Improving Quality Healthcare at Memorial Hospital

The assignment content discusses the challenges faced by Memorial Hospital in Springfield to improve population health. The hospital lacks cardiac surgeons, which affects patient care and leads to patients seeking services elsewhere. Other issues include poor communication among staff, inadequate pain control, and unhygienic environment. To address these issues, it is recommended that the hospital recruits a cardiac surgeon, improves communication skills through training sessions, increases nursing knowledge for effective pain management, and implements rigorous hygiene routines. A collaborative approach between care authorities and community individuals is necessary to improve public health outcomes.

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Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

HEALTHCARE
To,
The Editor,
Address:
Date:
Respected Sir,
Sub: Heallth administration issues at Memorial Hospital, Springsfield
Through the columns of your widely circulated daily I would like throw light upon the
issues and challenges faced while striving to improve population health in the community in
Springfield. The population of the town is approximately 1000,000 and the prime health care
unit responsible for addressing the health needs of the population is the Memorial hospital.
The several issues in public health include absence of cardiac surgeons and sedentary
lifestyles of the individuals. Serious concerns arise as many residents seek and obtain health
care services at settings other than the Memorial hospital, making its existence weak. I would
hereby put forward an evaluation of the issues that are important for bringing about a quality
improvement. An analysis of the issues would be done on the basis of the resources. I would
also like to recommend strategies for addressing the quality improvement issues.
It can be straightforwardly said that quality improvement is required immediately at
the Memorial Hospital for ensuring that optimal quality care is provided to the healthcare
consumers. Though the hospital has an adequate staff of nurse practitioners, primary care
physicians and general surgeons, along with one cardiologist, it is lacking a cardiac surgeon.
This is crucial issue since the community of Springfield has mostly factory workers who are
of old age that is 60 years or older. In addition, the hospital serves as the facility for nurse’s

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clinical rounds from nearby community college. Though this aids in their education it is a fact
that patient safety is a key concern in this regard. The community is sedentary and prevalence
of smoking is high. Attention is also to be given to these two aspects for better addressing the
care needs.
From the HCAHPS data it is indicated that the hospital is behind its competitors in
care service quality. The issues that arise in this setting encompass poor communication of
nurses, ineffective communication of physicians, and inadequate helping approach of the
service providers, proper pain control intervention delivery, and unhygienic environment.
Upon receiving feedback from the health consumers it has been noted that patients give a low
score to the hospital in terms of their satisfaction level. Moreover, they do not strongly
recommend this hospital to others. From the Springfield Healthy People Data it can be stated
that the community is far away from reaching the 2020 Goal set by the concerned authority.
The changes have been tracked since the past ten years in the domains of overall cancer rate
reduction, lung cancer death rate reduction, reduction of colorectal cancer death rate and
reduction of diabetes death rate.
It is imperative that appropriate steps are to be taken for improving the conditions
arising due to multiple flaws in the system. Firstly, the staffing mix of the system needs to be
improved by recruiting a cardiac surgeon. Since the majority of the population is aged and are
at risk of suffering cardiac complications, the presence of a cardiac surgeon would ensure that
the patients consider receiving their care from this hospital and not others (Harvey& Kitson,
2015). Communication skills of care professionals are crucial and therefore appropriate steps
are to be taken. Regular sessions are to be conducted by the care leaders who would instill the
zeal to communicate effectively and in a transparent manner. Sessions might be conducted by
experts to address the challenges faced by the professionals. Consultants can be hired who

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would guide them in improving personal relationships and demonstrating sympathy and
affectionate while caring for the patients. Continual professional development and learning
are to be encouraged for the professionals and a reward system would be advantageous in this
regard (Grol et al., 2013).
Since hygienic environment is needed at the earliest, the hospital must implement
rigorous routines and procedures for handling hygiene hotspots such as toilets. Clear
guidance is to be included on the appropriate products. Completing audits for maintaining
high standards is essential and areas for improvement are to be identified. It is further
recommended that for appropriate pain control intervention deliverynursing knowledge is
increased through practical based teaching approaches. Consultation of the nurses with the
pharmacists and collaboration between two would ensure that pain management techniques
are implemented as and when needed. Through these strategies it is expected that betterment
can be achieved within a short span of time (Anwar et al., 2017).
It is therefore apparent that there is an urgent need of bringing about quality
improvement changes for better public health of the community. I hope that the concerned
public health authority would acknowledge the issue and view the matter seriously for
providing solutions. A collaborative approach between the care authorities and individuals of
community would ensure that public health outcomes are better in future.
Thanking you,
Name:

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References
Anwar, F., Yousafzai, A., & Niazi, M. A. (2017). The value of systems and complexity
sciences for healthcare: a review.
Grol, R., Wensing, M., Bosch, M., Hulscher, M., & Eccles, M. (2013). Theories on
implementation of change in healthcare. Improving Patient Care: The Implementation
of Change in Health Care, Second Edition, 18-39.
Harvey, G., & Kitson, A. (2015). Implementing evidence-based practice in healthcare: a
facilitation guide. Routledge.