Introduction
The US health care system undergoes significant threats because of the increased number of medical errors. Negligence and poor services standards heavily influence patient safety and quality of treatment that has worsened significantly lately. Patience safety recession is largely caused by the growth of health care associated infections that are acquired in the course of treatment in a health care environment (Herzer, n. d.).
It is obvious that each nursing specialty and setting can be under the risk of infection, including Outpatient Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Setting, where safety and quality are of the utmost importance. In order to analyze the situation in whole, it is necessary to define the validity and reliability of information about all infections threatening patients’ lives as well as evaluate the effectiveness of the existing methods of detecting particular diseases and health care associated infections.
Summarizing Impacts of Health Care Associated Infections on Health Care Delivery
Considering safety and quality as a precondition and a foundational value for the health care delivery within the organization, it is natural that any deviations in that matter are inadmissible (Jencks, Gelinas, and Coyle, 2009). Health care associated infections are on this list as well because they constitute the major threat to the hospitalized patients in the United States. In this respect, before considering the consequences, a preliminary focus should be made on the scope of the problem. Specifically, it is obvious that health care units pay close attention to the infections that are impossible to prevent, but not on the ones that cannot be eliminated because of information deficiency (Bennet, Jarvis, and Brachman, 2008, p. 802).
In this respect, the impossibility to prevent the infection spread can lead to problems with health care delivery in terms of safety and quality aggravation. First of all, the main shortcoming of this situation consists in impossibility to assure the patients of the absolute safety and quality because of the absence of measures to be taken to solve the problem. Second, difficulties with controlling health care associated infections outcomes often lead to problem with meeting the existing standards of health care delivery.
In particular, if a nurse professional lacks knowledge about a threat of a particular infection, he/she will not be able for foresee further complications, which is a real disaster if a patient, for example, should be located within an absolutely sterile setting. This situation particularly concerns patients who are in their post-operational recovery period. Finally, health care delivery can also be under threat specifically for patients who have sudden acute respiratory syndrome (Murphy, 2006). Ignorance of possible infection being present in a health care setting prevents nurse professionals from establishing fully safe and quality conditions of treatment.
Defining Strategies Aimed at Improving Safety and Quality of Health Care Delivery
The fact that the infection control problem exists is undeniable, however, there are some actions that still need to be implemented to improve the situation. Particular focus should be made on fundamentals of the programs that were established earlier and that were oriented on inflection prevention (Kanof, 2009, p. 5). Particular stress should be made on prioritizing infection control and prevention practices, introduction of scientific research and evidence, and studies of contextual information and pertinent literature.
First, the prioritization of practices and empirical observations will surely provide a solid basic for building theories and for working out effective strategies for reducing the risk of infection. Specifically, the existing recommendations should be reviewed and re-evaluated to find the problems and to fill in the gaps. Everything – from correct hand hygiene process to proper wearing and usage of gloves – should be reconsidered to find out more safe solutions to the problem (Malik, Hall, and Howard, 2009, p. 101).
Introducing changes to nursing practice will contribute to safety and quality of health care delivery. Moreover, empirical knowledge and experience serve as the basis for building concepts, theories, plans, and recommendations. For instance, in order to identify a particular problem, one should investigate the basics needs of patients and carry out a survey on a specific infection as well as the way nursing professionals undertake specific actions on eliminating this infection. An in-depth analysis should involves the identification of the source of infection and causative organism, discovery of the routes of spread and risks related to it, and evaluation of the risk with regard to other patients and healthcare workers.
Second, research and evidence-based studies can also supplement the existing knowledge on infection control and prevention. The evaluation of specific risk factors, such as risk severity is also of primary concern for nurse professionals (Malik, Hall, and Howard, 2009, p. 101). Once all factors and evidence have been designed and assessed, it is imperative to present findings and discussion preventive measures that should be put into action to improve health care delivery standards (Kanof, 2009, p. 6). Finally, all findings should be carefully recorded and summarized to foresee similar problems in future. Precedential learning is of great importance in such situations, especially when it comes to clinical practice.
Finally, analysis of contextual information and pertinent literature review is a valuable addition to the above-presented actions because empirical observations will not be valid and approved without consideration of existing theoretical concepts and recommendations. Besides, proper data correlation will contribute to presentation of consistent conclusions and outcomes (Malik, Hall, and Howard, 2009, p. 102).
In addition, control policies and infection investigation must be constantly reassessed with regard to newly appeared researchers and articles on infection elimination in a hospital setting. In whole, regular control audit create a constant monitoring of the effectiveness of the implemented actions that should strictly adhered to changing standards in the sphere of health care delivery. More importantly, the implementation of particular actions should be coordinated with international practices as well.
Plan for Quality and Safety Improvement Strategies in the Field of Health Care Delivery
Once all the above-identified strategies have been thoroughly considered, it is purposeful to proceed with implementing a plan on infection control and reduction in a health care setting. In this respect, the implementation stages will include the analysis of the working environment, such as department designs, hygiene facilities locations, provision of hygiene products, and behavioral patterns established among the nurse professionals. The research findings will help to identify, modify and solve the present situation for the better.
Targeted Audience
The program is oriented on nurses working in the field of Outpatient Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. The research will be aimed at discussing specific behavioral patterns and skills worked in the course of clinical practice. Particular accent will be placed on hand-washing, medicine tackling, and disinfection activities conducted. Patients will also be involved into observation to define whether all prescriptions in terms of infection elimination are strictly followed.
Relevant Stakeholders
Concerned parties involve the nurse professionals, managerial staff of the hospital, patients, and the government. The latter stakeholder involvement is explained by their concerns with the quality and safety of all procedures and actions help within a hospital setting. They should also pay close attention to the established patterns and standards of health care delivery as well as the way they are affected by existing infection control and prevention measures.
Resources Needed
First of all, specific equipment is required for testing and evaluating the disinfection and hygiene means enabling to check to effectiveness of infection control. Second, in order to investigate the efficiency of procedures related to infection control in a hospital setting, it is necessary to evaluate nurses’ accuracy in terms of following hygiene rules. This analysis will be carried out along with evaluation of hygiene facility location and, therefore, a specific commission is required for checking all aspects of clinical practice.
Aside from empirical observations and equipment, research should be done on looking for recent articles and related studies on the assessment of hygiene environment in hospital as well as existing nursing standards aimed at controlling health care associated infections.
Processes for Implementation
The plan will be consisted of three stages: problem identification, evaluation, and implementation. The first stage will involve the analysis of possible sources and sites of infection appearance, causes of appearance and deployment, and possible time of infection spread. Second stage will help to define the extent of seriousness of infection as well as threats it constitutes for the patient’s health. With the help of equipment, resources, and the commission, it will be possible to assess possible routes of problem solving. Finally, the third stage will involve the implementation of the above-presented solutions and recording of improvement it brings to the overall safety and quality of health care delivery.
Reference List
Herzer, K. (n. d.) A success story In American health care: Eliminating infections & saving lives in Michigan. Healthreform. Web.
Jencks, S., Gelinas, L., and Coyle C. (2009). Quality Improvement and Safety. Web.
Kanof, M. (2009) Health-Care-Associated Infections in Hospitals: Continuing Leadership Needed from HHS to Prioritize Prevention Practices and Improve Data to These Infections. US: DIANE Publishing.
Mallik, M., Hall, C., and Howard, D. (2009) Nursing Knowledge and Practice: Foundations for Decision Making. New York, NY: Elsever Health Sciences.
Murphy, C., (2006). “The 2003 SARS Outbreak: Global Challenges and Innovative Infection Control Measures”. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Vol. 11 No. 1. Web.