NHS-FPX6004 Assessment 1: Dashboard Metrics Evaluation Example Solution Paper
Healthcare institutions’ care outcomes continuously assess their data to promote patient safety and ensure quality and safe patient outcomes. Health dashboards help institutions evaluate their data and also asses their performance against nationally and locally set standards. This essay focuses on the diabetes dashboards for Mercy Medical Center.
The institution is Villa Health Affiliated due to its outstanding performance in various fields over the years. The essay will also evaluate the data based on set policies and existing benchmarks, the consequences of not meeting these benchmarks, and ethical interventions to improve the underperforming benchmarks.
Hospital Dashboard Metrics Evaluation
The hospital serves all populations, from reproductive health patients, emergency and critical care, and theatre, to outpatient care services. The institution serves over 20000 individuals. The population is spread across all ages, with the highest being individuals between ages 21-44 (14732) and the lowest being adults above 65 (2371).
Whites (28537) are the largest population served by the institution, and interracial form the minority group (1016). Among the 36192 individuals served by the institution, 17957 are male, and 18235 are female.
The dashboard at the healthcare facility is evaluated quarterly, and the performance is assessed based on the performance of previous years or quarters. The data accommodates age and race in burden and changes through the various quarters. In the last of 2020, the data on racial distribution was as follows: 63% whites, 6% Asians, 13% American Indians, 17 African Americans, and 11 other ethnicities.
73 did not respond. Among them, 38% were males, and 62% were females. The results of interest are HbA1c and Diabetic foot examinations. In the last quarter, the diabetic foot exam was 62, while the HbA1c tests were 64, a drop from 78 in the previous quarter (Villa Health, n.d.). The information provided is missing vital information, such as a distinction between newly diagnosed and patients undergoing treatment in the facility, which is critical to decision-making.
Benchmarks Set Forth by Local, State, & Federal Laws
Comparing the performance of various originations at the local, state, or national level is vital for continuous improvement in healthcare institutions. The IHI and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) are the most proactive organizations in setting quality standards.
The AHRQ sets the standards for organizations by assessing the best-performing organizations and using their data as the standard for all other organizations. This step makes the benchmarks realistic and achievable at all care levels.
The AHRQ relies on systems and big data organizations such as DARTNet, SAFTINet, and the National Committee on Quality assurance to collect and analyze healthcare data. The AHRQ releases the national health disparities and quality report that showcases changes and any new standards for the various metrics. The NHDQR report (2021) is the basis for evaluating these metrics.
According to the NHDQR (2021), “more than 79.5% of diabetic patients should take the HgbA1c test twice annually, more than 84% of patients should take annual diabetic foot tests, and more than 75.2% of patients should take annual eye exams” (AHRQ, n.d.). Every institution should yearn to achieve these set benchmarks. From the 2020 diabetes dashboard, there were 563 diabetes patients in the facility 2020.
Among them, 272 (24% compared to the recommended 79.5% national benchmark) had a biannual HbA1c test, 235 had a diabetic foot exam (42% compared to the recommended 84%), while 232 (41% compared to the set national benchmark of 75.2%) had a diabetic eye examination. These benchmarks’ performance is way below the recommended performance, which shows an excellent necessity for corrective interventions.
Consequences of not Meeting the Prescribed Benchmarks
Diabetes management and follow-up are integral for all patients. Diabetes is the most expensive healthcare condition. The various benchmarks are set to ensure effective diabetes monitoring; without them being met, diabetes patients are not receiving adequate follow-up and monitoring. Failure to monitor patients leads to increased complications and missed opportunities and their early detection. These have the effect of increasing morbidity and mortality.
The failure also increases the burden of diabetes complications and increases healthcare costs due to these complications. Other consequences are a bad reputation due to poor patient outcomes and other sanctions, such as decreased ACA funding and lawsuits (Chali et al., 2018). Thus, monitoring these exams and test is vital, and healthcare institutions should ensure they are appropriately met. Institutions should also avail all necessary data for quality healthcare decision-making and quality care outcomes.
Evaluation of a Benchmark Underperformance
The interest benchmark is the HbA1c test. These tests have been declining. From some of the available data, these tests have declined over the last quarter. In addition, the nationally set benchmarks require a biannual HbA1c test for these patients, unlike the one-eye and foot exams. Thus, HbA1c tests should be at least double the number of the diabetic foot and eye exams.
The diabetes dashboard shows that only 24% of the individuals attended a biannual HbA1c test. The number is significantly low despite the importance of HbA1c testing in the follow-up and management of diabetic patients.
The diabetic foot and eye exams are performing better, but still, their performance is way below the set benchmarks. HbA1c tests affect most diabetic patients hence their significance as the interest benchmark. The results show problems in the facility’s execution or access to the HbA1c tests.
HbA1c tests are vital because they show a patient’s response to treatment and the effectiveness of therapy changes and are thus crucial to disease prognosis (Imai et al., 2021). Their absence can lead to poor diabetes management. An ethical intervention is thus necessary.
Ethical Intervention for the Underperforming Benchmark
The underperforming benchmark may result from unfavourable policies, patients’ and nurses’ negligence, reluctance, and lack of knowledge. The benchmark’s underperformance could significantly affect patients, nurses, and healthcare leaders. Patient and staff education are ethical interventions that will increase these parties’ perceived benefits and risks and thus improve their self-efficacy in promoting better performance.
Ghisi et al. (2021) note that patient education in diabetes is a practical, ethical intervention that often requires extensive staff education for implementation and success. The various interventions include multimedia, such as fliers and brochures, staff workshops, and diabetes self-management education (DSME) (Ghisi et al., 2021).
Patient and staff education will improve effort from either side, hence superimposed positive effects. Lambrinou et al. (2019) note that diabetes patient education should include the significance and frequency of HbA1c tests and will also highlight the consequences of not undertaking the various tests and interventions.
The ethical principles considered for this intervention are justice, non-maleficence, and beneficence. Providing a beneficial intervention that carries minimal or no risk, and is evidence-based such as patient education, is a priority in patient management.
Improving the HbA1c testing, patient life quality, and diabetic patients are entitled to at least a biannual HbA1c test and increasing their knowledge of the tests is vital to its utilization. Increasing their access to knowledge and healthcare resources through education is thus vital. The goal is to improve follow-up and help them monitor their condition, improving patient outcomes.
Conclusion
Healthcare dashboards are vital tools in organizational evaluation and quality improvement. Institutions use their internal data and evaluate I against these standards to determine gaps and needs and intervene accordingly. The healthcare dashboard in this assessment reveals a gap in HbA1c tests, and their attention is necessary for the institution’s success.
Patient and staff education through various avenues will improve the benchmark performance and the overall organization’s performance. It will also alleviate the consequences for the various stakeholders.
NHS-FPX6004 SmithMichelle Assessment 1: Dashboard Metrics Evaluation References
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). National Healthcare Quality and Disparities Report 2021. The National Diabetes Quality Measures. https://nhqrnet.ahrq.gov/inhprdr/national/benchmark/table/diseases_and_conditions/diabetes
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (n.d.). Practice Facilitation Handbook, Module 7. Measuring and Benchmarking Clinical Performance. AHRQ. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://www.ahrq.gov/ncepcr/tools/pf-handbook/mod7.html
