Introduction
Currently, diabetes is one of the most common non-communicable diseases globally; this factor threatens the entire population of the planet. Hence, it is vital to collect precise information about the health history of the patients with diabetes to explore the full spectrum of factors that might have led to the disease and prevent its emergence among risk groups. As such, this work aims at proposing a method of collecting information associated with diabetes, such as demographics, medications used, and other data. It can be primarily gathered from the emergency room and hospitalization records. The accuracy and completeness of patient and quality-related data have important implications for individual safety and health research. Thus, this information can make treatment of diabetes evidence-based at my facility, improving the health of the population.
Data Collection Plan
Determining the details of information for the study is of particular importance. For this scientific work, it was chosen to study the population of a physician’s practice. As a time frame, I would take into account within the last year any hospitalizations (namely 2021). I believe that this information can be found both in the office where my practice occurs and in the hospital admission or emergency room. I would choose to review history and physical data, progress notes, medication records, hospital discharge documents, and lab results as the documents for the review. I believe that the most useful system for me will be administrative and clinical documents, as they collect, store, and provide the most valuable information.
There are several new procedures that will be implemented in the course of data collection. Namely, a new electronic database will be created; it would be devoted primarily to the relevant information about patients with diabetes mentioned earlier. Moreover, a procedure for gaining permission for the use of the data would be provided. In this process, it is necessary to observe the life cycle of the system to manage the necessary information. The life cycle includes several related stages, similar to the process of patient care. The stages through which information passes are collection, processing, distribution, use, storage, and disposal, including destruction and deletion of data.
HIEs and national databases serve different purposes, which explains the different effects of incomplete submitted to them. An electronic HIE offers services for the safe transfer of patient information electronically through query-based, directed, and consumer-mediated exchange (Menachemi et al., 2018). National databases store anonymized patient records for public health research purposes. The submission of erroneous information to HIEs can result in patient care mistakes. Hence, the data from HIEs should be used with caution to prevent the inaccuracy of the research.
The study will require certain personnel to perform research tasks while other staff members will be expected to provide their best cooperation with the project. The individuals whose cooperation will be necessary include emergency room nursing staff and doctors, nurses within the facility, doctors, and physicians specializing in diabetes. Other staff will require managers and administrative workers who maintain health records and hospitalization data. Similarly, all health workers directly involved with treatment or medication would also be required to participate. However, the majority of the facility staff would only be required to be open to interviews and descriptions of the state of patients and the effects of the condition and the treatment.
The project will be fundamentally supported by staff members that will conduct investigative actions throughout the facility. These tasks will likely include collecting health records, communicating with other hospital staff, and analyzing gathered data. As such, these physicians or hospital staff will require either data-management training or aid in the form of specialists. The new practices and procedures could be implemented successfully if a strategy of guaranteeing rewards for participation would be employed. Moreover, the facility managers should develop a clear schedule so that the data collection process would not overlap with the average work operations. Both of these strategies would improve the progress of the research and prevent difficulties of its realization.
Data Security Plan
A practical approach for protecting PHI can be considered a transaction processing system. This type of information system is engaged in collecting, storing, and extracting patient data. Moreover, the transactional information system ensures the protection of the received personal data, which is critically important in healthcare. In addition, it maintains a stable database and reduces the risk of information loss in critical and unforeseen circumstances. Hence, the measures that should be taken by the personnel include the gain of access to the transaction processing system, transferring the data to a new diabetes database after receiving consent from the clients, and deleting the data after the research is done.
Specialized laws have been established that regulate this sphere of activity. An example would be the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which directly affects the staff, policies, and practices of providing medical services (Edemekong et al., 2018). It is engaged in protecting private information from unauthorized access and fighting fraud and abuse in healthcare. The HIPAA will, indeed, have an impact on health care personnel, policies, and procedures. As was mentioned, the operations would be launched only after receiving the consent of the customers of the facility. Moreover, the data would be protected by the use of the transaction processing system. The research’s central policy is the openness regarding the purpose of the data collection process; namely, the patients should be aware of what uses their health information for the clinic. Finally, inattentive and careless treatment of PHI by the personnel will be fined.
Benchmarking Plan
The primary source of national data is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It could be used as a benchmark to compare with data from my facility. Namely, the source succinctly describes the statistics on the prevalence of diabetes, which could be contrasted with the data about the local patients to determine the difference in the situation and allocate the suitability of prevention methods. For assessment purposes, the 2020 HEDIS Comprehensive Diabetes Care quality measures from several types of healthcare plans could be used. Namely, the percentage of patients with type I and II diabetes who have poorly controlled diabetes, patients in the above-mentioned group with optimal blood pressure control, and patients undergoing eye exams are essential. These quality measures could be employed to compare the statistical data of my facility with the national database by presenting these standards to the medical personnel.
The factors influencing the quality measures include data accuracy and the particulars of a patient’s profile. Concerning accuracy, data errors are possible, and the number of excluded medical records is manifested in entities’ reports (NCQA, 2021). The collected data will be compared to the benchmarking and quality standards via several devices. Namely, the eye exam, blood pressure control, and HbA1c control data from five sources, including Medicaid HMOs, Medicare HMOs/PPOs, and commercial HMOs/PPOs, possess optimal compatibility. This can be ensured by looking at the data’s characteristics.
Quality and Change Management Strategies
The data outcomes could perform quality improvement reviews and recommend evidence-based changes to policy and procedure. Namely, the statistical information about the risk groups and the effectiveness of various medications would be obtained to deliver a more precise plan of treatment. According to Harvard Business Review (2019), to facilitate the changes after the project is finished, it is necessary to obtain the required resources and support, for example, from the government. Victoria Health Department (n.d.) also emphasizes the use of the stakeholders as an implementation practice. Hence, the predicted changes are cooperation with various healthcare groups governmental organizations and receiving financing from these stakeholders.
Implementation
The data will be collected by accessing documents and records in the medical institutions visited to care for diabetes conditions. The first step would be gaining access to the PHI, which would take two months. Moreover, during this period, the medical staff of the facility would be trained for the project. Next, the data will be obtained and stored on electronic media in the course of six months. After this step, paper sources of information would be created; finally, these sources would be analyzed by the researchers to propose improved care and prevention measures. The data will be destroyed in five or ten years since it may no longer be relevant after that time.
Conclusion
The proposed project will ensure the improvement of quality care due to its precise nature and technological design. It is integral to observe changes in the severity of the condition as well as the effectiveness of current treatment. The use of a one-year record and the provision of adequate training to the involved staff is likely to introduce a detailed and accurate picture of health trends among diabetes patients in the selected age bracket.
References
Edemekong, P. F., Annamaraju, P., & Haydel, M. J. (2018). Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. StatPearls Publishing.
Harvard Business Review. (2019). Four ways to make evidence-based practice the norm in health care. Web.
Menachemi, N., Rahurkar, S., Harle, C. A., & Vest, J. R. (2018). The benefits of health information exchange: An updated systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 25(9), 1259-1265. Web.
National Committee for Quality Assurance. (2021). Proposed retirement for HEDIS®1 MY 2022: Comprehensive diabetes care (CDC)—HbA1c testing. Proposed changes to existing measure for HEDIS MY 2022: Comprehensive diabetes care (CDC). Web.
Victoria Health Department. (n.d.). Implementing evidence-based practice. Web.