Patient Service Innovation: Education for Stakeholders on Dehydration

This report focuses on a patient service innovation aimed at improving patient care in care homes by addressing dehydration. The innovation involves using automated jugs with colored lids to indicate water consumption levels, ensuring patients receive adequate hydration. The report highlights the importance of this innovation, citing the prevalence of dehydration in the UK, particularly within the NHS, and the challenges in its diagnosis. It emphasizes the benefits for patients, including improved physical and mental health, and alignment with NHS goals for patient safety. The report also outlines the goals for the innovation, considering patient safety, healthcare needs, resource feasibility, and the development of professional skills. The report references relevant literature and online sources to support its findings, emphasizing the significance of stakeholder education and technological advancements in enhancing patient outcomes and overall healthcare quality. The report stresses the importance of monitoring standards to ensure that the patients experience quality healthcare within the facility and hence, this embarks the importance of innovation.

EDUCATION FOR
STAKEHOLDERS
TO IMPROVE
DEHYDRATION

Table of Contents
BACKGROUND.............................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

BACKGROUND
Patient Service Innovations allow care homes to ensure that the patients are getting
enough care with enhanced practice and advanced technologies (Grahn and et. al., 2019).
Furthermore, innovations tend to modify the approach by driving the mindsets of care givers
onto a better direction that could increase the scope of treatment and care they could possibly
provide with their resources and efforts. Innovations within healthcare are crucial as they suggest
the organisations, as well as medical professionals of how technology and creativity could be
channelized to develop and implement something that is more useful to deal with a number of
issues towards providing effective care. In addition to this, it also eases the work of care givers
by implementing automated or artificially intelligent elements within the innovations that could
act upon their own programming and will without human intervention. According to various
guidelines issued by healthcare organisations in the UK such as Care Quality Commission
(CQC), as well as National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE), there must be better
detection of the medical treatment that is being currently provided to patients. Moreover, within
an organisation such as NHS, it is highly imperative that the monitoring standards keep on
improving so that the patients experience quality healthcare within the facility and hence, this
embarks the importance of innovation.
The chosen Patient Service Innovation within these jugs is through using the Automation
technology; the set up of these jugs would be indicating the individuals about the water
consumption by patients that would surely be effective towards the challenge of dehydration
within the care centre (Rutman, Klein and Brown, 2017). Furthermore, another element that is
associated with this innovation’s importance is that it would be acting as a constant indicator on
the water levels of patients in the care home that would ensure that each patient has sufficient
amount of water intake which reduces the problems of dehydration amongst patients and
improvises the level of monitoring which the care givers could undertake for patient safety and
better health. In addition to all these pointers, the innovation within the red lid jugs is quite subtle
which is technologically easier to operate and manage and hence, could be a prominent inclusion
within the overall organisation. Moreover, due to its dynamic mechanism, it could be used for
patients of almost all the ages, which is yet another importance that is highlighted within the
same.
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The importance of the same could be thoroughly researched from a range of sources
which highlights the issue of dehydration within the UK. For instance, within the NHS Hospitals,
the issues related to dehydration have been evident since last decade. According to the
Telegraph, dozens of individuals die within the NHS hospitals due to insufficient and improper
nutrition, which quite effectively includes hydration requirements as well (Dozens of patients
dying due to poor nutrition in NHS hospitals, 2020).
Furthermore, another prominent aspect that must be taken into consideration when it
comes to dehydration is associated with the fact that the problem of dehydration is quite difficult
to be diagnosed. However there are various symptoms that have seen the light since inception of
healthcare, but there are various other advancements that are yet to be performed in this regard.
This could be stated as this problem shows up in the blood tests after it has taken have been
advanced within the body. Moreover, within the UK this issue is more pressing and evident
within the private hospitals too along with organisations like NHS. This provides evidence about
how severe the magnitude of this problem actually is (Panther, 2016).
There are several ways through which the patents would be receiving benefit from this
innovation. Firstly, it is a human tendency to sometimes forget about the things which we are
supposed to do routinely, such as regular intervals of consuming water. This PSI would be
contributing towards better and more effective aspects that are related to ensuring that the
patients are aware about the water intake that has been consumed by them throughout the day.
For instance, if an individual’s jug is full of water and there is an indication of the amber lid,
then the patient would be aware that they are yet to consume about 1000 ml of water more.
Another benefit which is directly associated with the individuals is that they would
appropriately be healthier in terms of their physical and mental state. The reason for the same is
that water intake improvises the digestive system, as well as purifies the blood flow within the
whole body, which makes this innovation beneficial and highly imperative for the patients as
well. Furthermore, it would also be beneficial for the patient as per the NHS Five Year
Framework, according to which Patient Safety Incidents are set up as a prominent indicator
towards success of the framework. Therefore, this new innovation would surely be beneficial for
being in alignment with the same (McMullen and et. al., 2018).
There are several ways through which the goals in regards with this innovation would be
established. For instance, the safety of patients and the current healthcare needs would be taken
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into prime consideration. Moreover, another consideration which would be provided to set up
goals for this PSI would be related to assessment of the healthcare provision gap that is currently
being viewed within NHS and other organisation. In addition to this, financial, technical and
human resource feasibility would also be taken into account so that the innovation is developed
and embedded within the operational and investment capacity of the care organisation. In regards
with the professionals however, the goals would be set in a manner which improvises their
current skill sets, as well as make them even more competent towards new technologies within
the marketplace.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Grahn, S.W., and et. al., 2019. System-wide improvement for transitions after ileostomy surgery:
can intensive monitoring of protocol compliance decrease readmissions? A randomized
trial. Diseases of the Colon & Rectum. 62(3). pp.363-370.
McMullen, C., and et. al., 2018. Designing for impact: identifying stakeholder-driven
interventions to support recovery after major cancer surgery. Supportive Care in
Cancer. 26(12). pp.4067-4076.
Panther, K., 2016. Best Practices for Dehydration Prevention. Perspectives of the ASHA Special
Interest Groups. 1(13). pp.72-80.
Rutman, L., Klein, E.J. and Brown, J.C., 2017. Clinical pathway produces sustained
improvement in acute gastroenteritis care. Pediatrics. 140(4). p.e20164310.
Online
Dozens of patients dying due to poor nutrition in NHS hospitals. 2020. [Online] Available
Through: <https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2470560/Dozens-of-patients-
dying-due-to-poor-nutrition-in-NHS-hospitals.html>
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