Wk6 Create a Fishbone Diagram to Discover the Root Causes of Falls in Your Facility

Week 6

Course Home Content Dropbox Grades Bookshelf More

Quality Assurance in Healthcare Organizations and Facilities with Statistical Tools As your earlier readings have shown, healthcare quality remains an issue that the majority of, if not all, healthcare facilities have to contend with. To address this critical need—with more than 250,000 annual deaths attributable to medical errors—healthcare quality teams work in multiple ways to mitigate the issue (Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality, 2017). Typically, both quality assurance and continuous quality improvement strategies are employed. This week you’ll focus your attention on the former. To have a profound understanding of the role quality assurance plays in maintaining healthcare quality, it is essential that you appreciate some of the issues that may be contributing factors. You also need to become knowledgeable about the array of available tools that you can employ in your effort to improve the quality of the organization or facility you manage.

In the case of factors that may contribute to healthcare quality issues, you’ll start by reviewing the important concept of variation in healthcare settings. While this

concept does not necessarily imply poor quality, its understanding will shed light on possible drivers of healthcare quality issues. You will review key terms that will enhance your understanding of this concept: random, assigned, process, outcome, and performance variation. Afterward, you will dive deeper to establish the difference between warranted and unwarranted variations while also reviewing the sources and evidence of unwarranted variation in healthcare quality.

On learning more about the array of tools at the disposal of healthcare quality professionals, you will review two important statistical tools for process improvement analysis and interpretations: statistical process control (SPC) and comparison chart analysis. To develop competency in using these tools, you will need to understand when it is appropriate to employ the former as compared to the latter. In the case of the former, it is paramount to understand what SPC is, how SPC is developed, the different types of SPC (p, u, XmR, X-bar and S charts), when it is appropriate to use what type, and review how to conduct comparative analysis. This review requires an understanding of statistical assumptions as they apply to measures of proportions, ratio, and those continuous in nature.

Be sure to review this week's resources carefully. You are expected to apply the information from these resources when you prepare your assignments.

References:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2017). Measuring and responding to deaths from medical errors.

Books and Resources for this Week

Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (n.d.). How to use the fishbone tool for root cause analysis. Retrieved from

Link

Ballard, D. J., Graca, B., Hopkins, R. S., and Nicewander, D. (2014). Variation in medical practice and implications for quality. In M. S. Joshi, E...

Link

Schmaltz, S., Hanold, L. S., Koss, R. G., and Loeb, J. M. (2014). Statistical tools for quality improvement. In M. S. Joshi, E. R. Ransom, D. B. Nash,

Link

0 % 0 of 5 topics complete

Xmind [Web resource]. (2018). Link

Week 6 - Assignment: Create a Fishbone Diagram to Discover the Root Causes of Falls in Your Facility

Assignment

Due June 2 at 11:59 PM

As part of a leadership team for a healthcare organization dealing with a high incidence of fall incidents, you have been tasked with addressing this issue promptly (building upon previous assignments). Following a series of meetings and discussions about the possible cause of this safety concern, you have been asked to complete two important deliverables that will be used for supporting efforts to reduce fall-related incidence in your organization.

Part 1:

Your first deliverable will be to help the leadership and quality team better understand the root causes of the growing incidence of falls in your organization. Using Microsoft Word, PowerPoint or XMind, you will construct a fishbone diagram, otherwise known as a cause-and-effect or Ishikawa diagram (see resources for information). As shown in the diagram below, use the common categories (causes) such as equipment, process, and people to guide your construction. To elicit details in the fishbone diagram, you can use brainstorming techniques.

Figure 7: Fishbone Diagram

Source: From the list of fishbone diagram examples in Smartdraw.com

Part 2:

After completing the fishbone diagram, provide a written narrative that expounds on key information in the diagram. Also, explain the brainstorming process that you used to gather detail information about the possible root causes of falls in your facility.

Length: 2-3 pages not including title and reference pages. Include the diagram in the 2- to 3-page specified length.

References: Include a minimum of 2 credible resources, one of which must be scholarly and peer-reviewed.

Your assignment should reflect scholarly academic writing, current APA standards