Health Information Technology and Implications for Patient Safety
Assignment 7:
Complete both sections of this assignment and compose your answers in a 5 page essay using APA 7 format and be sure to cite your source. Included a conclusion and reference page.
Access the HealthIT.gov web site. Review this web page before clicking and downloading the Clinical Communication guide. Answer the following question:
1. How many phases are assessed?
2. Who should complete the self-assessment and evaluate potential health IT-related patient safety risks?
3. How many recommended action steps are involved?
4. What is the role of the informatics nurse when using this guide?
After reading in your text book (pages 509-510) and learning about incorrect orders being placed on patient electronic records caused by inactivated alerts the Administrator of an Accountable Care Organization (ACO) has asked the informatics nurse to investigate TeamSTEPPS for the practice. After accessing the web site: http://teamstepps.ahrq.gov/about-2cl_3.htm create an action plan to implement TeamSTEPPS in this practice.
Reference:
McBride, S. & Tietze, M. (2016). Nursing Informatics for the Advanced Practice Nurse: Patient Safety, Quality, Outcomes, and Interprofessionalism (1st ed.). Springer Publishing Company.
Sample Paper
Question 1: How many phases are assessed?
Three consecutive stages of a TeamSTEPPS initiative’s implementation are evaluated. As a result, a TeamSTEPPS initiative’s execution is separated into three parts. The assessment step is the initial phase. Its objective is to establish whether or not a company is ready to adopt and execute a TeamSTEPPS program. To determine an institution’s degree of preparedness, a number of elements must be evaluated. First and foremost, according to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, (2018), a company that is prepared to undertake change should have an environment that is friendly to change. The ability of its management and senior employees to effect change reflects this. This involves identifying their sense of involvement, preparation, and capacity to make the necessary changes, as well as providing the necessary resources, including time and staff, to help with the transition (McBride et al., 2016). An internal site evaluation can be used to gather the information. This entails acquiring pertinent real information from accessible institutional channels, for instance, data from research concentrating on key stakeholders’ impressions of TeamSTEPPs execution or a staff and patients satisfaction study.
Stage II goal is to build the required support for the change’s implementation. As a result, planning is one of the most important actions at this phase. The change team will design a thorough action plan to lead the initiative’s execution after determining that the company is ready to change. The data pertaining the resources needed to achieve change will be included in the action plan. This comprises change team information, what the TeamSTEPPS wants to accomplish, and the methods to execute the change, that will specify processes and strategies carried out throughout the execution phase, such as employee training and project assessment.
The third phase involves keeping the intervention going. As a result, it entails a variety of actions aimed at boosting the intervention’s beneficial results while also addressing the many hurdles to its effectiveness. Teamwork coaching is one of the primary acts carried out during this period (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2018). This is when executives as well as instructors examine the requirements of their employees and continue to coach and teach them in order to improve collaboration. Second, leaders in the organization work alongside the change group to improve that the intervention’s characteristics or results are incorporated into the organization’s culture.
Question 2: Who should complete the self-assessment and evaluate the potential health IT-related patient safety risk?
Nurses, for example, use a variety of tactics to deliver patient care, including healthcare information technology. With this background, they can assist in identifying numerous health IT-related problems that impact the safety of patients. According to Zeayter (2021), a nurse, for example, might conduct a self-evaluation to establish the extent of his or her IT abilities and how they influence his or her capacity to utilize health IT to provide care. When utilizing health IT to provide treatment, those with poor abilities are more prone to make mistakes, endangering the patient’s safety.
Question 3: How many recommended action steps are involved?
In order to develop a cooperation system in a healthcare institution, there are ten measures to take. The first stage is to build a change team that will be in charge of obtaining the relevant data to ensure that the TeamSTEEPS system is successfully implemented. Defining the problem or a possibility of change is the second action phase (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2018). The aim of the TeamSTEPPS initiative is determined in step three. Establishing a TeamSTEEPS approach is the fourth action stage. The fifth action stage is to create a strategy for assessing the efficacy of the developed intervention to see if it meets the change team’s objectives. Step six entails the creation of an implementation strategy to aid in the intervention’s execution. Step seven entails establishing plans for continuous process improvement. In step eight, the initiative is communicated to the main stakeholders. Step nine involves creating an implementation action plan. Finally, the initiative is presented for review and approval.
Question 4: What is the role of the informatics nurse when using this guide?
First, because they have the skills to manage the project, the informatics nurse may serve as a leader on the change team. Second, an informatics nurse’s job includes evaluating the effectiveness of quality-improvement programs. As a result, they may use the guide to assess the progress of the TeamSTEPPS approach and determine its efficacy in meeting the goals. Finally, an informatics nurse maybe a teacher. As a result, nurse informatics may assist in the development of an excellent training strategy for the change team in order to improve collaboration.
Question 5: Action plan to implement TeamSTEPPS in this practice
Medical mistakes due to electronic health records in nursing practice are an issue in this practice. Medical mistakes deteriorate the quality of treatment provided to patients, resulting in poor patient outcomes. This is a problem that also impacts the healthcare system. Nurse informatics can apply the action plan below to solve this problem.
Step 1: Change team creation
According to Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2018), the informatics nurse must build an interdisciplinary change team with people with varying levels of experience, responsibility, and commitment to resolving the problem at hand. A nursing leader, IT professionals, an EHR provider, and nurses are among them.
Step 2: Problem Identification
The informatics nurse will next notify members of the team about the concern, the cause of the problem, those involved, where and when it takes place after forming a change team. Medical mistakes arise as a result of inactivated notifications while using electronic health records. This problem impacts patients, hospitals, and healthcare providers.
Step 3: Aims of the intervention
This step involves describing clearly whatever the team hopes to accomplish with the intervention of TeamSTEPPS. As a result, the informatic nurse will determine the team’s goal, the clinical outcome they must attain, and the overall process’s goal.
Step 4: Designing the intervention
Nurse informatics will cooperate alongside change team members to create a successful TeamSTEPPS approach after determining the intervention’s goal. The approach will aid in solving the selected issue and achieving the intended goals (Parker, Forsythe & Kohlmorgen, 2019). In this scenario, establishing an in-service education program will assist improve the nurses’ knowledge and competencies to utilize electronic healthcare effectively, as well as to detect and remove numerous elements that might lead to mistakes in electronic patient records.
Step 5: Evaluation plan
This step involves devising a strategy for evaluating the intervention’s efficacy and determining if the stated objectives have been met. The strategy will detail the procedures for collecting data, the information sources, as well as the techniques for evaluating the intervention’s efficacy.
Step 6: Implementation plan
The major task of this stage is to create a plan for implementation. As a result, the change team and nurse informatics create a diagram illustrating the way in-service education program will be conducted, defining the funding necessary for the training and determining the leader of execution.
Step 7: An outline for continuous process improvement
The change team will be needed to produce a strategy that includes the actions taken to obtain continual improvement process is needed to guarantee the problem does not recur in the future (Chen et al., 2019).
Step 8: Communication plan
This step involves building a communication strategy that specifies what sort of information to provide to the project’s key stakeholders and when to send it.
Step 9: Action plan
An action plan is created by the change team that will lead the intervention’s execution. This will include all actions completed from the first to the eighth steps.
Step 10: Approval/Support
This final step involves reviewing the work. As a result, the informatics nurse will propose the action plan to relevant parties for approval, such as the nurse manager and officials.
Conclusion
With the growing implementation of electronic health records (EHRs) as well as other health informatics, the incidence of negative patient safety events (PSEs) and safety incidents that are at least partially related to EHR is on the rise. Health informatics dangers can emerge as a result of issues other than system design and development, including as installation, modification, installation, and EHR updates.
References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2018). The Ten Steps of Action Planning.
Retrieved from
https://www.ahrq.gov/teamstepps/instructor/essentials/implguide1.html#steps
Chen, A. S., Yau, B., Revere, L., & Swails, J. (2019). Implementation, evaluation, and outcome
of TeamSTEPPS in interprofessional education: a scoping review. Journal of
interprofessional care, 33(6), 795-804.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/13561820.2019.1594729
McBride, S., Delaney, J. M., & Tietze, M. (2016). Health information technology and
nursing. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 112(8), 36-42.
Parker, A. L., Forsythe, L. L., & Kohlmorgen, I. K. (2019). TeamSTEPPS®: An evidence‐
based approach to reduce clinical errors threatening safety in outpatient settings: An
integrative review. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 38(4), 19-31.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jhrm.21352
Zeayter, M. (2021). Improving Patient Safety and Health Care Quality through Health
Information Technology: AUBMC Case Study. Social Sciences, 11(6), 1784-1805.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1532046418301813
