Hospital Safety Score Web

1. Consider the hospital-acquired conditions that are not reimbursed for under Medicare/Medicaid. Among these conditions are specific safety issues such as infections, falls, medication errors, and other safety concerns that could have been prevented or alleviated with the use of evidence-based guidelines. Hospital Safety Score, an independent nonprofit organization, uses national performance measures to determine the safety score for hospitals in the United States. The Hospital Safety Score Web site and other online resources provide hospital safety scores to the public.

   Read the scenario below:

   Scenario
   As the manager of a unit, you have been advised by the patient safety office of an alarming increase in the hospital safety score for your unit. This is a very serious public relations matter because patient safety data is public information. It is also a financial crisis because the organization stands to lose a significant amount of reimbursement money from Medicare and Medicaid unless the source of the problem can be identified and corrected. You are required to submit a safety score improvement plan to the organization’s leadership and the patient safety office.

   Select a specific patient safety goal that has been identified by an organization, or one that is widely regarded in the nursing profession as relevant to quality patient care delivery, such as patient falls, infection rates, catheter-induced urinary infections, IV infections, et cetera.

   DELIVERABLE: SAFETY SCORE IMPROVEMENT PLAN

   Develop a 3–5 page safety score improvement plan.

   • Identify the health care setting and nursing unit of your choice in the title of the mitigation plan. For example, “Safety Score Improvement Plan for XYZ Rehabilitation Center.”
   • You may choose to use information on a patient safety issue for the organization in which you currently work, or search for information from a setting you are familiar with, perhaps from your clinical work.
     • Demonstrate systems theory and systems thinking as you develop your recommendations.

   Organize your report with these headings:

   Study of Factors

   • Identify a patient safety issue.
   • Describe the influence of nursing leadership in driving the needed changes.
   • Apply systems thinking to explain how current policies and procedures may affect a safety issue.

   Recommendations

   • Recommend an evidence-based strategy to improve the safety issue.
   • Explain a strategy to collect information about the safety concern.
     • How would you determine the sources of the problem?