WEEK 4 DISCUSSION
Discussion: Performance Improvement
Clearly the criteria, discipline, and focus that underlie the Baldrige process have been key contributors to our daily improvements. The feedback we received … has been instrumental in providing a clear road map for the journey.
—Michael Murphy, CEO, 2007 Baldrige Award recipient, Sharp HealthCare
Incremental change is how a culture of continuous improvement creates a pattern of success. In the Discussion for Week 4, you examined an organization’s actions in relation to criteria of high reliability and recommended steps for improvement. This week, you will revisit your recommendations.
To prepare for this Discussion:
Read this week’s articles on the standards for high reliability, then review the Week 4 Discussion. Draw comparisons between your organization and others, and examine any feedback provided by your peers.
Post a cohesive response to the following:
With the feedback and this week’s readings in mind, reexamine the steps for improvement of high reliability which you suggested for your organization. Would you change your recommendations in light of what you have learned in this course? Could your recommended steps be expanded or refined?
References
https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/self-assessing/baldrige-sector/health-care
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2014.961207
https://go.openathens.net/redirector/waldenu.edu?url=https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2014.934519
https://content.waldenu.edu/1033df837eff89341594daa28c2d1e66.pdf
MY WEEK 4 DISCUSSION
Healthcare Organization Reforms for High Reliability
Staffing and scheduling in healthcare organizations entail selecting and allocating particular tasks to given employees within an organization; guidelines specified by the staffing and scheduling procedure explain how the chosen employees will perform the selected task. In addition, Cochrane et al. (2017) states that the presence of a fully functional culture that works for the advantage of all parties, including healthcare practitioners and patients, is one requirement of high reliability. Consequently, employees usually work as members of staff, where the staff is the team assigned a task by the employer or organization stakeholders. Therefore, this has helped the healthcare organization to achieve high reliability by establishing a culture of success through meeting most of the deliverables on time
In the healthcare industry, staffing and scheduling have been used to transform the functioning and reliability of care provision services. The employers have managed to maintain high reliability among the different employees through proper implementation of staffing and scheduling processes throughout all tasks of the organization. According to Sutcliffe (2011), achieving high reliability involves the availability of a leadership team committed to zero harm. Therefore, this organization compares to the high required standards of organizations as it achieves safety, quality, and efficiency without compromising the quality of healthcare delivery services. In addition, another means through which the organization I am affiliated has managed to become reliable is through the use of these scheduling steps. First, the organization identifies critical tasks to be accomplished during specific operational shifts. The following step involves spreading the tasks around the teams of employees. Every employee gets a copy of the checklist of duties required by a given due date. The allocation of different duties to certain employees ensured credibility throughout the company since the duties are awarded to healthcare practitioners randomly thus maintaining high reliability standards (Sutcliffe, 2011). Therefore, the organization easily tracks the accomplished deliverables and what is yet to be accomplished.
In addition, this organization encourages cross-training where different team employees are trained on how to handle available tasks to teach their team members. Through proper employee training, this organization has attained high reliability and made it one of the leading institutions in employee affairs.
References
Cochrane, B. S., Hagins Jr, M., Picciano, G., King, J. A., Marshall, D. A., Nelson, B., & Deao, C. (2017, March). High reliability in healthcare: creating the culture and mindset for patient safety. In Healthcare management forum (Vol. 30, No. 2, pp. 61-68). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/0840470416689314.
Polonsky, M. S. (2019). High-reliability organizations: the next frontier in healthcare quality and safety. Journal of Healthcare Management, 64(4), 213-221.
Sutcliffe, K. M. (2011). High reliability organizations (HROs). Best Practice & Research Clinical Anaesthesiology, 25(2), 133-144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpa.2011.03.001.
Complete Answer:
