Health Medical Homework Help

What is HCAHPS and how will you play a role?

Choose one of the HCAHPS survey questions and state one tactic that you, the RN, can use to influence patients to answer “always”

A few helpful websites to google for either question include:

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)

The Joint Commission

The Studer Group

Initial discussion postings need to be a minimum of 250 words and have two references IN APA 7 FORMAT. You must respond to two peers 

Zerwekh (2021)

 defines core measures as, “Core measures include those for patients admitted with a diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, community- acquired pneumonia, surgical infections, pregnancy- related conditions, deep vein thrombosis, and whether specific best practices were implemented within the health care setting” (pg. 525). Essentially core measures are considered the national standards of care for some of the most common health related conditions, as well as the treatments for these illnesses. There are 12 core measure sets in total as defined by The Joint Commission. The overall goal is to improve the quality of healthcare through utilization of a national standardized performance system. The consumer can use these measures in order to choose one hospital over another. Core measures are usually reported by hospitals to the TJC or CMS on a monthly or quarterly basis to measure the quality of care provided to patients (Wolters, 2017). This allows the TJC or CMS to decide whether or not they need to change or update the measures in any way. Obviously if there isn’t any improvement in patient outcomes over a couple years, it might be time to update the measures to improve those outcomes. Our performance as an RN directly impacts these results because we are the ones utilizing these core measures through direct patient care. If we chose not to use best practice while providing patient care, we can increase the risk of complications and poor patient outcomes. Also these results can have a major impact on the hospitals that we work at. Since consumers utilize core measures when trying to choose a hospital over another, its no surprise that they would choose the hospital that provided the best patient outcomes. Noncompliance with these measures affects CMS reimbursement, which means hospital are losing out on money.

Second peer:

As a nurse, we must think greatly about core measures. When we think about what this means, core measures are national standards of care and treatment processes for common conditions. These processes are proven to reduce complications and lead to better patient outcomes. Core measure compliance shows how often a hospital provides each recommended treatment for certain medical conditions (John Hopkins, 2021). I like to think of this as things we do to improve patient care.  Examples of core measures we may see in nursing include things such as giving preventative medications to patients who are at risk for developing blood clots or things such as determining if a patient needs rehab after a stroke. As a nurse, by using core measures for a patient who had a stroke we would complete steps such as VTE prophylaxis, discharge on blood thinners, discharged on a statin, anti-coagulation for patients with A-Fib, patient education and assessment for rehab services.Our performance as an RN can impact these results as well. The more nurses that comply with these measures indicates a higher chance the patient will have a positive outcome and further complications can be prevented. It is ultimately a nurse’s responsibility to ensure that the right patient receives the best care in a timely manner every time. Overall, if a nurse does not comply with these core measures, a patient can develop further complications and lead more towards a negative recovery.Core measures impact the hospital in more ways than you think. These measures cover more areas than just stroke like I mentioned above, we must have national safety standards set in place for all areas of practice: Primary Care, Behavioral Health, Cardiology, Gastroenterology, Oncology, Neurology, OB and Pediatrics, Orthopedics, etc. to name a few. Initiating core measures in hospitals is vital in helping hospitals improve patient care and satisfaction while also maintaining key accreditation and ratings (ESO, 2020).  In hospitals, core measures are directly related to better patient care, more efficient reimbursement & increased business from the public. So, as you can see, core measures are so important and as a nurse we must implement these not only for patients themselves, but for nurses and hospitals.