The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Health Outcomes
Overview
For this Performance Task Assessment, you will propose to the leadership of your organization a nursing informatics project for improving outcomes or efficiency.
Submission Length: 4–5 pages in the Impact of Nursing Informatics on Health Outcomes project proposal. APA 7 Format
The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Health Outcomes
In a 4- to 5-page paper written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization to improve outcomes or efficiency. Your paper should include the following:
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- Develop an Executive Summary in which you describe the project you propose to the leadership of your healthcare organization. Be specific. (1 page)*NOTE: The response must synthesizes and integrates at least two outside resources and two competency-specific resources that fully support the responses provided.
- Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project. (1/2 page–1 page)
- Explain the outcome or efficiency that this project is aimed at improving and explain how this improvement would occur. (1 page).*NOTE: The response must synthesizes and integrates at least two outside resources and two competency-specific resources that fully support the responses provided.
- Identify the technologies required to implement this project. (1/2 page–1 page)
- Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the Informatics Nurse Specialist in the project team. (1 page)
Course reading materials link attached below. (At least two should be reference sources)
Sample Answer
Executive Summary
The proposed project is, implementing EHRs to improve the efficiency of the workflow at the orthopedic surgery department. Healthcare workflow is a critical but overlooked concern that determines how well healthcare settings can deliver quality care (Krousel-Wood et al., 2018). This is specifically an issue in the orthopedic surgery department associated with complex and unique lines of roles occurring before, during, and after successfully conducting a procedure. Poor management of healthcare workflow at the company has resulted in the standstill of medical practices at times of crisis which tends to reduce the quality of healthcare delivered and the satisfaction of patients and caregivers (Krousel-Wood et al., 2018). Regardless of the type of healthcare sector, it is evident from the research that healthcare sectors find it difficult to control the healthcare workflow because of the complexity of workflow (Garcia et al., 2019). Because of this, the company no longer finds it the right option to rely on traditional and unsophisticated solutions. The current system has resulted in inefficient and sloppy patient information practices, which are the primary reason for high readmission rates in our company.
In respect to this, the organizational leader should consider the benefits of implementing EHRs in the company, which can positively impact the efficiency of workflow and, at the same time, results in other benefits like reduction of medication errors and improving the quality of services delivered to patients (Krousel-Wood et al., 2018). The organization should carefully select and integrate EHRs replace the existing traditional systems. By doing this, our company will be able to enhance and optimize the current workflow, communication, and teamwork among the providers (Garcia et al., 2019). Implementing a viable patient management system in the orthopedic surgery department will enable all the providers to enhance the quality by focusing on patient care.
Stakeholders impacted by the project.
Patients
Patients are the critical consumers in every healthcare organization. Hence, the implementation of this program will directly affect the care delivered to the patient (Boonstra et al., 2017). The main focus of EHRs is to ensure that the quality of care is delivered (Nilsen et al., 2020). Therefore, it will be necessary to consider patients’ opinions before employing the system. The team will reach patients by establishing the patient focus group or consulting patient representatives to identify the existing tech-related problems that currently impact them, like difficulty finding information shared with them electronically.
Healthcare Providers
Healthcare providers, especially those working at the orthopedic department, can be significantly impacted by implementing EHRs. Some providers include; physicians, clinicians, pharmacists, nurses, and technicians (Boonstra et al., 2017). These providers must be contacted before the system is implemented to give their opinions because they will be interacting with the technology daily (Nilsen et al., 2020). It will be necessary to establish an open dialogue with the selected stakeholders to make it easier for them to understand how the new technology is likely to impact their performance. Clinicians who are well-versed with the informatics from an early adopter company should also be contacted to help their colleagues understand the system.
Leaders
It will be critical to include stakeholders from the medical functions of the hospital. All the leaders would like to know how the technology is likely to impact their patient’s needs. By involving these leaders, the team responsible for implementing the technique can efficiently address the concerns raised about the effects of the system, and they can receive valuable feedback upfront (Nilsen et al., 2020). The consultation and involvement of the clinical leadership will help the team gain more credibility within the company, hence bringing momentum to the proposed project and ensuring its efficiency until it is completed.
The Efficiency that the Project Aims to Improve
The EHR system aims to fine-tune the hospital workflows to remove redundancies that can eat the hospital resources unnecessarily. It will also prevent delays in the delivery of healthcare and improve the flow of information (Krousel-Wood et al., 2018). Implementing an effective healthcare management system will help streamline the workflows to minimize the potential cases of medical errors, assist in ensuring compliance with the existing rules, and enhance the quality of the delivered care (Garcia et al., 2019). The current system is associated with a lot of delays. Patients are occasionally stuck due to unnecessary delays like waiting for the responsible provider to receive the paperwork as a sign-off before the patients are discharged. Implementing EHR system will automate the process by ensuring that patients get approved in real-time (Krousel-Wood et al., 2018). The new system will allow doctors to use their mobile apps to approve patients’ discharge requests.
The new system will also improve the efficiency in pharmacies by automating the process of allocating medicines. Currently, there are many instances where drugs reach wrong handles due to human error and paperwork (Garcia et al., 2019). Implementation of the new system will ensure that clinicians can select the appropriate medication electronically to ensure transparency when it comes to those in the workflow, the audit, and the approved medications. In this manner, it will be possible to ensure that patients get the right medicines at the right time. Even though healthcare sectors can’t become 100% efficient, implementing an EHRs will improve the utilization of resources (Krousel-Wood et al., 2018). The use of informal strategies may result in bottlenecks, which can result in productivity losses (Boonstra et al., 2017). The implementation of EHR software will automate the manual, repetitive tasks and reduce the burden on the staff.
