Health Medical Homework Help

Peer # 1: 

1. Does the higher death rate at Community Hospital mean that there is lower quality care?

Although the high mortality rate at Community is not necessarily an indication of poor patient-centered care being delivered by the physicians and medical staff, it can provide insight on how to address complex health issues that can potentially end in an unanticipated death. According to Kobewka et al. (2017), by creating a process that the entire facility can use to analyze mortality rates, Community can potentially reveal opportunities for physicians and medical staff  to combat complex medical issues. For instance, Community  can capture mortality data  and have a physician and nurse manager review cases to determine whether or not the death was unanticipated. In those instances the medical staff will be able to identify opportunities to enhance their operations to prevent this loss of life from repeatedly occurring and reduce the hospital’s mortality rate. Furthermore, accurate mortality data can be used to develop research for the  prevention and potential cure of chronic illnesses.

2. What would you bring up in this discussion at the task force meeting? 

Recent research reveals it’s imperative that Community implements a system that accurately captures mortality data and have trained medical professionals carefully review that information for opportunities to improve operations. Physicians and nurses have access to diagnostic procedures, which offers insight to the root of the problem. Analysis of accurate mortality rate data can potentially lead to the development of healthcare policies that foster healthier lifestyles (English et al, 2018)

References:

English, M., Mwaniki, P., Julius, T., Chepkirui, M., Gathara, D., Ouma, P. O., Cherutich, P., Okiro, E. A., & Snow, R. W. (2018, March 1). Hospital mortality – a neglected but rich source of information supporting the transition to higher quality health systems in low and middle income countries. BMC Medicine. https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1024-8.

Kobewka, D. M., Walraven, C. van, Turnbull, J., Worthington, J., Calder, L., & Forster, A. (2017, February 1). Quality gaps identified through mortality review. BMJ Quality & Safety. https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/26/2/141. 

Peer # 2

Q1.

Hospital leaders work hard every day to provide high quality care to the patients that they treat. They do this with the goal of providing care that is free of injury and harm (“Mortality,”, n.d.). While there is no commonly accepted definition of preventable deaths, Community Hospital believes there are several factors that can contribute. For example, an underlying condition such as hypertension can go undetected and lead to a potentially fatal disease. We have worked hard to find these underlying conditions and to treat them and reducing mortality risks (“Mortality,” n.d.). Complications over a longer period may be impacted by factors outside the hospitals’ control like other complicating illnesses, patients’ own behavior, or other care services patients received after they leave the hospital.

Preventable mortality refers to avoidable inpatient hospital deaths, those that are not an expected or probable outcome of a patient’s hospital stay. There is a growing recognition that organizational interventions to improve patient care planning, enhance communication among caregivers, better asses patient risk of death, better respond to signals of deteriorating patient health, and adoption of evidence-based care practices and protocols can reduce preventable deaths. Although Community Hospital do not feel that lower quality of care is the reason for our mortality rate, we will participate in programs to assist in building an effective mortality review program. The programs will implement evidence-based strategies to reduce mortality for those patients and conditions at greatest risk (“Preventable Mortality”, n.d.).

Q2.

Deaths can be for any reason and can occur in the hospital or after discharge. Death rates from heart attack, heart failure and pneumonia are widely viewed as measures of a hospital’s overall performance. One way to tell whether a hospital is doing a good job is to find out whether patients admitted to the hospital have mortality death rates that are lower better, equal to, or higher (worse) than the U.S. national rate, given how sick they were when they were admitted to the hospital (“Mortality,”, n.d.).

While most hospital deaths are not due to failures in care delivery, many deaths are preventable, and this presents an important opportunity for hospital leaders to address. By collectively pursuing improvement strategies in a visible and measurable way, Community Hospital will join forces to advance a health care system that delivers the right care, to the right patient, in the right place. Hospital mortality is also an issue that easily resonates with the public. Demonstrable improvement in this area will go a long way towards maintaining and strengthening public confidence in our nation’s hospitals. It is the right thing to do.

References

Mortality – Penn Medicine. (n.d.). Penn Medicine. Retrieved September 3, 2021, from https://www.pennmedicine.org/about/providing-quali…

Preventable Mortality. (n.d.). Patient Care Link. https://patientcarelink.org/improving-patient-care…