HA3110D – Quality Improvement and Risk Management

Discussion 03.2: Performance Factors

Discussion Topic

Task: Reply to this topic

Four performance factors can be measured for any healthcare activity: structure, process, outcome and patient experience. Imagine you are a leader at the fictional Metro Health Clinic and have been assigned to determine what data will be used to measure the rate of issues identified in the case study. Carefully read the case study and measure development tutorial, then complete the worksheet.

Read the case scenario and complete the performance measure development worksheet. Initial post due Thursday.

Case Scenario

Having just moved to Metro City, you are a NEW patient at Metro-Health Family Practice Clinic. Because it is in the center of the city, off the main transit routes, Metro-Health is hard to find and identified only by a small sign in front of the building. Once inside the door, you become faint and need a wheelchair. There is no staff available and no wheelchairs in sight. After a few minutes you are able to walk with the help of your family member and find the desk marked “check-in.” After waiting in line for 20 minutes, you are directed to the “registration desk” because you are a new patient.

The registration clerk is very kind and considerate of your needs and provides you a chair. The clerk has numerous questions but is taking time to explain the process and allows you to ask for clarification. This process takes another 20 minutes; however, you can review the information thoroughly and ensure its accuracy.

You are immediately placed in a comfortable room and asked if you want your family member in the room with you. The assistant closes the door and takes your blood pressure, temperature, and respirations. Assuring your privacy, she tells you the results and explains what she is doing. She leaves the room and almost immediately the physician enters.

The physician greets you warmly and asks about your history of high blood pressure, why you are here today and that you to tell her about the dizzy spells you are having. She carefully goes over your medications, the dose, timing, and any side effects. During this process, the doctor discovers you are taking two highly potent and expensive medications to lower your blood pressure. She discontinues one and prescribes a far less expensive generic brand of the other drug.

You get your prescription filled, and after a week you are feeling less tired, have experienced no dizziness, and your family member who takes your blood pressure reports it as within the acceptable limits. You then receive a phone call with a survey asking about your clinic visit.

Directions

This case study provides several opportunities to measure performance in the four categories–structure, process, outcome, or patient experience.

Because a percentage clearly communicates the prevalence, or “how often it happens” based on a population (also known as rate), we will need to determine a numerator (the top part of a fraction) and a denominator (the bottom part of a fraction).

As the manager at Metro-Health Family Practice Clinic you assure the organizational goals are met. They include the following.

Safety – falls

Being visible in the community – finding the facility, advertising

Ease of registration process – patient perception

Physician timeliness – patients wait no longer than 10 minutes

Providing efficient, cost effective care – patient perception

Keep these goals in mind to set up performance measures for Metro-Family Practice Clinic. Post an initial copy of your worksheet with performance measure by Thursday. By Sunday, respond to at least two (2) other students in at least 100-150 words with suggestions on how to improve performance.

Setting up Performance Measures

When setting up a performance measure, we rewrite the measure in terms of the data that will be used to calculate the measure.

The basic elements of a performance (quality) measure include:

The population or group being measured (all patients seen in our clinic)

What is being measured (falls).

Over what time frame (days, weeks, months, years).

With this information, clinical quality measures can be developed for virtually any aspect of healthcare. As well, by writing the performance measure this way, we know what data to use to answer our question.

Let’s use the first example on the work sheet: “What is our rate of falls.” Here are the steps we will use.

Define the population: total number of patients we see in the clinic.

What are we measuring: falls.

Over what time frame: we will use a month.

Remember, we are setting up a performance measure so there are no “numbers” yet, that will come later based on our data.

We go about figuring out the monthly fall rate by comparing the number of falls to our total number of patients. Like this:

      Number of falls in month            =        Numerator

Total number of patients (in the month) =  Denominator

                        When multiplied by 100 = % (percentage or rate) of falls

Again, we are setting up performance measures, not the actual rate in numbers because we do not have the data (numbers) yet.

EXAMPLE

Safety Measure: You want to know the percentage of falls when entering your facility in the past month.

Numerator = number of reported falls

Denominator = total number of patients

When multiplied by 100 = % (percentage or rate) of falls

In a word document, complete the following and submit to the discussion (you may copy and paste into the discussion):

Community Visibility Measure: Percentage of patient complaints “not able to easily find the facility.”  

Numerator =

Denominator =

Name one thing that might be done to improve visibility:   

Registration Process Measure: Percentage of patients waiting longer than 20 minutes to be registered.   

Numerator =

Denominator =

Name one thing that might be done to improve patient wait time.

Physician Timeliness Measure: Percentage of patients waiting to be seen in the exam room more than 10 minutes. 

Numerator =

Denominator =

Name one thing that might be done to improve physician timeliness.

Scoring Guide 

Criteria  

1. 

Work addresses each measure.

2. 

Numerators and denominators have been identified for each measure.

3. 

Initial post includes suggested improvement response.

4. 

Initial post is submitted by Thursday at 11:59MT.

5.

Reply to at least two other students by Sunday.

Rating Scale: 25 Points Total 

5

Work meets or exceeds criterion at a high level of competence.  

Discussion Assignment

Before beginning work on this discussion forum, please review the link Doing Discussion Questions Right, the expanded grading rubric for the forum below, and any specific instructions for this topic.

Before the end of the week, begin commenting on at least two of your classmates’ responses. You can ask technical questions or respond generally to the overall experience. Be objective, clear, and concise. Always use constructive language, even in criticism, to work toward the goal of positive progress. Submit your responses in the Discussion Area.

Introduction

There will be two discussion questions listed below. By the due date assigned, respond to one of the discussion questions and submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading. Support your answers with examples and research and cite your sources using APA format.

Discussion Question 1:

Analyze a court case for Lockout/Tagout or Blood-borne Pathogens.

Discussion Question 2:

Analyze an article from Harvard Business Review for the best employee termination practices.

To support your work, use your course and textbook readings and also use the South University Online Library. As in all assignments, cite all sources in your work and provide references for the citations in APA format.

It is of 5 slides with in-text citation (120 words each) and 1 reference slide.

Everything in APA Format

Due by friday 12pm EST.

Training Program on Conflict Resolution

Due to a recent increase in the number of cases involving interpersonal and interdepartmental conflict in your organization, HR has decided to develop a training program on conflict resolution. Prepare a PowerPoint presentation with speaker’s notes that is supported with credible sources of research and includes each of the elements listed below:

• Develop a professional slide presentation with speaker’s notes.
  • Include a cover slide and a slide with references.
• Examine HR’s role in conflict management and resolution.
• Identify the process managers and employees should follow to contact HR for cases involving conflict.
• Evaluate three strategies HR will use to resolve issues involving conflict. 
• Determine the expected benefits/outcomes of having HR involved in resolving interpersonal and/or interdepartmental conflicts.
• Go to the Strayer University Online Library and locate at least three quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not quality as academic resources.

When complete, your training program should include:

• 10–12 slides, excluding the cover slide and references. 
• Speaker’s notes for each slide, explaining your strategy and choices.

Read Case Study 4-1, “Salting,” on pages 155-156 of your textbook. Then, address the following:

1. Explain how the company’s treatment of both the “covert” and “overt” salts applications for jobs compares to the recommended counter-salting steps for employers.
2. Would either the “covert” or the “overt” salts in this case satisfy the NLRB ruling that applicants for employment must be genuinely interested in seeking employment before claiming protection under the NLRA?
3. Does the company’s opposition to becoming a union shop indicate that there was anti-union animus in refusing to consider the “overt” salts for employment?

Your response should be a minimum of 150 words per question. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations in APA format.

Influence Processes

You have been encouraged by a colleague to write an article about “CEOs and presidents” for a management journal. You have decided to compare the leadership styles of three leaders. Using the Library, the Internet, and your course materials, write a 8-10 page report that elaborates on the following:

In your article, provide the following:

• An introduction to the concept of influence processes
• An explanation of the role of influence in contemporary leadership
• A discussion of the various types of influence processes and the factors that can affect them
• The methodology used to identify and research the leaders selected for this report
• An analysis of the influence processes used by the three leaders. Identify the processes that the leaders and top management team are using or have used to impact their organization.
• A discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the influence processes used by the three leaders relative to current and future challenges facing leaders in global organizations.
• A summary of the key attributes of the influence processes employed by these leaders to effect positive organizational change or improved performance.

Use the Library or other Web resources to support your argument. Be sure to cite your sources using APA Style 6th edition guidelines.

Your report MUST include a reference list. All research should be cited in the body of the paper. Individual Projects without references and citations may not earn any higher grade than a ‘C’ letter grade. Your report should contain an abstract, an introduction, and conclusion in addition to the body of the paper. Please note that if you have a source in your reference section, you need to cite it in the body of the paper per APA guidelines and vice-versa.

Assign-

Chapter 4: Emotions and Moods

Learning Objectives:

1. Differentiate between emotions and moods.
2. Identify the sources of emotions and moods.
3. Show the impact emotional labor has on employees.
4. Describe affective events theory and its applications.
5. Describe emotional intelligence.
6. Identify strategies for emotion regulation.
7. Apply concepts about emotions and moods to specific OB issues.

Chapter 5: Personality and Values

Learning Objectives:

1. Describe personality, the way it is measured, and the factors that shape it.
2. Describe the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) personality framework and the Big Five model,
3. Discuss how the concepts of core self-evaluation (CSE), self-monitoring, and proactive personality contribute to the understanding of personality.
4. Describe how the situation affects whether personality predicts behavior.
5. Contrast terminal and instrumental values.
6. Describe the differences between person-job fit and person-organization fit.
7. Identify Hofstede’s five value dimensions and the Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness 

Reflect on the assigned readings for the week. Identify what you thought was the most important concept(s), method(s), term(s), and/or any other thing that you felt was worthy of your understanding.

Also, provide a graduate-level response to each of the following questions:

1. At what time of day are people in the best mood? Describe how mood changes throughout the day.
2. Some might argue that emotional regulation is an unethical behavior. Why might someone take this position? 

 [Post should be at least 450+ words and in APA format (including Times New Roman with font size 12 and double spaced). Post the actual body of your paper in the discussion thread then attach a Word version of the paper for APA review].BE) framework.

The National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care (The National CLAS Standards) represent a set of standards to improve health care quality and advance health equity in health care organizations. While these standards are certainly important for health care administrators to not only adopt but also implement within their agency, perhaps the Principal Standard of The National CLAS Standards serves as the true hallmark of ensuring culturally and linguistically appropriate standards.

The Office of Minority Health (2014) defines the Principal Standard as follows:

“Provide effective, equitable, understandable and respectful quality care and services that are responsive to diverse cultural health beliefs and practices, preferred languages, health literacy, and other communication needs.”

As a health care administrator, how might you ensure that you adhere to The National CLAS Standards when engaged in the design and development of culturally relevant messages while avoiding cultural bias?

For this Discussion, review the media images in the resources for this week. Reflect on how media might impact the cultural sensitivity of health messages. Then, consider how cultural sensitivity might impact a health services campaign and marketing plan.

By Day 3

Post any insights you had or conclusions you drew based upon your analysis of the media images provided in the media for this week. Explain how the media images in the resources for this week might present challenges based on the ethical, moral, and legal compliance considerations for the practice of health care administration. Then, explain how you might apply the information you gained from your analysis to your Final Project. Be specific and use examples to illustrate your points.

APA Style

References

Discussion Board 5

Summative Discussion Board

Review and reflect on the knowledge you have gained from this course. Based on your review and reflection, write a one page on the following: 

What were the most compelling topics learned in this course?

How did participating in discussions help your understanding of the subject matter? Is anything still unclear that could be clarified?

Particular to the classroom engagement, what approaches could have yielded additional valuable information, in terms of faculty participation and/or the discussion boards?

In 1-page single space, answer the following

1 – What is the difference between assessment and development centers?

2- Which center would you use to assess competency?

3 – which center would you use to assess training needs?

4 – which center would you use to assess a candidate’s potential?