discussion

Discussion 1 by Sravya Patil Bagli 

(a) What is the purpose of what this study is trying to accomplish?

This article addresses underreporting of medication errors by the employees of Medcare hospital. The purpose of this study was to explore medication error reporting rate and determine reasons why Quality Management Department (QMD) was not receiving the reports. Also, the intent was to identify and correct the barriers and attitudes among staff that are preventing them from reporting the errors. Thereby, facilitating the issues that helps in improvement of patient safety and achieving better health care (Jacobson, 2015).

(b) What is the process(es) or activities involved in the response to a?

Medcare has selected nine members based on their involvement in the error reporting to form a team. They are involved in a model called FOCUS PDCA (PDCA = Plan, Do, Check, Act). Firstly, the team worked together to find out the causes for errors and clarify the error reporting process and later, the team interviewed the staff to know the reasons for underreporting. In the second step, the team developed solutions and ranked them to highlight the most effective ones. The highest-ranked were then incorporated into the action plan. The final step was to focus on improvement - everyone participated to continue the proposed solutions and checked the room for improvement. Since then, a drastic improvement has been evident in the error reporting of Medcare indicating that the study was successful.

(c) What is the purpose of measuring and reporting performance?

The purpose of measuring performance is to encourage individual productivity in the organization and to improve work efficiency. It helps to eliminate the unproductive employees and recognizes the strong performers and continue to motivate them. Also, it helps the organization understand how decision-making process led to success or failure in the past and how that understanding would help to make further improvements.

(d) What is the purpose of reporting quality measurement data?

The purpose of quality measurement is to examine the appropriateness of care and accuracy of the organization. It is generally known that quality is directly linked to improvement, it helps to discuss the link between measurement and improvement. Therefore, filling the gaps that compromised the ability of management to provide expected quality.

Discussion 2 by Israel Moore 

1. What is the purpose of what this study is trying to accomplish?

The purpose of this study is to first acknowledge and bring awareness to the importance of reporting medical errors, as well as the importance of teamwork and developing a good solid strategy to overcome challenges. 

a. What is the process(es) or activities involved in the response to a?

The process included a few steps. First it focused on the importance of error detecting. Next, Medcare developed a strategic project team that included department head members. This team then collected data and found the reasoning behind why hospital staff did not report most medication errors. The team used other techniques such as brainstorming strategies or observation of the staff to help gather even more data behind the medical errors. After collecting this data, the team developed questions such as “is it cost effective?” to determine if the solutions they had developed actually had the possibility of being successful. Lastly, the team followed up to see if what they had created actually worked for the organization. 

1. What is the purpose of measuring and reporting performance?

The purpose of measuring and reporting performance is to be able to track the progress of the new strategy being in place with solid quantitative data. Its one thing to have information from interviews or observations, but it is also equally as important to have concrete numerical data to help show the progress the organization. “Numbers do not lie.” 

1. What is the purpose of reporting quality measurement data?

The purpose of reporting quality measurement data is so that everyone will see the full picture to help improve the org. If staff members are only reporting some of the medical errors or none at all (because of fear of being in trouble, lack of interest, etc.) than the team doesn’t have the necessary information to fix the issues; because they only are aware of part of the problems to solve, and not all of them.