In a 4- to 5-page project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency. Your project proposal should include the following:
Describe the project you propose.
Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project.
Explain the patient outcome(s) or patient-care efficiencies this project is aimed at improving and explain how this improvement would occur. Be specific and provide examples.
Identify the technologies required to implement this project and explain why.
Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the nurse informaticist in the project team.
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The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies
Name
Institutional Affiliation
Introduction
One of the primary ways to measure success in the healthcare industry is through patient outcomes and the efficiencies achieved in patient care. This metric focuses on having practices and procedures useful in achieving care goals (UIC, 2018). These practices are to be improvised by both the provider and the patient. Additionally, the metric is efficient in identifying the processes that have no considerable positive impact on the desired goals and spearhead them accordingly.
As a healthcare organization that wants to achieve improved continuously patient outcomes and efficiencies in its patient care, nursing informatics needs to be part of its processes. Nursing informatics generally focuses on an integration of nursing science with other fields. This integration will allow the identification, definition, management, and communication of information, knowledge, and wisdom in a bid to pursue better patient care. McCormick and Saba (2015) indicate that specialists utilizing nursing informatics will use health information technology in making significant contributions to the healthcare environment. Healthcare organizations that still rely on traditional management approaches will face increasing challenges as they try to synchronize the various functions of different departments. Therefore, a nursing informatics project is a suitable proposal for this organization’s leadership as it will achieve the levels of patient outcomes and patient care efficiencies that it desires.
Description of the Project and Technologies To be Implemented
The integration of nursing informatics into the organization’s operations primarily entails bringing in health information systems that will aid the organization in achieving the desired outcome. The project will mainly involve several team members who will research and implement the right systems for the organization. It will also consider the training programs to be improvised to ensure each user learns without halting their capacity to carry out their daily operations. Therefore, it will be a gradual integration into the organizational systems.
With respect to this project, the desired goal is improved patient outcomes and efficiencies in patient care. To this effect, the Electrical Medical Records (EMRs) system is recommended. The EMR system focuses on enabling semantic interoperability of patient medical information and their proper storage (Levine, 2019). The system incorporates knowledge concepts as its archetypes, which offer support to the documentation of the patient’s information. These archetypes that are typical building blocks will handle a variety of operations, including instructions, Assessments, observations, and operations for the input information before they are also stored in it (Levine, 2019).
It is important to note that these systems do not just store or transmit information; they will manipulate that information. The manipulation is done in ways that will make a difference in the outcome of the patient and also the efficiency of the care given. The computation can point out any problems in the wrong medical prescription, thus alerting the clinician before its administration and making the proper changes required. The information in the EHR that is provided by the primary caregiver and the medical history of a patient is a valuable resource in informing a clinician attending to a patient in the event of emergencies. The clinician gets to know what allergies the patient may have, and thus they adjust the care appropriately even when the patient is responsive. Generally, through the project, health care professionals will point out any of the safety challenges promptly and address them prior to the challenges causing severe consequences on the outcomes and life of a patient.
These systems also improve the productivity of healthcare professionals due to their efficiencies in the work environment. When the project is in place, there will be a reduction in time spent in analyzing information and trying to access comprehensive patient data (Manca, 2015). Apart from streamlining these two operations, the scheduling of patient appointments correctly done, quality improvement projects can be improvised, interventions in practice can be incorporated, and further information research conducted for extensive knowledge levels (Manca, 2015). The systems will ensure that patients’ outcomes are improved and that the healthcare professionals’ operations as they provide care are at higher efficiency levels.
Stakeholders to be Impacted by the Project
This project will have an influence on both internal and external stakeholders to the organization. The internal stakeholders are mainly staff members and leadership. The systems will have a work environment that is more efficient rather than burdensome. When the nurses and doctors can easily access patient information, they spend more time ensuring that they are offering the right quality of care. Better quality care to the patients becomes a motivating factor in ensuring they give it to every patient under their care. The leaders get impressed with the better patient outcomes and better efficiencies that they work to ensure proper resources are available and optimally utilized.
The external stakeholders, primarily the patients and the surrounding community, will also be proud to be associated with the organization. Patients will be more willing to come for healthcare in the institution as they trust that the professionals will ensure quality healthcare is provided. The community will support the healthcare institution through the projects that include them and ensure that they are successful. Notably, Nursing informatics moves the healthcare organization closer to its vision and mission for quality healthcare.
The Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies Targeted By The Project
The project is specifically focused on improving several measures as they demonstrate the organization’s outcomes and efficiency. These measures include the mortality rates, the safety of the care levels, readmissions, patient experience, effectiveness of care, timeliness of care, and the efficient use of medical imaging (Tinker, 2019). In terms of mortality rates, these systems will help the professional in offering the right quality care, and thus, it expects to reduce the organization’s mortality rates.
Quality care means that the readmissions also reduce tremendously since the professionals can give medical care directly to the challenges faced. Patients are also expected to give accounts of better experiences in the organizations while in the institution. All these elements ensure that the organization is working under a data-driven approach (Tinker, 2019). This approach focuses on the optimal utilization of resources and increases the opportunities for the institution to partner with other entities for the betterment of the community. This project aims at reducing the total care costs, reducing the medical errors done by the healthcare professionals, and achieves optimal sepsis care characterized by early recognition and better outcomes.
The Roles Played By Project Team Members
The project will be spearheaded by several team members with distinct roles. The Head of the Organization’s Operation is to be the Project leader who is to ensure that the integration of systems is in line with the operations of the organization. The team will include the Head of IT who will advise on the right EMR system to be purchased. This software needs to be active and not difficult for health professionals to learn how to utilize it. Four Healthcare professionals (two doctors and two nurses) advise on the integration of patient information into the system. Through the collection of information from other healthcare givers, these four will present what is needed in the system for streamlined operations. The Head of HR is to guide and implement the training program for all the system users without impeding the running of operations. The Financial Officer will also be included to advise on the organization’s current financial capacity so that the IT department can realize which system will be purchased that will provide value for money.
The project team will have to understand the whole concept of nursing informatics and its importance in the organization. This ensures that they can spread the information within the organization, and the employees can accept the change.
Conclusion
The current contemporary medical environment requires existing healthcare institutions to look into improvising nursing informatics. Through these technologies, this organization will be in a position to make steady improvements towards the patient outcomes and patient care efficiencies. Therefore, it is time for the leadership to get past the costs that will be incurred in its implementation and consider the accrued long-run benefits.
References
Levine, D. (2019). What is a health information system? Retrieved from https://datica.com/blog/what-is-a-health-information-system
Manca D. P. (2015). Do electronic medical records improve the quality of care? Yes. Canadian family physician Medecin de Famille Canadien, 61(10), 846–851.
McCormick, K., & Saba, V. (2015). Essentials of nursing informatics. McGraw-Hill Education.
Tinker, A. (2019, June 7). The top 7 healthcare outcomes measures. Retrieved from https://www.healthcatalyst.com/insights/top-7-healthcare-outcome-measures
UIC. (2018, October 26). Impact of health informatics on nursing. Retrieved from https://healthinformatics.uic.edu/blog/the-impact-of-health-informatics-on-nursing-practice/
