NURS 417

Benchmarking Paper Intro Page 

NURS 417: Informatics 

 

Purpose of the Assignment: The purpose of this assignment is to compare the outcomes measures of 3 hospitals for outcome measures (surgical care, HCAPS, pneumonia, & ED wait times) and compare to state and national benchmarks. Students will develop an evidence-based plan to improve 1 outcome measure where benchmarks are not being achieved.  

 

Student Approach to Assignment: My approach to writing this paper is to compare three different hospitals to evaluate their efficiency in emergency department wait times, sepsis treatments, HCAHPS satisfaction ratings, and pneumonia-related mortality rates. The goal was to provide an overview of the efficiency and the areas of needed improvement in each of these areas per hospital.       

 

Reason for Including this Assignment in the Portfolio: I chose to include this assignment in my portfolio because it highlights my ability to use my analytical skills and thoroughly evaluating and comparing data. This assignment also shows my dedication to advocating for quality improvement which is needed for adequate patient care.

 

Domain 5: Quality and Safety  

(16) Identify sources and applications of national safety and quality standards and hospital standards of practice to guide nursing practice 

• In this paper, I heavily utilized the medicare.gov hospital comparison tool to evaluate how efficient each hospital was in the categories listed above. By using this link, I was able to compare the hospital’s efficiency rating to the national efficiency rating in each category to determine if it meets national quality standards.

Domain 5: Quality & Safety and Systems Based-Practice 

(29) Interpret benchmark and unit outcome data to inform individual and microsystem practice

• As mentioned, with each hospital being Norfolk General Hospital, Sentara Leigh Hospital, and Chippenham Hospital, I analyzed the ratings and patient care outcomes to determine if there was a need for improvement in any area. With one of the hospitals lacking in their sepsis care rating, I found it appropriate to have the hospital revisit how they provide care to septic patients and to heavily enforce abiding by the sepsis protocol. 

Domain 8: Informatics and Healthcare Technologies 

(38) Uses informatics to enhance one’s own knowledge base to provide patient centered care and support teaching 

• In this assignment, I frequently utilized informatics by relying on Medicare.gov as my main comparison tool to analyze the performance of each hospital in specific areas. I used the findings provided to me by Medicare.gov to determine whether proper patient centered care was provided, if there were any areas that were in need of growth with patient care, and inform others of the insights I gained from this data analysis.