Introduction
This project has several different objectives and aims to satisfy each of them as completely as possible, with none of them having a higher priority than any of the others. As such, it is critical to understand the distinctions between the various goals and the methods that can be used to gain a better understanding of the topics. This part of the assignment identifies three desired outcomes and provides a more detailed analysis of how pertinent data for each will be collected and analyzed. The first target is to minimize occupational staff injuries, which are currently at a level that is higher than what is acceptable. The second is to minimize injuries to the patients, a task that is among the foremost responsibilities of a nursing home. The third and final goal is to minimize the company’s worker compensation costs and related expenses without compromising the quality of the work done by the staff. The sections below elaborate on each of these issues and explain how the study will be conducted.
Staff Occupational Injury Minimization
Any injury that a staff member sustains as a result of working is classified as an occupational injury. This type of damage harms the company through a reduction of employee efficiency, potentially to a level where they are unable to work, and the possible need to pay out compensation for the injury. O’Brien et al. (2019) describe injuries sustained while moving residents, hitting equipment, and suffering from resident aggression as well as musculoskeletal disorders developed over a more extended period as the typical occupational injuries in long-term care settings such as nursing homes. However, these categories are broad and do not provide specific suggestions as to how injuries in the workplace may be reduced. As such, it is necessary to investigate what injuries are most common in the nursing home and how they may be addressed.
There will be two principal sources of data for the answer to this question: the records of the facility and the workers. The former can supply accurate information about the issues that take place in the nursing home and enable management to prioritize the most prominent issues. The latter can provide their opinions regarding the hazards that they consider likely to lead to injury. While factual reporting is essential, workers can also discuss specific causes and highlight cases where they were nearly injured but managed to avoid harm. As such, these two sources can be used in conjunction to obtain information about pertinent issues and collect thoughts from employees regarding these problems and their causes. To that end, two different data collection methods will be required, with each being better suited to its specific source.
The home’s database can be best applied if the researchers collect incident reports from it and process them. The most prominent categories of injury can be established in a preliminary analysis, and then, each case can be classified into one of these types. The different groups of incidents can then undergo comparisons with each other, in both broad terms and specific comparisons of cases. Meanwhile, the employees of the nursing home will be surveyed about their concerns and suggestions for improvement in the facility’s safety. According to Delaney et al. (2018), there is a case for both traditional surveys and the standardized Quality Indicator Survey, and the management will have to choose the superior method based on the severity of the issues at the site. The results of both incident report collection and survey distribution can be processed using the SPSS software package.
Patient Injury Minimization
Nursing home patients are prone to be injured as a result of their low ability to care for themselves. They can hurt themselves while attempting to do something, with falls being a prominent issue, or due to medical errors on the part of the staff. Both categories of damage are the responsibility of the institution, whether due to its failure to prevent the injury or the active malpractice that leads to it. As such, the minimization of these incidents is among its most significant responsibilities and should be taking place continuously. To that end, the management must identify cost-effective methods of minimizing errors and guaranteeing patient safety. However, to achieve this goal, it is first necessary to know what issues are the most prevalent among the residents of the nursing home in question.
Similar to the last case, the facility’s database and its patients will serve as the two principal sources of information. Incident reports can be retrieved from the database and classified into distinct categories for further analysis comparison. The residents can be surveyed to determine their foremost concerns as well as general opinions and suggestions. Rantz et al. (2017) claim that this method can lead to a significant reduction in injuries, especially in the long term. As the home’s patients spend most or all of their time there, they have numerous opportunities to notice issues and highlight them. However, they may also forget some of their smaller concerns and recall them later, after the survey. As such, it may be prudent to conduct several rounds of questionnaire distribution to encompass a broader range of issues.
With that said, most specific causes of injury can usually be traced to a broader oversight that enabled them to appear. As such, it may be prudent to conduct a root cause analysis and determine the policies that facilitate injuries. They can then be changed, with the effect spreading to smaller issues and eliminating dangers efficiently. Incident report analysis can also be a useful tool for the reduction of injuries, including those caused by the distribution of inappropriate medication (Härkänen et al., 2017). Lastly, the results of the surveys can be processed to obtain a broad picture of resident concerns while retaining the possibility of examining specific cases. As with staff injuries, SPSS should be sufficient to process the information and help the researchers conduct the necessary analyses.
Worker Compensation Costs Minimization
Worker compensation costs are the money that the company has to pay to its employees who become unable to work due to injuries. Typical examples include medical expenses, lost wages, disability benefits, and ongoing care costs. This characteristic is closely related to occupational injuries, as it results directly from such incidents. However, worker compensation costs depend on the severity of the damage done as well as the total number of injuries in a period. With that said, Wuellner and Bonauto (2019) note that reductions in the overall number of injury claims also mirror lower overall compensation costs. As such, the company will have to address both the frequency of its injury incidents and their severity. This difference distinguishes this category from the minimization of occupational injuries, though the two investigations are likely to produce many similar results.
The data contained in the facility’s financial records are the sole source necessary for this research. They will contain detailed information about every recorded incident where the home had to pay out compensation to a worker. As such, surveys are unlikely to add any useful information to the overall assessment of the problem. The business can collect information about the different claims, their causes, and the associated costs. It can then separate injuries into categories based on how frequently they occur and how much they ultimately cost the business. SPSS will be used to process the data and obtain a variety of useful statistics. Using this information, management can decide on how it should approach injuries and what prevention approaches are ultimately best.
Conclusion
The three issues discussed in this paper can be processed using broadly similar methods. The SPSS software package should be sufficient for the analysis of each problem based on the data gathered in the process. Concerning data collection, the patients and workers will receive questionnaires that inquire into their injuries. Moreover, the home’s financial records and its database of injuries will provide information on harmful incidents and the related compensation payouts. The resulting surveys and incident reports will be grouped, classified, and compared to identify the most prominent issues. Additionally, root cause analysis will take place for patient injuries, many of which likely stem from broad policy oversights. Through these measures, the researchers should be able to identify critical issues and develop measures to address them.
References
Delaney, C. M., Rafalson, L., Fiedler, R. C., & Hernick, J. I. (2018). Quality indicator survey versus traditional survey in New York State: A comparison of results from annual nursing home surveys. Journal of Aging & Social Policy, 30(2), 127-140. Web.
Härkänen, M., Saano, S., & Vehviläinen‐Julkunen, K. (2017). Using incident reports to inform the prevention of medication administration errors. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 26(21-22), 3486-3499. Web.
O’Brien, W. H., Horan, K. A., Singh, S. R., Moeller, M. M., Wasson, R. S., Jex, S. M., Matthews, R. A., & Barratt, C. L. (2019). Relationships among training, mindfulness, and workplace injuries among nurse aides working in long-term care settings. Occupational Health Science, 3(1), 45-58. Web.
Rantz, M. J., Popejoy, L., Vogelsmeier, A., Galambos, C., Alexander, G., Flesner, M., Crecelius, C., Ge, B., & Petroski, G. (2017). Successfully reducing hospitalizations of nursing home residents: Results of the Missouri Quality Initiative. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 18(11), 960-966. Web.
Wuellner, S. E., & Bonauto, D. K. (2019). Fewer workers’ compensation claims and lower claim costs if employers with high injury rates achieved the rates of their safer peers. Journal of Safety Research, 70, 97-103. Web.