NURS FPX 4020 Assessment 2 Root Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan
The goal is to reduce medication and treatment errors and associated complications by improving patient education and promoting a trusting and collaborative provider-patient relationship. The timeline required for establishing a patient-centered communication model is six months; initially, in the first three months, the organization will develop and implement training programs for nursing staff on patient-centered communication, and in the next three months, stakeholders must establish a discharge education policy and start pilot implementation.
Integrated EHR Patient Portals
The organization should train healthcare providers on using EHR-integrated patient portals for educational purposes. This training should include primary EHR navigation, integrating educational materials, modifying the content according to patient’s needs, and addressing barriers patients may encounter while using these tools (Hodgson et al., 2022). Organizational changes include developing standardized educational materials within the EHR system to reinforce consistent knowledge and encourage treatment compliance and implementing a policy to document patient education reports in EHR, guaranteeing the coverage of comprehensive topics.
The goal is to optimize the use of EHR-integrated patient portals and enhance the availability of healthcare information, enabling them to review it continuously. EHR patient portal will require 4-6 months for successful implementation. Initially, stakeholders will collaborate with IT teams to integrate educational materials into the existing EHR system and ensure patients have adequate access to the EHR portal. This action also requires monitoring privacy and security issues related to patient health information.
Organizational Resources
Existing organizational personnel, such as clinical educators, are essential for the safety improvement plan. The best way to leverage them is by utilizing their competencies to design high-quality content for healthcare providers, ensuring they receive training according to the standards set for patient-centered care (Kaarlela et al., 2022). They will also assist in developing educational materials for EHR portals. Another team from the IT department will help streamline the integration process of EHR and patient portals and address technical and security issues that may arise during execution. Leveraging the existing quality assurance team will aid in identifying loopholes to make continuous improvements.
On the other hand, the resources that would be leveraged are computers at nursing stations and the organization’s existing EHR system. According to the priority, resources that need to be obtained include a user-friendly EHR interface. This is prioritized as the organization needs a seamless system to support patient portals and ensure strict security channels. The second priority is some educational materials to ensure standardized protocols and professional information to add to the content. Lastly, the organizations must collaborate with external experts for specialized training, which will enhance the plan’s impact, ultimately harnessing organizational resources to maximize the success of the safety improvement plan.
Conclusion
In conclusion, inadequate patient education is an alarming concern for healthcare organizations requiring immediate interventions. The issue encountered by Miami Valley Hospital is an explicit example of harmful complications of lack of patient education. Thus, we described some evidence-based best practices and developed a safety improvement plan entailing a patient-centered communication model and EHR-integrated patient portals to enhance patient engagement, make information accessible to the patients, and improve patient education to reduce the risk of errors and improve patients’ well-being.
References
Akhtar, N., Hussain, M., Afzal, M., & Gilani, S. (2019). Factors influencing practice of patient education among nurses. Saudi Journal of Nursing and Health Care, 2(4), 116-128. https://doi.org/10.21276/sjnhc.2019.2.4.1
Banda, Z., Simbota, M., & Mula, C. (2022). Nurses’ perceptions on the effects of high nursing workload on patient care in an intensive care unit of a referral hospital in Malawi: A qualitative study. BMC Nursing, 21, 136. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-00918-x
Banzon, C. (2023). Discharge education protocol to improve patient satisfaction. South Dakota State University. Order a similar paper