Report on Quality Improvement Initiative in Healthcare Sector

This report details a quality improvement initiative undertaken in a healthcare setting, focusing on addressing inefficiencies in data recording and its impact on patient care. The initiative aimed to improve the slow operations within the data record sector, which led to overcrowding and prolonged waiting times, causing adverse outcomes for patients. The report highlights the need for quality improvement to prevent data loss, ensure efficient data retrieval, and ultimately enhance the smooth running of healthcare services. It emphasizes the benefits of adopting technology-based methods for data recording, drawing on previous results to support the need for change. The report outlines the four steps involved in implementing quality improvement, including focusing on microsystems, understanding the improvement cycle, establishing goals and action plans, and selecting measures for monitoring progress. It also discusses methods for evaluating the success of the initiative, such as comparing current practices with previous ones and assessing the impact on patient care. The report concludes by emphasizing the importance of quality improvement in healthcare for improved patient outcomes, staff efficiency, and reduced waste.

Running head: QUALITY IMPROVEMENT INITIATIVE
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Quality Improvement Initiative
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Quality Improvement Initiative
Considering poor performance reported from our organization lately, research was
carried out and came in an agreement on where improvements are required to ensure quality
improvement in the organization's operations. Quality improvement is strategies used to improve
the way services systematically or treatments are delivered to patients; the processes that are
used in quality improvement are capable of been controlled, measured, analyzed, and improved
accordingly. Been a nurse in this organization, I was assigned to survey on activities that are
carried on in the organization and suggest strategies for their improvements. This was after the
organization showed poor delivery of services to the patients. Due to the growth of technology in
the world today, many hospitals have adopted technology in their practices, and results have
been great. In our case, if we apply technology-based methods in our data recording sector, this
will help to ensure a smooth run in service providence.
From my research, it was quite clear that operations primarily in the data record sector
were slow compared to other healthcare centers in the neighborhood. The quiet activities in this
sector have led to overcrowding; thus, patients are forced to wait for long hours for services to be
provided to them. This has led to several deaths of patients in critical stages of illness. This is
because they have been forced to wait until it is too late. Moreover, data recording has not been
up to the standard expected from a well-operating health care center. We have experienced
patient data loss in our hospital; this has come up due to poor data-keeping means in our hospital.
In a hospital, data recording is one of the sensitive sectors that keep the health care center
running basing of facts and not assumptions. Correct data records ensure the right decisions have
been made, and thus minimal or no errors are witnessed—moreover, data collection act as a

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source of reference in the future when need arise. Therefore, our healthcare center should ensure
data are collected through a reliable means that is quick and can handle few people at a time.
This means of data recording should also provide safe data-keeping that can be retrieved anytime
should need to arise. This was after data loss became a common problem in our healthcare
center.
Why Quality improvement is needed
From the problem discussed above, the reason we need quality improvement is to avoid
overcrowding in our health care data sectors and other sectors due to slow operations. Moreover,
once this improvement is made, the healthcare center will not suffer data loss, and it will be easy
to retrieve data information whenever it is needed. This will ease up operations in our hospital
and ensure all data recorded is safely kept (Till et al. 2015). Moreover, the reduction of crowding
will lead to saving of lives to those patients that are in critical condition since data recording is
done quickly, and treatment starts immediately. Quality improvement is needed to ensure the
smooth running of healthcare services.
Moreover, quality improvement will lead to timely responses to admitted patients. Errors
that are occurring will not be experienced when this improvement is made in time. The needed
improvements will help save on time during the services that are run in the healthcare center.
Common knowledge suggests that machines make work more relaxed; the employments of
technological machines will make the job easier for nurses and other medical experts in our
hospital (Stewart et al. 2017). By so doing, nurses and medical experts will not strain to deliver
services to patients, and this will ensure the services provided are of good quality. To summarize,

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quality improvement is vital in three ways i.e., Improvement of patients outcome, improvement
in the efficiency of staff, and less waste of time that is brought by process failures.
How Previous Results Show Support for Quality Improvement
The previous results produced by the health care center was not as per the standards that
are required. These poor results called out for quality improvements just to make things better in
our hospital. In the case of data recording and storage, the healthcare center suffered a loss of
information; this is because of the use of manual methods to store data (Cohen et al. 2018). One
of these methods was paperwork and files when stored, they are easily tampered with, and as a
result, the collected data is lost without a trace. This method was not entirely reliable for future
reference. From previous results, it was noted that filing of data was a challenge due to the lack
of modern filing method, this called for improvement in data recording and storage ( Melnyk et
al. 2015). Moreover, retrieving information, when needed, could take longer duration and,
therefore, cannot be reliable to needs that require the data urgently.
With the growth in technology, new machines that have improved speed have been
invented. For instance, the latest version of the computer has improved speed than the old
models. So, the application of modern version computers in data recording and storage will make
a significant improvement in the quality, thus improving poor results that were registered when
the development was not made ( Iqbal et al. 2019). To summarize, the adoption of computers in
data recording and storage will bring safeness to the data captured (Jacobs et al. 2015). Previous
results in our health care center showed poor patient-centeredness. This brought the urge to adopt
quality improvement to give quality services to our patients.

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Steps Used in Implementing Quality Improvement
Quality improvement involves four steps. The first step for quality improvement is the
ability to focus on the microsystems of the healthcare center. This is to means one should focus
on little bits that make up the healthcare system. The second step is to understand and implement
the improvement cycle. In this step, one can study to be familiar with the challenges that may
arise. The reason one should examine these challenges is to be able to act upon them. This cycle
helps in gaining knowledge by learning through the continued process. The third step is to come
up with goals as well as an action plan; here, the goals are the sectors to be improved. The
strategies for this are laid out in the form of writing (Johnson et al. 2018). The last step is to
select measures that will be used in monitoring the progress of established quality improvement.
How to Evaluate Quality Improvement
To know whether the implemented quality improvement is working, a simple survey is
carried out. In this survey, one should test and compare current practices with previous ones.
Here is when you know quality has improved by engaging oneself in checking the results for
comparison. Another factor for evaluating quality improvement is by examining how the newly
implemented practices are impacting the delivery of patient care. Moreover, assessing patient
development in care (Dixon-Woods and Martin, 2016). These means of evaluation should only
be taken when approval from the health plan gives a response on the same. To evaluate quality
improvement, several statistical tests could be employed to organize and analyze data of previous
results and current results (Goodman et al. 2016). These methods may include nominal, ordinal,
interval, and ratio.

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To conclude, the nominal level of measurement is used in naming things. The ordinal
analysis helps in defining the relation between entities to check on ranking. The Interval level of
measurement gives specified distances between objects been measured. Lastly, the ratio level of
analysis is almost the same as interval measurement, but in ratio, the level measurement can
define zero. Ratio measurement is between two similarities. In the case of variables, it involves
qualitative and quantitative methods of research. Qualitative handles data that is in words while
quantitative handles data in numerical. This makes variables suitable when checking quality
improvement. Hypothesis test uses statistics to determine the probability to establish a true
hypothesis. This test goes by two test methods li.e. parametric test and non-parametric test (Link
provided). This test can easily be used to evaluate quality improvement since it can work with or
without including the population.

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References
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Iqbal, U., Humayun, A., & Li, Y. C. J. (2019). Healthcare quality-improvement and
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