The purpose of evidence a based nursing practice is to improve patient outcomes while reducing healthcare costs. If it is not utilized, the patient will suffer and healthcare costs will soar. In fact, the quality of patient outcomes is the new measurement by which healthcare providers are being reimbursed.
The Problem
In the United States, healthcare prices are set by the federally operated Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) which directly influences the standards of care in the healthcare setting. Essentially, what Medicare determines is “standard” prompts other insurance companies to follow their lead.
In 2012, Medicare started reimbursing hospitals using the Pay for Performance Model. The general measures on which hospital’s reimbursements are based include Process, Outcome, Patient, and Structure. When a hospital fails to score well on those measures, they do not get reimbursed and therefore lose money.
Unfortunately, many patient-controlled variables contribute to the quality of outcomes and affect a hospital’s reimbursement.
For example, if a patient was treated for Pneumonia in the hospital and then was readmitted within 30 days of hospital discharge, the hospital will not get paid.
Medicare would not pay the hospital for their care on the assumption that the readmission was caused by something that the hospital did or failed to do. They eliminate the patient’s vital role in avoiding hospital readmission.
They do not take into reimbursement the consideration that the patient went home after initial discharge (in which smoking cessation was taught and prescriptions were given) and smoked two packs of cigarettes each day for the last fifteen days.
Additionally, the patient did not fill or take his prescribed antibiotic medications. The outcome of the patient’s failure to follow treatment plans that he now needs to be readmitted to the hospital.
Since hospitals are unable to control some of the factors that contribute to poor patient outcomes, they concentrate on what they can do.
Due to the implementation of the Pay for Performance Model, there is now a laser focus on how to improve patient outcomes through evidence based nursing practice.
From a nursing leadership perspective, the universal application of evidence-based nursing practice across an organization is difficult especially when a nurse in first hired into an organization.
Nurses come into the hospital with different skills, habits, ideas, and approaches on how to care for patients. Many nurses practice a particular way because that is how they were originally taught. Some nurses are resistant to change and do not understand the long-term implications of failing to use evidence-based standards of care.
Understand the long-term implications of failing to use evidence-based nursing.
The Solution: Evidence Based Nursing Practice
A thorough nurse orientation program can ensure that incoming nurses to the organization learn how to practice evidence based nursing and will teach them why these standards result in quality patient outcomes.
To ensure the continuity of education and complete tracking during the on-boarding process, an online talent management program like Halogen is preferable to a paper trail.
Halogen Software is a tool that can be used by the key team members involved in new employee orientation to implement a quality program and track employee’s process as it occurs.
It fosters continuous improvement throughout the employee’s career within the organization. For example, human resource professionals and nursing managers using Halogen talent management software can:
- Monitor signatures on current job descriptions
- Analyze employee performance and peer’s evaluations
- Track certification and learning documents to be inspection ready
Nursing educators can also benefit from Halogen’s performance and talent management software as it enables them to:
- Assign e-learning to employees and monitor their progression
- Map learning activities to competences and performance standards
- Monitor which learning activities have an impact on employee performance
Hospital orientation is a stressful process for even the most seasoned nurses. Learning their way around the facility, parking, meeting new people, and learning the culture of the workplace can be daunting.
This software is designed to streamline and simplify the onboarding process so that nurses can focus on learning the correct evidence practice standards to support quality patient outcomes. Employees will be able to:
- Keep up with certification requirements and tasks via auto-email reminders
- They can upload and access primary source verification documents.
- Use their training reports to monitor career progress.
In today’s healthcare culture, quality patient outcomes and satisfaction are more important than ever in terms of a hospital’s continued operation.
Halogen supports a healthcare culture that focuses on improving patient safety and satisfaction to help organizations achieve quality patient outcomes. This software is a tool to use during the hiring process and throughout an employee’s job history with the organization, so that they can focus on providing quality care while improving patient’s lives.
