Feb 23, 2024 Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
NURS FPX 6004 Assessment 1 Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation
Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation
A dashboard refers to a display tool used to alert, monitor trends, plan, and compare key performance indicators, mostly observed in a professional simplified user interface. It employs data visualization approaches to support health providers, and facility managers visualize and explore health data on processes and outcomes (Randell et al., 2020). This paper seeks to discuss the evaluation of the current organizational performance with regard to prescribed benchmarks laid down by government laws and policies at the federal level. I will also advocate for an ethical action to solve benchmark underperformance in the organization and a potential solution for enhancing the quality of care and performance.
Dashboard Metrics Associated with Benchmarks Set Forth by Federal Health Care Laws or Policies
A dashboard metric in healthcare refers to a distinct performance measurement applied to monitor, analyze and optimize all pertinent healthcare processes to improve patient satisfaction. Dashboard metrics connected with benchmarks set by federal healthcare laws include the Average Hospital Stay, which evaluates the duration patients are spending in the inpatient, and the Treatment Costs metric, which estimates how much a patient costs to the hospital (AHRQ, 2020). Additionally, the Hospital Readmission Rates metric monitors the number of patients returning. The Patient Wait Time metric tracks waiting times to enhance patient satisfaction, and the Patient Satisfaction metric examines patient satisfaction in detail. Furthermore, the metric on Staff-to-Patient Ratio makes sure that a facility has adequate staff to attend to patients, whereas the Canceled/missed appointments metric monitors patients’ appointments (AHRQ, 2020). Patient Safety metric prevents incidents in the hospital while ER Wait Time tracks rush hours in a hospital’s emergency room. Lastly, the Costs by Payer metric identifies the health insurance type of patients.
The metrics are established by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) through the Network of Patient Safety Databases (NPSD). NPSD was created to present an interactive, evidence-based management resource for health providers, Patient Safety Organizations, and others (AHRQ, 2020). The NPSD is implemented by the AHRQ, the lead agency for patient safety.
Shortfalls identified in our organizational performance with respect to the dashboard metrics include treatment costs, wherein patient’s inpatient and outpatient costs have been increasingly on the high end for the past three years. Patients with chronic illnesses have the highest treatment costs. There is also a shortfall in the hospital readmission rates, with about 18% of patients being readmitted within six months. Patients with high readmission rates include those aged 65 and older with chronic conditions such as cancers, cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes. Furthermore, the metric on staff-to-patient ratio was not met primarily on the nurse-to-patient ratio, with most of the nursing units not meeting the recommended ratio.
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Gaps were identified in the organization’s information on patient satisfaction, canceled/missed appointments, and ER wait times. The organization has not been keen on evaluating patients’ satisfaction with care which affected the evaluation process. Besides, missed appointments are not recorded, and the ER wait times have not been assessed. Availability of information on the three metrics could have significantly improved my evaluation of dashboard metrics.
Challenges That Meeting Prescribed Benchmarks Can Pose for a Health Care Organization
Healthcare organizations experience increasing challenges in providing high-quality services at reasonable costs. One major challenge encountered by organizations includes a lack of information technology (IT) resources. IT resources are required to identify data sources and processes to employ in data generation, crucial in dashboard development (Karami et al., 2017). IT resources are a challenge because data is often stored in many incompatible source systems such as information, accounting, and human resource systems (Karami et al., 2017). Consequently, a health organization must resolve incompatibilities in the meaning and definition of data elements to facilitate consistent reporting.
Another challenge for health organizations is a lack of a suitable and well-organized IT infrastructure founded on performance measurement principles. A lack of a proper IT infrastructure makes it challenging for hospital managers to assess, track, and manage performance effectively since the performance dashboard displays crucial information about attaining strategic objectives (Randell et al., 2020). Consequently, hospital managers encounter challenges in recognizing problem areas requiring corrective interventions, evaluating the basis of poor performance, predicting trends, and establishing benchmarks.
The challenge in data sources can result in poor data quality due to huge amounts of irrelevant data and unreliability. As a result, a healthcare organization may not use the dashboards to the maximum level and produce unreliable results. Besides, the challenge on IT infrastructure can result in an organization designing inefficient dashboards, thus not meeting prescribed benchmarks (Randell et al., 2020). I assume that a healthcare organization must invest in healthcare technology to meet its prescribed benchmarks. The lack of a strong IT foundation is likely to result in inconsistent, time-consuming, incomparable, and static performance reports that do not transparently replicate the real picture of an organization’s performance.
A Benchmark Underperformance in a Health Care Organization That Has the Potential for Greatly Improving Overall Quality or Performance
Benchmarking involves comparing and measuring an organization’s services versus other national organizations. An example of a benchmark underperformance in our organization with the potential for significantly improving overall quality and performance is improving patient safety. Patient safety affects the greatest number of patients since reduced safety results in increased hospital stays, complications, comorbidities, readmission rates, and increased healthcare costs (Weggelaar-Jansen et al., 2018). Additionally, reduced safety affects the greatest number of staff due to a high workload which causes burnout and poor health outcomes.
If a healthcare organization focused on improving patient safety, it would significantly reduce staff workload, and reduce patient and operational costs. Tracking this benchmark can help an organization identify which part of the care process the safety incidents occur and adjust its standards appropriately (Weggelaar-Jansen et al., 2018). Furthermore, improving patient safety can help reduce the incidents that compromise patient safety, such as medical errors, patient falls, and hospital-acquired infections. Improving patient safety can help meet metrics such as reduced hospital stays, readmission rates, and ultimately reduced hospital costs (Weggelaar-Jansen et al., 2018). Besides, it can improve overall health outcomes and patient satisfaction, thus increasing profits for the organization
Ethical Action to Address a Benchmark Underperformance
My recommended action to improve patient safety in the organization will be directed to the hospital’s management to improve working conditions by increasing nurse-to-patient ratios. Nursing ratios can be increased by hiring more nurses and motivating staff to reduce high turnover that further worsens the understaffing situation (Bridges et al., 2019). Increasing nursing ratios will significantly reduce burnout and eventually lower turnover rates, which are the major cause of understaffing. When staffing nurses in various units, the nursing manager should consider factors, such as patient acuity, admission numbers, staff skill-mix and expertise, discharges, transfers, physical layout of the unit, and available technology (Bridges et al., 2019). Considering these factors will ensure that a unit is staffed based on the patient care workload and fair staffing.
The management should increase nursing staffing because nurses play a vital role in promoting patient safety while providing direct patient care. Nurses assess patients for deterioration in clinical status, track errors and near misses, and perform numerous tasks to make sure that a patient is provided high-quality care (Bridges et al., 2019). Besides, they understand care processes and shortcomings in systems that may compromise patient safety and communicate changes in patients’ health status. Missed nursing care incidents are strongly connected with a high patient workload and cause undesirable consequences for patients and nurses (Bridges et al., 2019). Consequently, increasing nursing ratios can ensure that a nurse is not overwhelmed and lower incidences of medication errors, falls, pressure ulcers, infections, and readmissions.
Increasing nursing ratios is an ethical action since it upholds the principle of beneficence and nonmaleficence since it promotes better health outcomes and prevents harm to the patient. It also promotes the welfare of nurses since they have reduced burnout levels and promote better physical and mental wellbeing (Bridges et al., 2019). Besides, increased staffing promotes justice because more nurses are available to take care of patients who require their services.
Conclusion
A dashboard contains goals set by users and constantly meets their expectations since the end-user experience is a major feature of dashboard software. Benchmarks laid down by the Federal are set by the U.S HHS under the Network of Patient Safety Databases, which the AHRQ runs. Shortfalls identified in the evaluation of dashboard metrics include high treatment costs, high readmission rates, and an unhealthy staff-to-patient ratio. A healthcare organization can face challenges such as a lack of IT resources and unsuitable IT infrastructure when meeting the Prescribed Benchmarks resulting in unreliable results. My proposed solution to address the benchmark underperformance on patient safety is increasing nursing ratios. The action will reduce incidences of missed nursing care, reduce incidences of compromised patient safety, and improve nurses’ wellbeing.
References
Agency for Health Research and Quality. (2020, August). NPSD Dashboards. https://www.ahrq.gov/npsd/data/dashboard/index.html
Bridges, J., Griffiths, P., Oliver, E., & Pickering, R. M. (2019). Hospital nurse staffing and staff-patient interactions: an observational study. BMJ quality & safety, 28(9), 706-713. https://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2018-008948
Karami, M., Langarizadeh, M., & Fatehi, M. (2017). Evaluation of Effective Dashboards: Key Concepts and Criteria. The open medical informatics journal, 11, 52–57. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874431101711010052
Randell, R., Alvarado, N., McVey, L., Ruddle, R. A., Doherty, P., Gale, C., Mamas, M., & Dowding, D. (2020). Requirements for a quality dashboard: Lessons from National Clinical Audits. AMIA … Annual Symposium proceedings. AMIA Symposium, 2019, 735–744.
Weggelaar-Jansen, A., Broekharst, D., & de Bruijne, M. (2018). Developing a hospital-wide quality and safety dashboard: a qualitative research study. BMJ quality & safety, 27(12), 1000–1007. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2018-007784
Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
Review the performance dashboard for a health care organization, as well as relevant local, state, and federal laws and policies. Then, write a report for senior leaders in the organization that communicates your analysis and evaluation of the current state of organizational performance, including a recommended metric to target for improvement.
Maintaining standards and promoting quality in modern health care are crucial, not only for the care of patients, but also for the continuing success and financial viability of health care organizations. In the era of health care reform, health care leaders must understand what quality care entails and how quality in health care connects to the standards set by relevant federal, state, and local laws and policies. An understanding of relevant benchmarks that result from these laws and policies, and how they relate to quality care and regulatory standards, is also vitally important.
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· Health care is a dynamic, complex, and heavily regulated industry. For this reason, you will be expected to constantly scan the external environment for emerging laws, new regulations, and changing industry standards. You may discover that as new policies are enacted into law, ambiguity in interpretation of various facets of the law may occur. Sometimes, new laws conflict with preexisting laws and regulations, or unexpected implementation issues arise, which may warrant further clarification from lawmakers. Adding partisan politics and social media to the mix can further complicate understanding of the process and buy-in from stakeholders. As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend or family member, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
How many health care laws can you name that affect your practice in your current or future workplace? How do they impact your daily work? How many regulatory agencies oversee the types of services your health care organization provides? Which regulatory agencies apply to your workplace setting? Are you familiar with the process of complying with those agencies in order to maintain certification? You might be overwhelmed as you consider these broad questions.
What local, state, or federal health care policies or laws set benchmarks and standards reflected in performance dashboards common in your professional area of practice?
· What are the potential challenges or opportunities for health care organizations or interprofessional teams in meeting prescribed performance benchmarks and standards? Factors you might consider include the organization’s mission, its size and resources, operational policies and procedures, and the population the organization serves. Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
Preparation for Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
For this assessment, you may choose one of the following three options for a performance dashboard to use as the basis for your benchmark evaluation.
Option 1: Dashboard and Health Care Benchmark Evaluation Simulation
If you decide to use one of the simulation dashboards for your evaluation, review both dashboards, as well as the relevant local, state, and federal laws and policies linked in each dashboard. Choose one of the dashboards and consider the metrics within it that are falling short of the prescribed benchmarks.
Option 2: Actual Dashboard From a Professional Practice Setting
If you choose an actual dashboard from a professional practice setting for your evaluation, be sure to add a brief description of the organization and setting that includes:
· The size of the facility that the dashboard is reporting on.
· The specific type of care delivery.
· The population diversity and ethnicity demographics.
· The socioeconomic level of the population served by the organization.
Note: Ensure that your data is Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant. Do not use any easily identifiable organization or patient information.
Option 3: Hypothetical Dashboard Based on a Professional Practice Setting
If you have a sophisticated understanding of dashboards that are relevant to your own practice, you may also construct a hypothetical dashboard for your evaluation, based on that setting. Your hypothetical dashboard must present at least four different metrics, at least two of which must be under-performing the relevant benchmark set forth by a federal, state, or local laws or policies. In addition, be sure to add a brief description of the organization and setting that includes:
· The size of the facility that the dashboard is reporting on.
· The specific type of care delivery.
· The population diversity and ethnicity demographics.
· The socioeconomic level of the population served by the organization.
Note: Ensure that your data is HIPAA compliant. Do not use any easily identifiable organization or patient information.
Report Requirements for Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
Structure your report in such a way that it would be easy for a colleague or supervisor to locate the information they need. Be sure to cite relevant local, state, or federal health care laws or policies when evaluating metric performance against prescribed benchmarks. Cite an additional 2–4 credible sources to support your analysis and evaluation of the challenges in meeting the benchmarks, the potential for performance improvement, and your advocacy for ethical action.
Note: The tasks outlined below correspond to grading criteria in the scoring guide.
In your report, be sure to:
· Evaluate dashboard metrics against the benchmarks set by local, state, or federal health care laws or policies.
9. Which metrics are below the mandated benchmarks in the organization? Evaluate weaknesses within the entire set of benchmarks.
9. What are the local, state, or federal health care laws or policies that set these benchmarks?
. Analyze challenges that meeting prescribed benchmarks can pose for the organization or for an interprofessional team.
10. What are the specific challenges or opportunities that the organization or interprofessional team might have in meeting the benchmarks? For example, consider:
1. The strategic direction of the organization.
1. The organization’s mission.
1. Available resources:
3. Staffing.
3. Operational and capital funding.
3. Physical space.
3. Support services (any ancillary department that supports a specific care unit in the organization, such as a pharmacy, cleaning services, and dietary services).
1. Cultural diversity in the organization.
1. Cultural diversity in the community.
1. Organizational processes and procedures.
10. How might these challenges be contributing to benchmark underperformance?
. Evaluate a benchmark underperformance in the organization or interprofessional team that has the potential for greatly improving overall quality or performance.
11. Which metric is underperforming its benchmark by the greatest degree?
11. Which benchmark underperformance is the most widespread throughout the organization or interprofessional team?
11. Which benchmark affects the greatest number of patients?
11. Which benchmark affects the greatest number of staff?
11. How does this underperformance affect the community the organization serves?
11. Where is the greatest opportunity for improvement in the overall quality or performance of the organization or interpersonal team—and ultimately in patient outcomes?
. Advocate for ethical action in addressing the benchmark underperformance that has the potential for greatly improving overall quality or performance.
12. At which group of stakeholders should your advocacy be directed? Which group could be expected to take the appropriate action to improve the benchmark metric?
12. What are some ethical actions that the stakeholder group could take that support improved benchmark performance?
12. Why should the stakeholder group take action?
. Communicate your findings and recommendations in a professional and effective manner.
13. Ensure that your report is well organized and easy to read.
13. Write clearly and logically, using correct grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
. Integrate relevant sources to support your arguments, correctly formatting source citations and references using current APA style.
14. Did you cite relevant local, state, or federal health care laws or policies when discussing the mandated benchmarks? Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation Report Assignment
14. Did you cite an additional 2–4 credible sources to support your analysis, evaluation, and advocacy?
Performance Benchmarking Overview
This activity enables you to review a metrics dashboard and hospital fact sheet to evaluate Mercy Medical Center’s performance relative to local, state, and federal benchmarking requirements.
•Dashboard and Health Care Benchmark Evaluation.
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Benchmarking and Performance Measurement Tools
This article discusses best practices in benchmarking to aid organizations in creating a plan.
•Krause, J. (2017, July 28). Four questions to ask about healthcare benchmarking. Retrieved from http://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/benchmarks/four-questions-ask-about-healthcare-benchmarking
These resources examine performance measurement tools and benchmarking used for health care delivery.
•Behrouzi, F., Shaharoun, A. M., & Ma’aram, A. (2014). Applications of the balanced scorecard for strategic management and performance measurement in the health sector. Australian Health Review, 38(2), 208–217.
•Johns Hopkins Medicine. (n.d.). Patient safety and quality. Retrieved from http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/patient_safety_quality_dashboard/understanding_performance_metrics/core_measures.html
•National Committee for Quality Assurance. (n.d.). HEDIS and performance measurement. Retrieved from http://www.ncqa.org/hedis-quality-measurement
Performance Benchmarks Challenges and Benefits
This study outlines key barriers to measuring and benchmarking quality of mental health care, describes innovations currently underway worldwide to mitigate barriers and offers recommendations for improving quality of mental health care.
•Kilbourne, A. M., Beck, K., Spaeth-Rublee, B., Ramanuj, P., O’Brien, R. W., Tomoyasu, N., & Pincus, H. A. (2018). Measuring and improving the quality of mental health care: A global perspective. World Psychiatry, 17(1), 30–38.
This resource discusses future options and challenges with respect to the Affordable Care Act provisions and requirements.
•RAND Corporation. (n.d.). The future of U.S. health care: Replace or revise the Affordable Care Act? Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/health/key-topics/health-policy/in-depth.html
This article explores hospital rankings in the United States and how they provide benefit to organizations and consumers in consideration of the Affordable Care Act.
•Huerta, T. R., Hefner, J. L., Ford, E. W., McAlearney, A. S., & Menachemi, N. (2014). Hospital website rankings in the United States: Expanding benchmarks and standards for effective consumer engagement. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(2), e64.
This article discusses key practical issues in the development of performance dashboards.
•Ghazisaeidi, M., Safdari, R., Torabi, M., Mirzaee, M., Farzi, J. & Goodini, A. (2015). Development of performance dashboards in healthcare sector: Key practical issues. Acta Informatica Medica, 23(5), 317–321.
Health Care Policies, Laws, Legislation, and Metrics
This resource explains current health care policy in the United States.
•Oliver, T. R. (Ed.). (2014). Guide to U.S. health and health care policy. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
This article discusses the most significant reforms to the U.S. health care system as provisions and mandates in the Affordable Care Act.
•Martin, E. J. (2015). Healthcare policy legislation and administration: Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Journal of Health and Human Services Administration, 37(4), 407–411.
This resource discusses the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) current payment pathways for physicians relative to quality measures and benchmarks.
•American Medical Association. (n.d.). Quality payment program specifics. Retrieved from https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/quality-payment-program-qpp-specifics
NURS FPX 6004 Assessment 1 Dashboard Benchmark Evaluation
The good intentions, as well as the commitment of a facility to hard work and training of staff, cannot guarantee effectiveness and quality of patient outcomes. Instead, quality improvements and the commitment of staff to hard work must be measured by comparing the outcomes with the established performance benchmarks. Adhering to the standards of care and promoting quality health services stand out as the most crucial aspect of health facilities in contemporary society (Ghazisaeid et al., 2015). This is achieved through healthcare benchmarking. The latter refers to the process of analyzing the performance metrics of a health organization and comparing it with standards developed by a state or health system of similar organizations. Specifically, dashboard benchmarks and other reports about a care facility provide vital information that an organization can use to gauge how they meet the performance standards set by local, state as well as federal laws (Nathan & Kaplan, 2017). Stakeholders and other leaders use the benchmark reports to analyze how an organization is performing by comparing the outcomes with peers. The leaders must understand how the facility conforms to the requirement of health care reforms and how quality outcomes can be improved to meet the established standard. However, in the era of evidence-based care occasioned by technological advancement, the viability of care facilities can be complicated by new regulations that may pose ambiguity in interpretation. This requires healthcare leaders to be well-versed with existing laws of a state and interpret the new regulations to avoid the risk of closure of the facility.
The present article focuses on the dashboard benchmark on standards of care developed by Minneapolis. These benchmarks will be analyzed with respect to Mercy Medical Center based in Shakopee of the state. The article explores the ethical factors in quality care an
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