Technology To Enhance The Quality Of Care

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2008), “Scholarship for the baccalaureate graduate involves identification of practice issues; appraisal and integration of evidence; and evaluation of outcomes.”

American Association of College of Nursing. (2008). The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. Retrieved from: https://www.aacnnursing.org/Education-Resources/AACN-Essentials
Course Competency:
Explain innovative systems and distribution of technology to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety.
Content:
Scenario
You are a nursing supervisor at a private, critical access hospital offering a variety of clinical care and hospital services to the community. As part of this role, you conduct weekly patient satisfaction phone calls regarding their hospital stay and create patient satisfaction improvement plans for the weekly leadership meetings for any patient concerns.
You just completed a disheartening phone call with a geriatric patient named Mabel who had a six-day hospital stay following a diagnosis of pneumonia. Mabel started the call sharing that fifteen years ago, she was hospitalized with pneumonia at your hospital but was very pleased with her first stay. Unfortunately, this hospital stay presented a lot of challenges for her. She shared she had to stay an extra night because the doctor never showed to sign discharge papers; the pharmacy was closed overnight, so her prescriptions weren’t ready; and she still had not received a bill which had to be mailed because the computer system was shut down for maintenance when she called to inquire. She continued to share that she was provided access instructions for an online portal to view her records but the link does not work, and the user ID and password she was promised would be in the discharge paperwork but was nowhere to be found.

Instructions:
You are preparing for the weekly leadership meeting and only have one patient satisfaction improvement plan to create in response to Mabel’s feedback about her hospital stay. Also, they have asked each leader to bring two innovative technologies that they feel would improve patient safety to this meeting to start a conversation for purchasing new innovation. They are looking at the next fiscal year and want to budget for the integration of 2 innovations. Create an improvement plan using the format of your choice and add the two innovative technologies under the improvement plan. Be sure to include the following components:
Identify all of Mabel’s hospital stay concerns.
Specifically, identify how the failure of technology impacted her healthcare delivery.
Describe any innovative strategies you would recommend for improving Mabel’s concerns.
Identify how you will measure this innovative strategy.
Recommend two innovative technologies that the hospital should implement to promote patient safety.
Identify evidence from the literature to support how each technology has been shown to impact patient safety.
Describe how either of these innovative technologies could have improved Mabel’s hospital stay.

Sample Solution

In order to improve the patient experience, it is important for the hospital to integrate innovative systems and distribution of technology that will enhance both the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety. For instance, implementing a computer system with an automated reminder system would ensure that doctors are notifying patients in a timely manner regarding their discharge instructions as well as providing them with easy access when they need to find information such as viewing medical records or paying bills. Additionally, having a user-friendly online portal with secure login credentials would help speed up communication between provider and patient while protecting sensitive health information. Ultimately, these technologies can help provide better care for patients like Mabel and make sure they have a positive experience during their hospital stay.