Understanding the process

1. The pathway that should be followed by the ABC Healthcare Organization for achieving accreditation is mentioned below:

The company should Healthcare Organization should consider online guidelines of the overall process of accreditation so as to understand all the process needed for the acquisition of the same. Through this, it will be easy for the organization to meet all the requirements. The company should follow the most recent procedures and policies regarding accreditation process and should review all the relevant document as soon as possible for earliest action possible. Along with that every department and staff should have a clear understanding regarding the accreditation process (Kuziemsky and Peyton 2016).

Once the concerned personnel have read the whole process of accreditation, then it’s now high time to take a keen look on the requirements. The development team should clearly get all the requirements for the process.by the time the team is done, then we feel that they are ready to carry out the accreditation. Through reading these requirements, based on the type of the health organization. Along with that, responsibilities should be divided among the department and staff. Each department and staff should be aware of their responsibilities and their requirements (Ng et al. 2013).

Once the team is aware of what is required of them, then it is another step to carry out self-assessment process so as to ensure they meet the stated requirements. At the point where all the requirements are met, then the team should continue otherwise the procedures should be changed to ensure they go hand in hand with the requirements. To do that a baseline assessment of this healthcare company should be performed by accreditation and quality specialists. It should be done by assigning measurable parameters for the staff in the company’s area of practice (Guérin et al. 2013).

At the time where there is need to change the procedures, then the management team should make a timeline establishment for implementing the needed changes. Through this change, the team should identify their internal winning tips and any other that will result in achievement of the Organization’s objectives and goals. This action plan should reflect on the needed action towards the company’s intended improvement of performance. The plan should also create a baseline performance standard for the future reference (Guérin et al. 2013).

Before the application for accreditation, the company should evaluate their existing policies and procedures with regards to the current policies and plan needed for the application. Any gap and disparities should be addressed meticulously and the company should update their plan procedures accordingly. The Organization team members will now be required to make an online application. Through the process, the team will provide their email address from which they will be given a username and a password for more guidelines in the process.

Reviewing the requirements

The company should assess the challenges it might face in the near future. They should start with the International Patient Safety Goals (IPSGs). This guidelines informs about the problematic area a health care organization might face and suggests some evidence based solution (Weller, Boyd and Cumin 2014).

The company should be attentive to fix the challenges they will be facing. To achieve this goal company should create a culture of safety. Training the staff in new policies and procedures can be one way to achieve this objectives.

The body concerned with the provision of the accreditation will now be invited to view the site for some other important details. This for instance include the location of the organization. By default, it should be located within the States (Al-Abri and Al-Balushi 2014).

Upon completion of the survey, the team will be required to meet with the members from the accreditation team where they will be required to provide a report for the Organization. The team will evaluate everything which includes every steps of the action plan. If any discrepancies to be found regarding the action plan, it should be immediately corrected.

From the report provided by the Commission team, then the organization will be required to recheck the changes made. This normally comes along with some other changes that need to be resolved within a given time frame.

Publication of the achievement:

Upon completion of all the procedures, the team is provided with the Gold Seal of Approval where they will be required make it known to the world.

Staying in compliance:

Once the whole process is completed, the Organization will be required to stay as per the stated rules so as to maintain its compliance with the accreditation provision company (Devkaran and O’Farrell 2014). 

2. Understandably, the pathway to the accreditation will not be smooth for the ABC Healthcare Organization. The company will face some challenges towards the achievement of its goal. The challenges they might face is listed below:

Marketing: The process of marketing the organization name during the publication is always tiresome to many of the Organizations. Along with these the company has already achieved a bad reputation due to the numerous complaints from the care receivers. Overcoming the bad reputation will be a difficult task for the company. In order to achieve that, new branding, new advertising promotion or new logo might be needed to rebrand the company and uplift the company’s image in the care receiver’s eyes (Conteh 2016).  

Self-assessment

Conflict in assurance philosophies and improvement: Performance of the organization stated by the rules are unfavorable. Performance of the organization in most case will be compromised incase a single requirement is not met. These standards are always conflicting hence creating trouble to the final Organization operations resulting to confusion (Brubakk et al. 2015).

Unlikely standards: The mutual trust in most cases is not ensured for any organization. The accreditation company fakes the trust for a short while then after obtaining all the required resources then divert to some other activities to their own benefit. Through this, the Organization’s personal property won’t be guaranteed to be that safe. Hence, maintaining the standards needed to keep the accreditation will be another challenge for this healthcare organization. They might be revert back to old tradition due to staff’s negligence and laziness. To avoid this particular aspect, periodic check for policies and procedure is needed by the company’s governing body or stakeholders (Brubakk et al. 2015).

Keeping the staff workforce: Another difficult obstacle for the achievement of accreditation is to maintain the workforce turnover.  To achieve accreditation, a health organization needs properly trained staff to maintain its premises and taking care of its daily responsibilities. Attrition is every company’s problem and this company will also face this challenge during its pathway to accreditation. This is particularly costly and time consuming hurdle for the company as training quality staff is costly and lengthy process and to achieve accreditation a company needs quality trained staff (Saadati et al. 2015). 

3. The leadership strategies that can be used to achieve accreditation by healthcare company is mentioned below:

This is the process through which the nursing practices are all together designed so as to integrate the core values and all the other beliefs in which the practices both professional and the other practices are embraced. Through this mode, the Organization will be able to achieve the quality care. This strategy is meant for the improvement of the nurse’s environment and the satisfaction (Hastings et al. 2014).

This is another type in which the Organization is given an award to ascertain that the nurses working in any given zone are motivated properly. This model helps in recognition of all the awards given to the healthcare organizations in order to meet all the standards. This award system can be further extended to all the employees, so it can motivate all the employees and not only just nurses (Stimpfel, Rosen and McHugh 2014).

Implementation of action plans

Professional development initiative:

This is the process by which the governance can help the small Organization in the implementation of several programs so as to promote the development. The main reason for this is for production of the highly talented graduates in every nursing field. This process can be further improved by increasing the wage bill of nurses which will influence many people to pursue the career of nursing.

Open minded, forward thinking, non- judgmental, unbiased and progressive leaders are needed to make a workplace culture safe and quality. Leaders should be willing to listen to the staffs problems, otherwise staff will not feel comfortable to discuss their problems with the leader or authorities which in turn will create a poisonous work place environment. To counter this situation, appointment of such leader who is also a physician will help the organization immensely who will be able understand the point of view of the medical professionals as well as administrative staffs (Aij et al. 2013).

The measures or steps should be avoided to achieve accreditation is mentioned below:

The activities that are to be done by the Organization should be within the stated guidelines of the accreditation. Any practice that seem to be against the principles should be avoided immediately. Taking any shortcut or cutting corner should be absolutely forbidden for any guidelines that is mandatory to achieve accreditation. Compromise with the security and risk assessment regarding patient and organization environment safety should be avoided in paramount importance. Falsifying of data or information in order to gain accreditation for the healthcare organization is another aspect that should be avoided in time to achieve accreditation of healthcare organization. Compromise with quality and standard for infrastructure and healthcare instruments should be avoided in order to achieve accreditation for healthcare organization (Brubakk et al. 2015). 

3. The first and foremost concern for the quality and safety committee should be develop a patient centered care program. The goal will be to take every possible steps to provide safe and comfortable environment possible. A patient should be able to receive treatment irrespective of their religion, creed, social or economic background.

Plan and policies should be drafted with regard to the above mentioned goal. Every actions plan should complement this principle (Parand et al. 2014).

Training the developers on how to target the needs of the assessment so as to identify the background well. This will help them to understand the available resources for the curriculum. Additionally, they should be well versed with regulation needed to achieve and maintain accreditation. This will help the quality and safety committee to draft a patient safety priorities which will be in accordance with the regulations.

Application for accreditation

Setting of the goals and the objectives. This process involves collection of the required resources so as to enable all the stakeholders to achieve the guidelines. Standard of the collected material and resources should also be with accordance with the regulations needed for accreditation. Goals and objectives should be feasible, specific, realistic and attainable.

Designing of a program for training. Through the design the learners will be able to find out the descriptions of all the strategies. This will make the learner comfortable with the strategies which should make the designing process easy (Morello et al. 2013).

Evaluation of the program. This will help them understand the level of success they will have achieved. Along with that, evaluation of a program will help better design of the policies and procedures in the future as well as better response time. Evaluation should be performed in periodic and systematic to maintain and modify the policies as needed.

4. The possible safety areas and components that could be included the patients safety priorities are described below:

The first safety areas and components should be the application of organization wide patient safety events. To attain this objectives, different committees can be formed such as Infection Control Committee, Medication Safety Management Committee, Clinical Risk Management Committee, Quality Review Committee and Quality and Safety Management Committee. The aim an objective of this committee will be to maintain and provide organization wide patient safety activities (Brilli et al. 2013).

Another area that can be included is that sharing of medical information. Patients should be able get the full access of their health related information so that they can understand their health issues better. This will in turn make their decision making much more informed and better.

Additionally, detection of threats in early stages can be added to this patient safety priorities. Any situation that can be a risk for potential threats should be reported in the earliest so that the threat can be mitigated without any further damage (Patterson et al. 2013).

Full disclosure of adverse effect in a timely manner should also be included when considering the patient safety priorities. If a treatment goes wrong for the patients or patient’s current condition should be made available to the patient’s family wholly and in timely manner.

Patient advocacy should also be included in the patient safety priorities protocols. A department or office should be established for the patient’s family where they can share their comments, concerns, complaints and grievance with organization’s administrative authority (Mazanderani, O’Neill and Powell 2013).

Analysis of challenges

The experience of working as a team member in a healthcare setup is really vital. This should be a criteria during the screening and interviewing process.

The nurses should maintain a workbook detailing their every step of interaction and action with the patients as nurses are the first person attend an ill individual during admittance.

Tutors within the nurse’s classrooms should aware of the standard regulation and protocol regarding the patient safety priorities, so that they pass on the information the nurses.  

5. The process of the formulation of the safety practice protocols is briefly described below:

First, the purpose of the particular is to be decided. This includes the acknowledgements and recognition of patient’s risk, minimization of human errors, analysis and investigation of systems and purposes and actions to be taken to reduce the risk. The aim, objective and purpose are decided based on the above factors (McClave et al. 2016).

Secondly, scope and activities of the policies were analyzed and assessed. This scope and activities includes analysis and risk identification, proactive risk assessment and evaluation. In risk identification, policies are to be developed in accordance with the normal and frequent hazards happens in the healthcare organization. Proactive risk assessment involves in the action plan need to be taken in order to prevent this kind of incidence from happening further. The policy is to be developed keeping this parameters in mind. Finally, the provisional drafts to be circulated among the committee members and the authoritative members for their approval and suggestions. Any queries or correction made by them to be added or redacted from the draft before the final draft to be made.  

Finally, the draft were sent to the governing board, chief executive officer and president, and the patient safety officer for their approval. If any queries were raised by them it is to be added or redacted from the draft. Otherwise, the final draft of the safety practice were approved for final implementation.

References

Aij, K.H., Simons, F.E., Widdershoven, G.A. and Visse, M., 2013. Experiences of leaders in the implementation of Lean in a teaching hospital—barriers and facilitators in clinical practices: a qualitative study. BMJ open, 3(10), p.e003605.

Al-Abri, R. and Al-Balushi, A., 2014. Patient satisfaction survey as a tool towards quality improvement. Oman medical journal, 29(1), p.3.

Brilli, R.J., McClead Jr, R.E., Crandall, W.V., Stoverock, L., Berry, J.C., Wheeler, T.A. and Davis, J.T., 2013. A comprehensive patient safety program can significantly reduce preventable harm, associated costs, and hospital mortality. The Journal of pediatrics, 163(6), pp.1638-1645.

Address and fix the barriers

Brubakk, K., Vist, G.E., Bukholm, G., Barach, P. and Tjomsland, O., 2015. A systematic review of hospital accreditation: the challenges of measuring complex intervention effects. BMC health services research, 15(1), p.280.

Conteh, N.K., 2016. Exploring lessons learned from Mediclinic Windhoek accreditation for explorapolation to public health facilities (Doctoral dissertation, University of Namibia).

Devkaran, S. and O’Farrell, P.N., 2014. The impact of hospital accreditation on clinical documentation compliance: a life cycle explanation using interrupted time series analysis. BMJ open, 4(8), p.e005240.

Guérin, S., Le Pogam, M.A., Robillard, B., Le Vaillant, M., Lucet, B., Gardel, C., Grenier, C. and Loirat, P., 2013. Can we simplify the hospital accreditation process? Predicting accreditation decisions from a reduced dataset of focus priority standards and quality indicators: results of predictive modelling. BMJ open, 3(8), p.e003289.

Hastings, S.E., Armitage, G.D., Mallinson, S., Jackson, K. and Suter, E., 2014. Exploring the relationship between governance mechanisms in healthcare and health workforce outcomes: a systematic review. BMC health services research, 14(1), p.479.

Kuziemsky, C.E. and Peyton, L., 2016. A framework for understanding process interoperability and health information technology. Health Policy and Technology, 5(2), pp.196-203.

Mazanderani, F., O’Neill, B. and Powell, J., 2013. “People power” or “pester power”? YouTube as a forum for the generation of evidence and patient advocacy. Patient Education and Counseling, 93(3), pp.420-425.

McClave, S.A., Taylor, B.E., Martindale, R.G., Warren, M.M., Johnson, D.R., Braunschweig, C., McCarthy, M.S., Davanos, E., Rice, T.W., Cresci, G.A. and Gervasio, J.M., 2016. Guidelines for the provision and assessment of nutrition support therapy in the adult critically ill patient: Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN). Journal of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, 40(2), pp.159-211.

Morello, R.T., Lowthian, J.A., Barker, A.L., McGinnes, R., Dunt, D. and Brand, C., 2013. Strategies for improving patient safety culture in hospitals: a systematic review. BMJ Qual Saf, 22(1), pp.11-18.

Ng, K.B., Leung, G.K., Johnston, J.M. and Cowling, B.J., 2013. Factors affecting implementation of accreditation programmes and the impact of the accreditation process on quality improvement in hospitals: a SWOT analysis. Hong Kong Medical Journal.

Parand, A., Dopson, S., Renz, A. and Vincent, C., 2014. The role of hospital managers in quality and patient safety: a systematic review. BMJ open, 4(9), p.e005055.

Patterson, M.D., Geis, G.L., Falcone, R.A., LeMaster, T. and Wears, R.L., 2013. In situ simulation: detection of safety threats and teamwork training in a high risk emergency department. BMJ Qual Saf, 22(6), pp.468-477.

Saadati, M., Yarifard, K., Azami-Agdash, S. and Tabrizi, J.S., 2015. Challenges and potential drivers of accreditation in the Iranian hospitals. International Journal of Hospital Research, 4(1), pp.37-42.

Stimpfel, A.W., Rosen, J.E. and McHugh, M.D., 2014. Understanding the role of the professional practice environment on quality of care in Magnet® and non-Magnet hospitals. The Journal of nursing administration, 44(1), p.10.

Weller, J., Boyd, M. and Cumin, D., 2014. Teams, tribes and patient safety: overcoming barriers to effective teamwork in healthcare. Postgraduate medical journal, 90(1061), pp.149-154.