Author: Bernard

Objective: Identify and assess the essential elements of quality control and quality improvement initiatives in the healthcare fields.

Introduction: Quality is critical in the healthcare fields because of the significant risk to humans from errors. Not only must the highest degree of quality be managed and maintained, but quality must also continuously be monitored and improved. Regulatory agencies and nongovernmental organizations provide standards and best practices relating to quality and healthcare consumers provide additional information that impact quality management. Basic quality management methods such as Continuous Quality Improvement are often used in healthcare. Data can be collected and analyzed to support quality initiatives and identify areas where quality improvement is needed.

Deliverable: The essay for this lesson is required to be a minimum of 750 words that clearly demonstrate your understanding of the activity. Essays should have a clear introduction, thesis statement and conclusion, written in APA format (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/). A minimum of three sources, at least two from the lesson, must be cited in-text and in the Reference list.

Step 1: Read the following questions and use what you have learned about this lesson’s objective to summarize your responses.

** Thesis should have 3 parts- one for each prompt/subheading. Finishes introduction paragraph. Please repeat the thesis in the conclusion!

• How can a healthcare facility use each of the concepts of Continuous Quality Improvement in managing quality? Provide an example that illustrates each concept.
• What role do state governments play in regulating healthcare delivery? What role does The Joint Commission play in quality management?
• In what ways do consumers impact quality management in healthcare? In your answer, include the role of the “healthcare report card.”

Step 2: Write a paper. Please review the essay rubric prior to proceeding.

Use these writing guidelines:

• Include a cover page and a reference page in addition to your required page count.
• Use APA format.
• Double-space text.
• Use section headings to organize.
• Indent paragraphs.
• Include in-text citations as appropriate.
• Use correct spelling, grammar, sentence structure and verb tense.

Use section headings to o

Objective: Evaluate risk management, security and safety applications in healthcare.

Introduction: Changes in the healthcare industry have been influenced by new policies and services to meet the influx of people needing healthcare. As the industry experiences rapid growth, so does the need for healthcare organizations to address risk management, security and safety within their physical environments. This essay will give you the opportunity to apply your knowledge of risk management, security and safety in the healthcare industry.

Deliverable: The essay for this lesson is required to be a minimum of 750 words that clearly demonstrate your understanding of the activity. Essays should have a clear introduction, thesis statement and conclusion, written in APA format (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/). A minimum of three sources, at least two from the lesson, must be cited in-text and in the Reference list.

Activity Details

Step 1: Read the following scenario.

You are a member of the Blue Mountain Hospital safety committee. Blue Mountain Hospital has experienced 397 days without injury to staff, a record they would like to keep improving. Recently in the news, a number of incidents around the world have impacted the security of patients’ personal information and of medical facilities. In response to these occurrences, you have been asked to audit the hospital’s risk management plan and make recommendations that will continue to keep employees and information at Blue Mountain Hospital safe.

Step 2: Write a paper.

Use what you have learned about this lesson’s objective to write a paper summarizing your responses to the scenario and the following questions/prompts:

** Thesis should have 4 parts- one for each prompt/subheading. Finishes introduction paragraph. Please repeat the thesis in the conclusion!

• How will you assess the risks Blue Mountain Hospital faces? Discuss methods, templates and processes.
• How will you manage and mitigate any impact to the security of patients’ personal information?
• How will you manage and mitigate patient, employee and visitor safety at the medical facilities?
• Describe your recommendations for a safety program and how it would help to protect the security of patients’ personal information and the medical facilities and to promote a safety-oriented culture.

Use these writing guidelines:

• Include a cover page and a reference page in addition to your required word count.
• Use correct APA 7th Edition format.
• Double-space text.
• Use section headings to organize.
• Indent paragraphs.
• Include in-text citations as appropriate.
• Use correct spelling, grammar, sentence structure and verb tense.

 

 

For this assignment, you will:
use the online tools of the Sprague Library to search for ONE peer-reviewed article from a peer-reviewed public health journal,
register the article you found so that no other students in HLTH 204 pick the same article,
upload the article in full-text, PDF form (not just a URL, hyperlink, or abstract – you need the FULL article!), and
write and upload a short summary to explain how THEORY is used by the researchers to address the public health problem they studied
The purpose of this assignment is to:
Give students practice at the skill of “literature search” – a valuable skill needed in many public health jobs
Acquaint students with examples of peer-reviewed public health research
Show students concrete examples of the use of theory in the design of public health needs assessments, interventions (also known as “programs”), and program evaluations
Strengthen students’ ability to describe and explain the role of a health behavior theory as applied to real-world public health problems
1. Find your article
Public health journal articles inform us about all kinds of public health problems. Your article can be about any public health problem, so when you start your search you can either specify a health problem (for example, diabetes, or HIV, or “head injury”, or COVID-19, or smoking, or violence, or anxiety, etc. etc.). Or, you can do your search without specifying a particular health problem, and just use general search terms to find any theory-based public health study.
When you do a search, sometimes it helps to use quotation marks around multiple words, to help narrow-down what you seek. For example, look at how quote marks are used in this sample list of keywords for a search:
theory “lead poisoning” intervention
The student picked a specific health problem that interested them (lead poisoning), and they put quote marks around the two words so that the search engine would only look for articles related to this problem. If the student had not put quote marks around those two words, the search engine would look for articles related to ANY kind of poisoning (for example, curious children who accidentally drink bleach they found in a kitchen cabinet; or adults who get food poisoning at a restaurant). And without quote marks, the search engine might interpret the word lead to mean several things: the toxic metal, or the act of being a leader, or a clue or tip that helps a person (“I have a job lead for you!”). The quote marks help to focus the search and save you time.
Here’s another example:
theory
“public health”
program
smoking
“United States”
In this search, the studies will be limited to those which took place in the U.S., rather than in other countries. If the student were interested in studies of smoking in some other specific country, they could replace “United States with keywords such as: China “Dominican Republic” (notice the quote marks – the country’s name is more than one word) Nigeria
3. Summarize your article
This might be the hardest part of the assignment. Academic research articles are often long, wordy, and filled with special terms and other jargon that many
people do not understand. Social and behavioral health scientists are very good at communicating with each other, but sometimes not so good at
communicating with the general public.
A tip which might help you:
Start by reading just the first sentence of each paragraph, until you reach the end of the article. Skip over any statistical tables for the moment. When you
reach the end of the article, go back to the beginning and then read the second sentence of each paragraph. Usually the most important information is
contained in the first one or two sentences of each paragraph. If you feel comfortable after getting that far, then try reading the whole thing – look carefully to
find the name of the theory (or theories) that the researchers used as the basis for their study. That information might be “buried” deeper inside one of the
paragraphs.
Your challenge is to summarize just some very basic things about the article, to demonstrate your ability to describe and explain the role of a health behavior
theory as applied to real-world public health problems.
Preferably an article about Veterans, has to be theory based though.