Length Of Stay Assignment sample
INTRODUCTION
In the Australian Health care system, there are a number of problems that can be said as the health care crises and the increased length of the patients in the Australia has been surely a major problematic area. More the length of stay, more is the increased levels of issues with the quality and reversely, it is due to lack of quality in the health care system of the country, the problems pertaining to the hospital stay is increased as well (Michard, Gan & Kehlet, 2017). Thus, in other words, there is a great relationship between the various effects of the quality in health system and length of stay that will be studied more in details in the following sections of the study. It has been found that about 2.1 percent of the population suffers from the hospital delay issues regarding palliative care and about 34.3 percent suffered from delays while waiting for mental health treatments and this led to acquired infections and mental health problems (Health services, 2021). And it is also as per the statistics that the complex problems of the health care framework in Australia are deteriorating further and this is noted by the fact that almost every Australian from the urban settings who have been to hospital, have experience a 24-hour delay at least during the discharge (Tiruvoipati et al., 2017). While, for business purposes, some of the health care facilities are charging extra money by making the intentional delays in discharge but mainly, it is due to the lack of the process management that the issues are turning into risks (Chen et al., 2018). Not only the health care costs are increased but the experiences of the clients of the health services are also reduced to a substantial extent, due to the chosen problem. That is why, as it can be understood now, that the change management and creative leadership is required to develop the right quality management (to reduce errors) and time management protocols (to prevent delays) within the hospitals of the country. Creative leadership can motivate and change management can transform while bringing in new systemic changes that will address the length of stay problem to a great deal and even prevent them from happening (Proksch et al., 2019). Thus, in this study, the innovations required to develop the best practices in the Australian health system to prevent the hospital delays and risks has been discussed thoroughly. It is to be noted that more and less, this innovation that will be proposed, can be followed in all health care setups of the country to prevent the risks attached to and leading to the problem of the increased length of stay of geriatric patients in the hospitals (Biltoft & Finneman, 2018). And that is why, in this study, the plan for the implementation of the proposed protocols will also be included and the leadership strategies in addition to the management methods required for the same, in the given organization – will also be discussed which is vital to understand as well (Patiar & Wang, 2020).
PROPOSED INNOVATION
At first, at the very micro level, it is to be understood that it is due to the incidents of falls and patient mismanagement in geriatric care that primary leads to increased levels of risks related to delays in the hospitals during discharge which is important to note. And that is why, technology integration in the hospitals is particularly vital and this is how the root cause of increased length of stay that can be stopped and managed. Thus, the bed alarms and the other other technologies such as the movable Intravenous fluid stands can be useful for the development of the right practices in geriatric care and thus reducing the rate of falls (Brown, 2020). This will eventually reduce the number of the delays cases or increased length of stay cases in the hospitals that is extremely important to manage. Thus, this is the very first innovation that is required to be incorporated in the Australian hospitals to help the geriatric population who are more prone than the others (Elkady, Rees & Khalifa, 2019). Patient education as well as process knowledge of how the patient management works should be known to the nurses and doctors in the hospitals, to make the technology integration possible and minimize the risks with length of stay.
At the second level, as mentioned above, it is required to train the health care professionals not only those, who are working as the line workers but the supportive staffs such the technologists, the technicians as well as the allied health workers also as well. The human resource managers as well as the operations managers needs to work closely to develop the right training protocols in addition to the right standards of practice that is vital to understand as well. It is to be noted that the lack of hand hygiene done by the nurses and the physician in the hospitals leads to major problems related to what is known as the surgical site infections and the hospital acquired infections (Daskivich et al., 2019). And with respect to the infections, it is important to note that the lack of hand hygiene practices by the nurses and the other staffs – leads to this. Proven methods like hand hygiene training are critical for the nurses and nursing assistants to improve upon the quality of geriatric care (Teesing et al., 2020). Automation is required in many levels in order to reduce the problems that are mentioned here and also the technological skills of the health care workers are not that good. Helping the nurses learn about the automated medicine cabinets can be very helpful in reducing medication errors and to improve upon geriatric care. The human resources of the organizations should be providing the technological training which is another proven method of reducing length of stay in geriatric care (Moyle, 2019). The proven method includes robots and artificial intelligence in health care related training which can help in dementia, faster discharge, and more self-dependence in the geriatric patients. Moreover, there are five moments of hand washing protocol and methods that has been made mandatory by the World Health Organization and this is where, the various elements of the critical self and process management skills are needed (Stefan et al., 2019). There have been many discussions about the lack of the behavioral compliance from the side of the nurses that can be correlated with hand hygiene problems leading to infections and increased patient stay that is vital to note in this context (Piras, Lauderdale & Minnick, 2017). Soft skills training as well as cultural competence training are also important to build empathy and safety with the geriatric patients which is another proven method to reduce the length of stay problem (Gholamzadeh et al., 2018).
Next, as for another factor that directly leads to lack of proper care given to the patients by the providers is the various elements of conflicts that happens between the health care staffs. Interprofessional education is missing in many contexts from the workforce development programs of the hospitals, and this is where, the interdisciplinary conflicts or cultural conflicts between the nurses and other workers are developing at an increased rate (Murai et al., 2021). And this is leading to the increased level of problems and issues with the critical aspects of patient management which should have taken place correctly otherwise (Msiska, Kumitawa & Kumwenda, 2017).
Another major problem that requires innovation to stop the extent of problems caused by length of stay in the hospitals is the lack of keeping of patient records and handling them properly (Rogers, Draper & Carter, 2021). It is true that most of the health care workers do not have proper access to the information about the patient and the lack of the systems thinking because they lack the knowledge pertaining to the public health situation of the country (Gahan et al., 2021). That is why, innovations in the small hospitals to the large multispecialty ones are required and this can be done with the help of electronic medical records and the electronic health records integration that is very important to understand as well (Essén et al., 2018). The electronic medical records come with the features such as the dictation tools, exporting functions and external sources as well as the keeping of the SOAP notes progress that is very much vital to note as well (Tsai et al., 2019). Handwriting analysis as well as the scanning of the investigative images and even advanced functions such as networking is possible with the help of the electronic medical records that is to be particularly taken into consideration. (Lemon, De Ridder & Khadra, 2019). With respect to the electronic health records, it can help the health care systems gather information and large chunks of data many places like the community health centers, primary care centers as well as the nursing homes and the hospitals ((Inglis et al., 2017). And the national quality control system should be integrating these evidence-based technologies to help the geriatric population better and this is because there are more prone to miscommunication, violence and other issues which can cause missed care (Tavares et al., 2017). As per the evidence, this will thus reduce the length of stay of the patients in the hospitals because the health care workers plus the supportive staffs as well as the health care management staffs will have the different aspects of patient information. This will help the staffs and clinicians serve the geriatric population better, just like other population. As per many reports, the involvement of the pharmacists in the health care management and use of these tools by the health care workers from different domains can help improve the very safety of the care processes in the country (McDerby et al., 2019).
Comparison between different countries
| United states | Meredith, High & Freischlag (2020). | About 37.6 percent of the patients requiring the breast cancer surgeries on the elective basis, were saved of the delays due to installation of the technologies that is important to note. The pre-operative and the screening technologies has been of the great use and success, in the subject area, thus allowing to sort the problem in the most right and correct way that is vital to note and understand as well. |
| India | Amir-Behghadami & Gholizadeh (2020) | Using the procedure of the electronic screening for the treatment and selection of the patients, more than the amount of about 40 percent of the delays was managed effectively that is vital to note and understand as well. This even controlled the level of the transmission of the infections and the level of disease issues at the community levels of India itself that is vital to note. |
| Australia | Sepasgozar et al. (2019) | The delays and the medication errors are the major set of the issues that occurs in the country of Australia, which is why, the different aspects of the technologies in project management, smart city development as well as in different types of complex risk and project management is critical to prevent the major kind of the delays in the hospitals. About half of the risks with the hospital and the clinical visit delays can be prevented with the help of the serious measures and commitments towards patient centered care using the different aspects of the technology. |
From the comparative analyses of the countries above which has been done between the Australia, India, and the United States – that technology plays a major pivotal role in overall cost reduction that is associated with the delays in the hospitals and the rising amount of the per day costs that is vital to be done effectively and noted as well. The technology should be used in hospital process management, screening as well as in the different aspects of the project management that is extremely critical to be applied. This will help in correct flow and operations in hospitals allowing patients to receive care at ad hoc basis and this is eventually sort out the serious problem of the delays in the countries, rather on the global basis that is important to understand as well. Good technology-based care will also mean better addressing of complaints and perception of patients and this will bring satisfaction for the receiving of such a care. And higher levels of the satisfaction mean the patients will not only return to the same hospital in case of any problem but also recommend the same hospital or the institution to the other people in the health care framework that will again increase the sales performance of the organization and add to its longevity in the community environment (Casey, Avalos & Dowling, 2018).
Cost benefit analysis
| Investment areas | Capital |
| Quality management system (where the line workers and the managers need to collaborate upon) | Rs 2,50,000 |
| In hospital equipments (Bed alarms and the movable intravenous stands) | Rs. 5,00,000 |
| Telehealth consultations | Rs 3,00,000 |
| Training of the staffs (using simulation, role playing, technological and the instructional methods) | Rs. 2,00,000 |
It is to be noted that with all the above-mentioned strategies, it is the final problem of the cost increases that will be correctly addressed which has a two-way benefit. The innovations as mentioned above will lead to the development of the critical factors such as the patient management in effective ways, quality control and risk prevention that will increase the satisfaction levels of the clients. The patients will save their time and energy while going through a technology friendly or technology supported care continuum that extends from inside to the very outside of the hospital which is vital to note and understand as well. They will be returning again and again to the hospital, thus allowing the revenues to rise but without delays or other risks. A short example is that mobilization should start with the immobile patients as soon as possible and using the movable stands, allows them to develop independence and self-mobility which will prevent any kind of extra delays in the hospitals to develop functionality as it is already being developed.
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
The implementation plan has to be strategic as well so that the above-mentioned technologies, trainings, cost cutting methods and the community coordination methods can be applied and incorporated properly in the health care system that is important as well. The stakeholder management, at the first, needs to do effectively and this is where, the corporate communication teams along with the administration needs to work together (Macdonald, Burke & Stewart, 2018). And this is important for the implementation of the innovation project as mentioned above in a proper manner with any issues or any type of serious process or communication risks. It is to be noted that the risks always tend to increase the costs of the health care and even failed projects tends to do the same – that over the head costs needs to be bored by the organization (Ghersi, Mariño & Miralles, 2018).
The hiring and the management of the information technology specialists to the technology sphere is quite and very much required as well. This is needed for the right installations and also the maintenance of the various elements of the critical technologies such as electronic medical records and electronic health records. The technologies such as bed alarms, movable intravenous stands need to be bought by the organizations and this will help the right ways of safety management that will reduce the stay times in the hospitals (Sayed-Kassem et al., 2017). Telehealth consultations as well as telemedicine is helpful to reach out to the patients who are living remote and also to provide faster service after discharge (Snoswell et al., 2021).
Next, it is vital that the training processes such as the simulation methods, the hands-on training as well as the lecture methods are used effectively so that the technology and soft skills of the staffs are built in the very right and appropriate ways (Vazirani et al., 2020).
Patient benefits
- The risk management skills should be there in the quality experts and also in the project managers so that any risk if produced during skill development or technology integration – can be mitigated without causing any conflicts or other failure related issues.
- Development of what is known as patient’s functional independence with these technologies is cardinal to timely discharge and better outcomes.
- The operations managers as well as the various quality experts can work together in tandem with the quality management system that will help the development of the safe practices in the chosen hospital workplace.
- More patient satisfaction and more levels of the critical risk reduction
- More patient independence as well as more about of the faster rate of patient recovery
- More referrals and more clients coming to the hospital.
SWOT analysis
| Strengths
1. The investment capacity of the organization is high 2. Strong supplier and consultant chain |
Weaknesses
1. Lacking technology 2. Lacking patient’s positive perception 3. Lacking quality
|
| Opportunities
1. Technology investment 2. Management investment 3. Procurement of state-of-the-art instruments and technologies |
Threats
1. Acquired by larger organization 2. Organization shut down due to quality issues by the government 3. Consumer complaints and legal charges. |
LEADERSHIP
As for the leadership here, there will be two kinds of leadership that will be very much needed. The first is systems leadership and the along with it, transformational leadership that is vital to understand as well. Connecting the systems and also the various elements of the critical thinking related to its often becomes the crux of the systems leadership that is important to understand (García-Romero, Escribano & Tribó, 2017). And the systems leaders for the development of the right changes and the innovations in the health care organization workplace must possess a set of skills that will help better the integration of new technologies and the right application of the same. The leaders should be focusing on motivating and empowerment of the workers that is important in the context of such a large-scale project such as this innovation project. Moreover, open mindset as well good set of the communication skills (verbal and the nonverbal), supportive collaboration with the seniors and the juniors plus the structures cocreation are much needed for the project and plan implementation, with the help of the systems leadership (Badgery-Parker et al., 2019).
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Thus, it can be concluded saying that the various technology integration like the electronic medical records, bed alarms, quality management system and the electronic health records will be the first innovation as proven by the evidence given above. And that is why, it is critical that different elements of the staffing functions and quality management as well as the risk management is required as well, and all these activities should come under the umbrella of the systems leadership in the health care organization that is critical to note and understand.
The conflict management will be vital segment and function within the framework of change management and innovation integration and the systems leaders should be taking the full responsibility of the same that is imperative. This is one of the first recommendations and the second will be that the federal funding and support will be needed for the technology incorporation in the organization and these payments should be procured along with the technologies from the home or the foreign markets (Ferkins, Shilbury & O’Boyle, 2018). Close performance evaluation and performance measures should be done and followed along with the above-mentioned processes and new controls that is required very much as well.
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