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Part A: Project Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment demonstrated by mapping and improving a healthcare process

Module title: Operations & Quality Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment

Program/location: MSc in Healthcare Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment, DUBAI, Year 1, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online-2017

Assignment title: Part A: Project Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment demonstrated by mapping and improving a healthcare process

Student ID: 17185149
17184711

Date of submission: 28.12.2017

Word count: Part A: 3539 words

Introduction

Quality services are the primary requirement in a discharge pharmacy. Therefore, consistency in the knowledge of the healthcare providers as well as the increase in the likelihood of required healthcare services are the indicators of quality services in a discharge pharmacy. The inefficient flow of work in a discharge pharmacy causes faults in service delivery (Godycki-Cwirko, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). The faults that arise in a discharge pharmacy are mainly caused by a faulty process rather than individuals in a discharge pharmacy. Researchers have shown that discharge pharmacy is currently delivering the low quality of services as they are required to provide as well as the capability of the discharge pharmacy to provide better healthcare services (Heiby, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). Therefore, through the application of the science of improvement, diagnosis and critical analysis an individual have the ability to resolve health care issues within the work-related processes. The quality improvement tools are also essential appliances for analyzing the problem areas in the discharge pharmacy thus the most appropriate improvements are achieved (Arguably Marais, 2017).

Identification of the Problem within the Process
Arguably Marais, (2017) states that the processes of service delivery in the discharge workflow as shown in the chart below show that the workflow begins with the doctor ordering the medicine, the process of ordering the medicine and the discharge pharmacy verifying the order takes around ten minutes. The technician pharmacist then checks the medication after the verification of the ordered medication; the process takes ten minutes. The technician pharmacy collects the medication from the discharge pharmacy a process that takes around ten minutes, the preparation and delivery process of the medication takes around thirty minutes. The patient can receive the curative or preventative medicine from the portal, which would take around three minutes or via the nurse, whereby the process of getting the medication from the nurse takes around fourth five minutes between the period the medication is prepared and the time it gets to the patient.

The workflow is indicated below in Figure 1.

Figure (1).

Accessing the performance of healthcare processes in a discharge pharmacy evaluates whether the healthcare processes are adhering to the stipulated consensus by the controllers of healthcare services. In addition, it helps in assessing whether the scientific and desired outcome on the patients is achieved (Arguably Marais, 2017). The principle of operations management helps in identifying all the possible gaps in the healthcare process and identifying ways of handling them. The principle of operations management helps in identifying the errors that result from faulty systems in a healthcare. However, the principles of operations do not provide the supposed improvements in the discharge pharmacy
Healthcare issues may arise due to the faulty process of dispensing medicine. More medicine is continually being discovered from the same family of drugs. Therefore, the drugs end up being given similar names. Unfortunately, due to the similarity of the names of drugs particularly when they are from the same drug family can confuse when the pharmacist is giving them out (Ikuma, and Nahmens, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). In cases where the error of confusing the medication required for a given patient is not detected, the patient ends up with the wrong medication. Therefore, the patient’s illness is not treated with leads to inefficiency in service delivery.
Secondly, it might be that there is poor prescription verification. Failure to verify drugs before giving them out to patients can cause the wrong drug being given to the wrong patient. The issue of confused medication can be corrected during the process of drugs verification (Heiby, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). However, in cases where there is no drug verification process during the dispensation of the drug, the patient ends up getting the wrong medication. The drug verification process may be faulty in a way that it cannot detect wrong medication dispensed by the pharmacy assistant.
The discharge pharmacy may misinterpret the doctor’s instruction probably because of the physician’s handwriting. A discharge pharmacy may have the instructions script that is handwritten from the doctor. In the case where the doctor’s handwriting is not clear, the pharmacy assistant ends up providing the wrong medication to the patient. Poor systems of giving instructions around the pharmacy may lead to errors occurring in the healthcare units (Heiby, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). Poor methods of giving instructions may range from the doctor to patient instructions, doctor to pharmacy assistant instructions as well as the pharmacy assistant to the patient.
Additionally, the pharmacist might wrongly trade the patient’s records. Swapping the patient’s record would automatically lead to the wrong patient getting the wrong medication. Also, there could be faulty means of keeping records by the pharmacist assistant. Poor record keeping leads to wrong information causes inaccurate medication. Both digital and manual record keeping may result in a faulty process of dispensing medication to patients. A slight confusion between different records of the patients leads to errors throughout the healthcare process. Incorrect labeling of records ranging from the discharge pharmacy staff records and the patient’s records leads to errors in the healthcare process.
In addition, due to faulty apparatus of measuring drugs, the pharmacist might make wrong measurements of the medicine he/she is supposed to administer. Consequently, the inaccurate amount of the drug will end up being dispensed to patients (Godycki-Cwirko, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). The faults in the apparatus may result from poor quality of apparatus, using the wrong apparatus to carry out a required obligation as well as old apparatus whose calibrations have been scrapped off over time.
Additionally, the discharge pharmacy might have a weak relationship between patients and the pharmacy staff. In the case where the patient takes wrong instructions from the doctor or does not get any instructions at all, would lead to side effects if the medicine is taken wrongly.
Also, too much time is taken between receiving the medication of a patient and dispensing the medication to the patient. On average the process takes more than an hour to serve a single patient on a normal day. Thus, a little number of patients is likely to be served in a day. Therefore, timing is one of the issues that may affect service delivery in the discharge pharmacy.
However, there is a well-stipulated plan on the service delivery to the patient. The plan is laid in a way that the roles of each discharge pharmacy staff are outlined. This ensures that there overlapping of the tasks in the discharge pharmacy are avoided. The laid plan ensures that each staff knows their role in the discharge pharmacy. This, therefore, ensures that the role there is clarity of the specific duties that one is supposed to carry out.

Critical Analysis of the Problem & quality tools improvement
Errors in healthcare processes are caused by failures in the process or the system of a discharge pharmacy. There are multiple quality improvement tools that are required for analyzing problems in a healthcare facility. The quality improvement tools help in identifying inefficiencies in the healthcare process as well as identifying errors in the systems that can easily be prevented (Thimbleby, 2013). The tool helps in assessing the performance of the healthcare process and using the data to inform viable changes to the process. Some of the tools that have been used in the previous studies to identify errors and improve healthcare processes include Six Sigma, the root-cause evaluation and analysis, the plan-to-do-act, the failure mode and the impact analysis as well as the lean technique (Kruse, Goswamy, Raval, and Marawi, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). In this case study, the Kaizen 5S model is used and easily explained in Figure Two.

Figure Two : Kaizen 5S model

The quality improvement strategies aimed at improving the healthcare process by making favorable changes to the process using the kaizen 5S model. The Kaizen 5S model is a continuous process of identifying and eliminating errors in healthcare. The process involves habits that establish sustainable discipline in the discharge pharmacy (Ikuma, and Nahmens, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). The model involves sorting issues according to their significant and setting then in correct order, cleaning the workspace, and creating a standardized process in which tasks are done. The models help in identifying and evaluating changes in the healthcare processes. Consider a case where the healthcare facility intends to reduce the time a patient spends before the medication is discharged. Studies have shown that around 11.6% of errors resulting in discharge pharmacy per assessments (Kanamori, Shibanuma, and Jimba, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online). The quality improvement tools help in developing the functional relationship between the maximum time a patient spends in the pharmacy and the proposed minimum time the patient would spend in the pharmacy (Ikuma, and Nahmens, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). From the study, the patient gets the medication after a minimum time of one hour.
From the study, It is evident that the lesser the number of assessments the more the errors that are bound to occur in the discharge pharmacy. For instance, the errors are highest in the month of June when the assessments were the least at 29 assessments and 20 errors. This shows a 69% rate of errors occurring when the assessment are few. Therefore, an increased number of assessments helps in reducing the number of errors occurring in the discharge pharmacy. The discharge pharmacy should seek to increase the number of assessment so that the number of errors occurring can reduce. Below is a chart illustrating the statistical distribution of errors per the total number of assessments each month.

The following chart (Figure Three) illustrates the distribution of errors in each assessment per month:

Months Errors Total number of assessments
Jan 1 64
Feb 2 71
Mar 3 54
Apr 4 49
May 14 31
Jun 20 29
Jul 2 20
Aug 3 22
Sep 4 68
Oct 4 57
Nov 3 47
Dec 2 20

Figure Three.

Where series 1 shows the flow of errors each month and series 2 indicate the total number of assessments
The graph helps in analyzing the number of errors experienced each month. The model begins by identifying the extent of the problem. Tools identify the nature and the extent of the problem in healthcare processes. Then, the model helps in identifying possible solutions to the problem.
To analyze the relationship between the errors and the total assessment, the writer used the Kaizen 5S methodology. The Kaizen 5S methodology involved sorting the data in terms of the months and the number of errors per month. Next, the author set data in an order which allowed me to see the true picture of the relationship between errors and the total number of assessments. The writer developed the standardization procedures that helped in ensuring the necessary changes are made in accordance with the evidence portrayed by the data.
Possible Improvements Based on Analysis
The major problems with the discharge pharmacy are consumption of time before the medication is discharged, the lean sigma model can be used to come up with the improvements. The lean sigma model helps in optimizing the workflow efficiencies in the case of a discharge pharmacy. The first action that can be taken to develop a solution is to correct all the records that are kept by the pharmacist assistant. All the actions taken to improve the condition of the healthcare processes should follow after all the records in the discharge pharmacy are review and reorganized (Hesselink, et al, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). The patients’ records should be arranged in a way that the records of each patient’s records can be easily retrieved. The records should also be verified to account for all the information of the staffs in the organization.
The discharge pharmacy can use electronic mode of keeping records. The electronic mode of storing information will help to reduce possible confusion of information. The electronic mode of storing information helps in ensuring that there is no possible confusion of patient’s information (Ettorchi- Tardy, Levif, and Michel, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service. Custom Essay Services Cheap). The electronic mode of storing the information is also considered to be more secure compared to the paper mode of storage. The electronic mode of storage helps in ensuring that the patient’s information does not get into wrong hands. This is through securing the information using security codes such as passwords. The electronic mode of storing the information will also be cost-efficient.
Additionally, the discharge pharmacy should also employ automatic modes of giving medications to patients. The automatic method will lessen the chances at which the pharmacist may swap the medication mistakenly. This is so since the mode would use the first come first served mode of service. Automatic method of storage can also reduce the rate at which data can be lost. The method also allows for quick transfer of information from one department to the other, thus ensuring that there is quick service delivery to the patients (Hesselink, et al, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). In cases where the discharge pharmacy intends to conduct an analysis, software such used in social sciences can be used. Such software includes the SPSS or even the MATLAB software. The patients, as well as the pharmaceutical staff data, can be analyzed and managed. The special tool can also be used to find the relationship between each erroneous prescription and the complaint. This, therefore, ensures that viable solutions to the problems that may arise in the discharge pharmacy.
The discharge pharmacy should also be equipped with the electric machine that can measure the drugs with accuracy. Some of the errors that result in cases why the pharmacist measures the drug can be avoided by using electronic means of measuring the drug rather than using apparatus. The electronic means do measuring drugs ensures that more accurate amounts of the drug are a measure to prevent drug overdose or underdose. The electronic means of measuring drugs are also better at ensuring that the there is no drug contamination.
In addition, the pharmacist should uniquely mark the containers containing medicine that have similar names. Each contains containing the drugs should be marked uniquely to prevent any possible confusion of the drugs. The markings should also be easily identified to ensure that there is no possible confusion of the drugs during prescription and drug administration (Hesselink, et al, 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay). The physicians should also write specific and eligible drugs to the patients.
The discharge pharmacy should also verify the patient’s name against the records to avoid fulfilling the error of wrong medication. The records should be correctly arranged and recorded to ensure that the right medication is given.
Lastly, the pharmacist assistant should explain the dosage of the drug to the patient, the generic name of the drug and the drug brand (Hughes, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). However, the pharmacist should use simple languages that would not result in more confusion to the patient. The pharmacist should also teach the patients the means of differentiating different drugs in cases of possible confusion to the patients.

Realistic Approach to Achieve Improvements
While implementing changes in a healthcare process, the writer would make the process to be less strenuous as possible. This is through using the 5S Lean methodology. The writer would initiate the process by sorting the applicable issues to implement. This is through ensuring that the author sensitize the community as well as giving priority to the most important changes that require being implemented. For better improvement of the strategies, the writer would ensure that the community and the staff are aware of the changes that are likely to take place in the healthcare process. The initial approach would ensure that the staff are comfortable changes as well as giving room to provide their own views on the changes.
While implementing the changes, the author would focus on the microsystems. Changes in the microsystem are the basis to change in the whole organization (Kruse, Goswamy, Raval, and Marawi, 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online, 7). Changing the operations of the microsystems would ensure that there is complete change on the issue at hand. Thinking of the healthcare processes as a system is a basis for change. The microsystems that the author would initially implement the improvement strategies are the care providers unit, the laboratory technicians as well as the call staff. The goal of implementing changes in the microsystem is to ensure that show an emphasis on the small units in the healthcare processes which helps in realizing the objectives of the healthcare facility.
The next approach is to understand and implement the improvements to the healthcare processes. The author would carry out a continuous process of implementing changes to the cycles. As the writer implement the improvement, there will be issues that will arise and require my attention. Some these issues include the adaptation process of the improvement to the old system. Also, there are other challenges that are required to be faced at each stage of implementing the changes. In each process, the challenges should handle the soonest time that they are discovered.
What is more, the writer would select the measures that would act as indicators of progress of the new model. The measures would help me to ensure that the changes that the author have implemented are yielding as well as identifying further areas of improvement. The measure should, therefore, be connected to the previous strategies that were used and the improvements made in the previous strategies. This helps in monitoring the improvement. Through monitoring, the faults of the improved strategies and the strengths are weighed. The evaluation helps to know the faults of the new improvements can be tolerated of the new model should be scrapped off.
In addition, the author would ensure that the approach is ensuring that standard professionalism is maintained in the workplace. This is through ensuring that the healthcare staff acquires regular training that would help them to be continually updated on the emerging issues and ways of handling them. The training can be carried out through regular seminars. Additionally, the management of the discharge pharmacy can also sponsor the staff to further their studies. This will ensure that the staff acquires more training required in their field of profession.

Characteristics and Techniques of Project Get research paper samples and course-specific study resources under   homework for you course hero writing service – Manage ment
Managing the healthcare process, through identification of the possible problems and proposing the possible solutions is also relevant to project management. To implement changes in the healthcare, the writer would also use the project management techniques. Firstly, the author would use strategies that are easy to implement and strategize. For the easy implementation of strategies in project management, the techniques of improving the quality of healthcare processes need to be easy to implement (Montgomery, et al, 2017). Therefore, the writer would use user-friendly implementations that are easy to apply in the healthcare process. Some of these strategies include reorganizing the strategies to ensure that all the wrongly marked and taken records are corrected.

Real-time strategies should be used to ensure that there is the accuracy of the strategies used. The accurate date that is implemented and modified in real time ensures that all the possible mistakes are detected and corrected in real-time. Therefore, the author would implement a continuous system in the faulty processes of the organization. The continuous process of implementing the strategies ensures that there is a continuous process of perfecting the service delivery in the healthcare processes in the organization. In addition, the writer would ensure that the mistakes are corrected once they occur. The author would reduce the cases where the writer postpone carrying out a strategy. Postponing the time to correct an issue can make an individual forget about making the changes (Thimbleby, 2013).
The strategies that the author have laid would also ensure that there is a collaboration with the stakeholders at hand. The concepts, actions were taken as well as the users of the improved strategies ensures that there are proactive exchanges between the three groups of persons. The author would ensure that strategies than ensure teamwork among the workers in the organization are implemented. The strategies would involve ensuring that the management of the discharge pharmacy and the workers work as a team in service delivery (Durham, and Alden, 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer). The writer would ensure teamwork is encouraged in the organization to ease communication around the organization.
In addition, the author would ensure that the strategies are achievable and take the least amount of time to implement. Ensuring that the strategies are quicker to achieve makes sure that the initial goal is not forgotten in the process. The implementation process should take the least time possible to ensure that the initial goals of the organization continue running without being disturbed (Montgomery, et al, 2017). Before implementing the strategies, the writer would ensure that they have all the resources required to run the changes. This would help to ensure that the implementation period is minimal.

Gantt chart :

Table View

Gantt View

Conclusion
In conclusion, implementing change in an organization is a continuous process that requires precise strategizing of the changes. The policies of discharging medicine to the patients as well as ensuring the satisfaction of the nurses in service delivery in a discharge pharmacy should be improved. This will help in improving the healthcare services in the health care sector and ensuring efficient service delivery. While carrying out the strategies, the writer would consider the healthcare processes as a system rather than an institution. This helps in realizing continuous improvement strategies. Therefore, the quality improvement process of healthcare is relevant to project management.

References

Durham, C.F. and Alden, K.R., 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer. Enhancing patient safety in nursing education through patient simulation.
Ettorchi- Tardy, A., Levif, M. and Michel, P., 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service. Custom Essay Services Cheap. Benchmarking: a method for continuous quality improvement in health. Healthcare policy, 7(4), p.e101.
Heiby, J., 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay. The use of modern quality improvement approaches to strengthen African health systems: a 5-year agenda. International journal for quality in health care , 26(2), pp. 117-123.
Hesselink, G., Zegers, M., Vernooij-Dassen, M., Barach, P., Kalkman, C., Flink, M., On, G., Olson, M., Bergenbrant, S., Orrego, C. and Sunol, R., 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay. Improving patient discharge and reducing hospital readmissions by using intervention Mapping. BMC health services research, 14(1), p.389.
Hughes, R. G., 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer. Tools and strategies for quality improvement and patient safety.
Ikuma. L.H. AND Nahmens, I., 2014: 2024 – Essay Writing Service | Write My Essay For Me Without Delay. Making safety an intergral part of 5S in healthcare. Work, 47(2). Pp.243-251.
Godycki-Cwirko, M., 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer. Patient Safety. Guidebook on implementation of Quality Improvement in General Practice, p.66.
Kanamori, S., Shibanuma, A. and Jimba, M., 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online. Applicability of the 5S management Method for quality improvement in healthcare facilities: a review. Tropical medicine and health,44(1), p.21.
Kruse, C. S., Goswamy, R., Raval, Y. and Marawi, S., 2016: 2024 – Do my homework – Help write my assignment online. Challenges and opportunites of big data in health care: a systematic review. JMIR medical informatics 4(4).
Montgomery, H.E., Haines, A., Marlow, N., Pearson, G., Mythen, M.G., Grocott, M.P.W. and swanton, C., 2017. The future of UK healthcare: problems and potential solutions to a system in crisis. Annals of Oncology, p.mdx136.
Marais, H.J., 2017. Assessing the data quality of performance information generated by the health sector in the Breede Valley Subdistrict for evidence-based decision-making(Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University).

Thimbleby, H., 2013. Technology and the future of healthcare. Journal of public health research, 2(3).
Young, T. and McClean, S., 2010 – Essay Writing Service: Write My Essay by Top-Notch Writer. Some challenges facing Lean Thinking in healthcare.

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