are treated. This has therefore led to patient dissatisfaction (Vogelsmeler & Despins, 2016).
Process Tools Application Nursing Essay Section 2
To make this process more efficient, a team consisting of the following members shall be used:
Admitting physicians:
These are the health practitioners who determine whether patients are to be admitted. They are responsible for issuing admission orders and instructions as they relate to the patient’s health condition. Information coming from the admitting physicians is very crucial in kicking off the entire process.
Admission coordinator and admission clerks;
these are the hospital staff that deal with most of the paperwork and documentation that are needed to correctly admit a patient at the hospital in line with the regulatory guidelines of the hospital. They handle the patient’s needed information and handle the patients directly.
Nurses;
these comprise of both the registered nurses and the licensed practical nurses. These professional are crucial in providing critical care and initial treatments that the patient needs upon being admitted at the hospital.
Other specialized staff
; these group will entail various specially trained staff in Information Technology and Engineering who shall be critical in providing technical solutions that will greatly automate the process, making it more efficient.
Process Tools Application Nursing Essay Section 3
The entire process kicks off when the admitting doctor considers it wise that the patient receives specialized treatment in a hospital setting for at least one day. The patient therefore with the physician’s notice, approaches the admission reception. The admission clerks then receive the patient and begin the process of obtaining necessary personal information, mostly contact and insurance details, from the patient. Here, the patient, or his representative, is essentially required to fill out forms. Other forms that are required are consent forms that also contain advance directives. These directives instruct who the patients would want to make medical decisions on their behalf if they are incapacitated to do so. After these, the admission clerks record this information and begin the process of allocating a room to the patient. To so this, information from the admitting physician is required so that depending on the health condition and acuity of the patient, an appropriate room is allocated. Once this is complete, the patient is taken to the room allocated and the nurses immediately attend to the patient accordingly.
Process Tools Application Nursing Essay Section 4:
Long delays have been associated with the process thereby leading to patients and staff dissatisfaction. A lot of redundant forms have to be filled and the information verified too. This consumes a lot of time as the patients have to wait for this to be carried out in the public lobby which is especially frustrating to the sick and often tired patients. This is also frustrating to the admission clerks who have to make follow-up calls to the admitting physician’s office. This is because not all the needed information may be provided in the admission notice from the admitting physician. Therefore, to ascertain the acuity of the patient so as to allocate the appropriate room, an admission clerk has to make a call to the admitting physician’s office. These calls are at times received by personnel in the admitting physician’s office who may not have all the detailed information needed at the time. Waiting for the right information may be tiring to the admission clerks and coordinators.
In addition, the patient is required to fill the admission forms at the admission desk which may be cumbersome to the ill patient. If the patient’s representative is involved, he may be forced to abandon the needy patient as he goes on with admission process. This may be disconcerting and dissatisfying to the patients.
Section 5
In overall, the process is inefficient in its function due to the long admit-times and the redundant information involved. This is because the process is largely manual and cumbersome as most data collection and documentation is done manually. In addition, the process is not patient-centric as it ought to be. This is because the patient is required to undergo the sometimes lengthy process while still in the public lobby further stressing out the patient. And if the patient’s representative is involved, the patient is deprived of attention and care while in the public lobby as his representative carries on with the process. Also having to verify information manually is stressful to the admission clerks involved because of the communication breakdowns.
To fix the problems associated with the process, the following has to be done:
First, the hospital’s senior management needs to understand the need for a solution to the problem. The aim is to reduce by at least 40%, the admit-time of a patient and improve overall patient satisfaction with the process which will enhance the corporate image of the hospital. Because of the nature of the problem and the resources that will be needed to solve the problem, managerial support will be essential in making the overhaul successful(Stempinak, 2013).
In consultation with the IT department, a new system has to be put in place to automate the process. A new online process will have to be thought out that will eliminate all the redundant information besides having all the information required to pre-register a patient, assign a patient and inform other staff that a patient will be admitted. This will make it convenient for the patients and staff (Vogelsmeler & Despins, 2016).
If need be, training and education of the new system shall have to be provided to the staff. This shall make the staff understand what happens to the patient once they arrive at the hospital, and the time they may have to wait if the patients have not all the needed information. This will enhance the motivation and collaboration of the staff, improve the quality of data collected thereby fastening the process by doing away with follow-up calls on missing information besides boosting patient confidence with the process (Stempinak, 2013).
The process also needs to be more patient-centric by improving the steps involved after the arrival of the patient. A mobile or bed-side registration should be enhanced to avoid the patients having to wait at the public lobby during registration. A mobile registration cart could be engineered by the engineering team and that will enable the patient to be taken right to his assigned bed just upon arriving at the hospital while at the same time allowing a computer and other things needed to register a patient, to be carried along with the admission clerks. This will allow registration to be completed just at the bedside of the new patient as he receives urgent care and initial treatment from the nurses. This will improve the patient’s experience with the admission process thereby enhancing patient satisfaction (Perry, 1998).
Process Tools Application Nursing Essay Annotated References
Perry, G. (1998).
Clinical Nursing Skills and Techniques
. Mosby.
This book is important in outlining the important roles nurses play in health centers. Specifically, it emphasizes the need to extend care to the patients right from the time they are being registered at the hospital. It also brings out the importance of nurses as being the images of the hospital. The way they interact with the patients from the beginning will shape the perceptions of the patients and ultimately impact patients’ satisfaction.
Stempniak, M. (2013). The push is on to eliminate hospital wait times.
Hospital and Health Networks, 13
(8), pp.34-43.
This journal article explains the need to reduce hospital wait times. It points out that eliminating redundant information is one measure to reduce unnecessarily lengthy hospital wait times. Besides, it describes the negative relationship between lengthy hospital wait times and patients satisfaction scores. Process Tools Application Nursing Essay.
Vogelsmeler, A., & Despins, L. (2016). A room without orders.
Patient Safety Network, 6
(4), pp.13-17.
This journal article describes the need to make patent’s admission processes less bureaucratic. It also explains the need to make the admission process more patient-centric and the importance of enhancing patient satisfaction.