Health Care Research, Analysis, and Utilization Scenarios

Directions
Review and select one of the following scenarios for assignments in Topics 1 and 7, as indicated. Be sure to address all questions and utilize the appropriate data set indicated for each scenario.
Topic 1 Scenarios
Transitional Care
Type of care provided: Transitional care is a moderate to long-term facility that focuses on therapy, wound care, and medical management of chronic diseases. Individuals within transitional care can range from low need or minimal care to individuals who are total-care patients who need 24-hour nursing assistance. These facilities are often known as long-term care, skilled-nursing facilities, or subacute rehab.
As a member of the compliance team at a transitional health care organization, you are charged with the overall administration of safety programs required for the facility. This transitional health care organization is currently celebrating its 40th year in the community and serves as a model organization envied by local competitors. Given the long existence of the organization, there have been many instances where management has been tasked with creating or modifying the compliance policies and procedures. You have recently met with the CEO regarding some topics, including the concern that the facility is experiencing some complaints regarding management, especially in the area of employee-related burnout. In many cases, employees perceive they are spending most of their day meeting compliance regulations and not treating patients.
Utilize the data set “Health Care Research Statistical Data Set” to complete the Health Care Research and the Scientific Method assignment in Topic 1.
Primary Care
Type of care provided: Care in this type of setting is delivered by physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and advanced practice professionals. This area of health care is the most widely used, focusing on primary care providers and decreasing the focus on the utilization of specialty providers.
This primary care organization has been targeted for a possible merger with a larger health care organization. As a part of this potential merger, your team has been tasked to audit the current practice, including admission criteria, employee credentialing, performance ranking, and discharge success rates. This research will require determining the facility’s current scores related to the industry means. The health care organization that is considering merging with the facility recently won the Baldridge award and is typically ranked “A” among peer facilities. More of the award criteria may be found in the Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade website, located in the Topic 1 study materials.
Utilize the data set “Health Care Research Statistical Data Set” to complete the Health Care Research and the Scientific Method assignment in Topic 1.
Community Care
Type of care provided: Care provided in this capacity is available through clinics such as 24-hour urgent care centers and minute clinics provided through local pharmacies or community locations. These facilities increase access to care at affordable rates and in convenient locations.
You are the director of human resources for a small rural care center. Your care center administrator visited your office today with some issues regarding the high turnover of certified nursing assistants (CNAs) in all seven nursing wings. She has been experiencing this phenomenon with her CNAs for the past three months, thus decreasing overall patient quality care and adversely affecting the labor budget due to numerous call-offs from the CNAs. When added to the high cost of using registered nurses, this is a serious issue. None of her nursing supervisors can explain the reasons for the turnover. They can only provide feedback that your organization is hiring the “bad ones.” She is asking for your ideas on how the care center can recruit and retain more talented and devoted CNAs. You perform an immediate cursory assessment of the turnover and determine that at the current rate there will be 100% loss/turnover of CNAs this year. This initiates an emergency meeting with the administrator, director of nursing, the assistant directors of nursing, the staffing coordinator/scheduler, and three charge nurses. The purpose of the meeting is to determine why your facility is losing so many CNAs, especially when compared to similar care centers in the area.
Utilize the data set “Health Care Research Statistical Data Set” to complete the Health Care Research and the Scientific Method assignment in Topic 1.
Topic 7 Scenarios
Hospital
Type of care provided: A hospital is an acute care, short-term stay, emergency medical center that also includes medical departments such as surgical, obstetrics, infectious disease, radiology, laboratory, and mental health.
You are a member of the continuous quality improvement team of a medium-sized hospital. The director of your team has been summoned to an executive team meeting in an effort to determine why an unusual number of readmissions for the influenza outbreak are occurring at this hospital. During the discussions, the director of nursing provides her thoughts regarding why patients may be eligible for discharge before they are fully treated. She states that many of the readmissions are for a secondary case of noninfluenza-related pneumonia. The director returns to the team and asks you to investigate if this is the actual cause for readmissions or if other factors such as alternate respiratory manifestations may be causing the issue. Once the cause is determined, a plan to implement a quality improvement action plan will need to be developed.
Utilize the frequency, means, average stay, and time to discharge compared to date of readmission to complete the Benchmark – Health Care Research Statistical Analysis assignment in Topic 7.
Home Care
Type of care provided: Care in this capacity can range from a short-term to long-term based on the changing needs of the patient. Patient age can range from pediatric to elderly. Care can be provided in the patient’s private home, group home, or assisted living setting. Medical homes fall into this category and are a new focus of accountable care organizations through the Affordable Care Act of 2010.
In your capacity as the director of human resources, develop a plan for how you would conduct an internal and external wage analysis of your organization and respond to the impact this would have on the organization.
As the director of human resources within a home care environment, you are responsible for the administration of the organization’s labor budgets. Your director of clinical services, who has an MSN, has presented some challenges regarding the compensation of her staff. This specific assisted nursing facility focuses on long-term care, providing approximately 500 nursing and support personnel who deliver direct and indirect care to approximately 225 patients who represent various stages of acuity and need for nursing care. Your overall labor budget represents approximately 60% of expense revenue. The director of clinical service complains that several of her registered nurses are threatening to leave the organization, allegedly because a competitor nearby pays their nurses higher wages. In fact, director of clinical service asks for an across-the-board immediate pay adjustment of an additional $5.00 an hour for the nurses. She is awaiting a response from you before the day is over.
Utilize the data set “Health Care Research Statistical Data Set” to complete the Benchmark – Health Care Research Statistical Analysis assignment in Topic 7.