Description
Identify a quality improvement opportunity in your organization or practice. In a 1,250-1,500 word paper, describe the problem or issue and propose a quality improvement initiative based on evidence-based practice. Apply "The Road to Evidence-Based Practice" process, illustrated in Chapter 4 of your textbook, to create your proposal.
Include the following:
- Provide an overview the problem and the setting in which the problem or issue occurs.
- Explain why a quality improvement initiative is needed in this area and the expected outcome.
- Discuss how the results of previous research demonstrate support for the quality improvement initiative and its projected outcomes. Include a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources published within the last 5 years, not included in the course materials or textbook, that establish evidence in support of the quality improvement proposed.
- Discuss steps necessary to implement the quality improvement initiative. Provide evidence and rationale to support your answer.
- Explain how the quality improvement initiative will be evaluated to determine whether there was improvement.
- Support your explanation by identifying the variables, hypothesis test, and statistical test that you would need to prove that the quality improvement initiative succeeded.
While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.
This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.
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Explanation & Answer
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Quality Improvement Proposal – Outline
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Overview of the Problem and the Setting
Rationales for the Quality Improvement Initiative
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Research Evidence to Support the Proposed Quality Improvement Initiative
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Implementation Steps for the Proposed Quality Improvement Initiative Evaluation
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Measures for the Outcomes of the Quality Improvement Initiative
Running head: QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL
Proposal for Quality Improvement Initiative for Medication Administration Errors
Name
Institution
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QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL
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Proposal for Quality Improvement Initiative for Medication Administration Errors
Overview of the Problem and the Setting
Medication administration errors (MAEs) are one of the significant sources of safety and
quality issues that occur at medium-sized hospitals during several aspects of the processes for the
delivery of the continuum of care. While physicians, nurses, and pharmacists endeavor to limit
the likelihood of these errors during prescribing of assessment information, the issuance of
prescription, dispensing, and administration of the medicines used by patients, most patients are
still exposed to them during hospitalization. The enormous impact of the dangers or threats that
arise from the MAEs is responsible for the emphasis by accrediting and licensing institutions on
its prevention by hospitals before issuance of accreditation. Therefore, the implementation of a
quality improvement initiative by Levi Hospitals for acute and emergency care units would not
increase its potential to achieve accreditation status of Joint Commission International but
motivate its healthcare workforce to collaborate and cooperate more during the delivery
processes for patient-centered care.
Rationales for the Quality Improvement Initiative
Quality improvement programs are designed to include processes and systems that detect
deviations for approved best-practices for the delivery of the various components of the
continuum care needed by patients including hospitalized and out-patient ones to restore their
health and wellbeing. In the case of medication errors, these quality improvement initiatives are
used to identify existing and recurring problems during the prescribing aspect of patient
examination, the input of the information into the automated or manual systems, and the
dispensing of medicines to in- and out-patients. Also, this initiative is required to detect the near
QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROPOSAL
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miss errors that occurred but prevented from reaching the patient, which eliminates the potential
complications that could compromise patient safety (Wang et al., 2015). However, MAEs
remained the most critical aspect of medical errors that evidenced-based quality improvement
programs have the most significant positive impacts because of its role in the identification of the
sources of the problems and determination of the interventions to eliminate the threats that get to
hospitalized patients.
Specifically, quality improvement initiatives consist of monitoring and auditing processes
for the factors that increase the potential occurrence of errors such as poor written
communication by physicians and nurses. In this regard, Haw, Stubbs, and Dickens (2014) wrote
that common error-provoking situations occur during prescriptions, documentation, and
transcription, which enhances the adverse impacts of the problems associated with pharmacy
dispensing errors, and inventory management. They further added the challenges of dealing with
safety issues that are related to medication administration errors that could be addressed through
the implementation of quality improvement initiatives is the use of evidence-based practices for
dealing with the anticipated workload, and interruptions during drug administration. An example
of a quality improvement program that can eliminate MAEs in the acute and emergency care
units of medium-sized is the integration of barcode verification technology with the electronic
medication administration infrastructure. Hence, the design and implementation of a quality
improvement initiative is essential for this hospital because of its role and effectiveness in the
elimination of all the factors that could result in the occurrence of MAE at the facility
Research Evidence to Support t...