Implementation Plan

Patient-centered care and education is an aspect of quality whereby care is customized to mirror the needs of individual patients. It is a situation where patients themselves get involved and participates in the care they receive. Integral to patient-oriented focus and education is discharge planning. Discharge planning is a process that is undertaken to establish what patients require to transition smoothly from one level of care to the other. Most discharge planning, if not all, involves team approach including those numerous risks across a lifespan. Such factors range from lifestyle or hereditary diseases to bacterial as well as viral diseases. Such ailments affect the progression of patient-centered care and education measures. This paper aims to analyze and discuss means on which proposed solutions address the issue of patient-centered care and teaching within the continuum of care.

Analysis of Proposed Solution in Addressing the Problem

As with any other organizational goals and objectives, processes need to be established to successfully attain what the institution is aiming for in regards to quality and improvement of care services for their patients. With the problem of patient-centered care and education, a compelling proposed solution to this concern based on research articles is a robust care coordination process focused on the need of patients within the spectrum of care. Studies indicate that an efficient exchange of information facilitates proper treatment and care for patients (Bodek, S., et.al., 2006). Coordination of care process is a team approach wherein stakeholders work together to safely manage the care of individual patients from one level to the next. This method applies to hospital setting as well as the outpatient setting. It is through this process that patient-centered care and education can be realized and carried out efficiently.

Coordination of care involves a team of health providers (such as physicians, nurses, therapists, dieticians, case managers, etc.), the patient, family support, and community resources. There is a need for the healthcare providers to set up a unified policy-driven structure that would ensure coordination and proper communication among different health care providers (Puvanendran, 2011). All stakeholders contribute towards the recovery of the patient in the hospital until patient’s transition to her prior living setting. There are no modifications necessary if everyone that is involved in the care of the patient is doing their part towards patient’s wellness.

Literature shows that an uncoordinated care leads to miscommunication among health care providers, unnecessary strain on services that patients need urgently, and hospital readmissions. As of now, the prevalent issues that affect discharge planning about patient-centred care are communication mishaps and lack of effective coordination within the health care providers (Wong, et al., 2011). The parallels of implementing the proposed solution to that of the literature are that an established process such as care coordination, that directs concerted efforts into managing the individualized care of patients are beneficial not only for the institution but most of all, for the patients themselves.

In every process, improvement is potential obstacles that need to be prevailed over. A team effort does not materialize if stakeholders do not perform what their expected to do. Potential barriers foreseen in the implementation of care coordination process are stakeholders’ willingness to participate and their availability, support systems involvement (family, organization, community, etc.), legal and regulatory issues, and resources (funding, technology, community). For the process to be effective, it is crucial to elicit leadership support and staff cooperation as well as involvement. With leadership’s support, funding is feasible. Information technology is also equally significant in the care coordination process as it is through these systems that information is transmitted from one team member to another. Without the assistance of technology, the delivery of care may be impacted which may cause delay of services. Sharing of patient information must be secured and within the bounds and limitations set forth by regulatory bodies as misuse of patient information have legal repercussions.

Health care organizations each have set of established beliefs and cultures, which aligns towards the goal of achieving quality care for their patients. Part of the belief and culture is teamwork. Care coordination is a team at work with a motivation of promoting wellness and health to every individual in the community and the organization. For the patient-centered scheme to work, then the healthcare providers must let go of their entitlement (Fleming & Haney, 2013). The potential cultural hindrances to the process are the adaptability and openness of stakeholders towards the situation as well as conflicting opinions or suggestions in an attempt to bring forth resolution to problems.

Conclusion

The delivery of individualized care and education takes a team and effort to achieve this objective. Coordination of care processes is a means of fulfilling these endeavors in the goal of providing quality services across the care continuum. This paper has analyzed and discussed means in which proposed solutions address the issue of patient-centered care and education within the arena of health care.

References

Fleming, M. O., & Haney, T. T. (2013). The Ochsner Journal. An Imperative: Patient-Centered Care for Our Aging Population, 13(2): 190–193.

Puvanendran, R. (2011, September). DISCHARGE PLANNING IN INTEGRATED CARE. The-Singapore-Family-Physician, 37(3), 27-31. Retrieved from http://cfps.org.sg/publications/the-singapore-family-physician/article/238