Data analysis 

The data presented from Villa’s Health dashboard incorporates metrics related to monthly adverse events for the years 2014 and 2015 in the hospice unit. From a critical analysis of the data, it’s evident that all the metrics presented indicated near-miss situation. Besides, it’s evident that there are some instances that culminated into patient harm or exacerbations. The data presented incorporates four areas including length of stay less than seven days, IPU admission, pain level 7-10 more than 24 hours and inadequate symptom relief more than 24 hours. These areas of focus are also included in all periods under analysis. From the comparison of dashboard with the national benchmark metrics, it’s evident that the health entity fails to offer quality care to their patients in the areas of interest. This leads to poor overall outcomes and therefore, needs for improvements.

From the foregoing analysis, its critical to seek ways of improving these areas through data monitoring as it leads to reduced quality of care in the long run. Also, it is prudential to ensure that patient safety is improved through quality improvement. Delivery of quality care affects the sustainability of healthcare entity in different aspects (Yang & Gao, 2018). This aspect affects the perception of the public concerning the entity. For example, patients will keep away from a healthcare entity that has been implicated for patient’s fatalities or poor health services. In a similar manner, stakeholders will be attracted by an entity that is performing better through improved quality services (Borgonovi et al., 2018). Stakeholders would also be more concerned if there are increasing numbers of adverse events. This implies an inherent deficit in quality of care delivered and therefore, needs for more improvement. From the assessment of the dashboard, it’s evident that there were 50 patients with a length of stay less than seven days in the first year and 46 patients in the subsequent year. The number of patients receiving inpatient unit admission was 47 in 2014 and 27 in 2015. The number of patients in 2014 with pain level 7-10 more than 24 hours was 13 and 17 in the subsequent year. The last parameter was related to inadequate symptom relief more than 24 hours. In 2014, there were 13 patients while in 2015 there were 22 patients. 

The data presented can be analyzed systematically to determine the quality improvement needs. For the first metric, the length of stay is a critical parameter in determining overall patient recovery and quality care. According to Allsop et al., (2018), duration of a patient under hospice care determine their overall quality of care. For example, an increase in length of stay in hospice care implies that a patient will receive high quality patient centered care. Kumar et al., (2017) note that a length of stay (LOS) of 8-23 days was adequate to allow for pain management or subsequent pain control. In a similar perspective, Mulville, Widick and Makani (2019) corroborated with these studies by noting that that an average of 17 days is critical to facilitate delivery of evidence based care and reduction of accompanying exacerbations by 16%. The statistics attained from Villa Health implies that having a large number of patients under hospice care and staying less than 7 days leads to reduction in quality of care. Besides, the health entity would not be able to confer holistic care given the short time frame. 

 For the IPU admission rate, there is a significant improvement in 2015 compared to the previous year. However, the admission rate of 27 is still an issue of concern considering that it’s the objectives of hospice care to offer patient comfort during their end of life. The statistics show that there are still many patients who are admitted to the health facility which is an issue of concern. Coyne, Mulvenon and Paice, (2018) note that it’s the obligation of a hospice unit to offer holistic care to patients at the end of life. From assessment of pain level 7-10 more than 24 hours, there is an increase by 4 in 2015 compared to 2014. This implies that there is need for assessing care delivery approaches in the setting. There is still a high number of patients with inadequate symptoms relief more than 24 hours in both tears. These statistics illustrate increased limitations by the healthcare staff to offer quality care to the patients and wholesome hospice care. Healthcare professionals must offer the optimum care to patients at the end of life including management net of vital symptoms and exacerbations. From the statistics provided for the health facility, it’s evident that the staffs in the facility are not able to give their patients wholesome care 

QI initiative proposal