You should also provide responses to your classmates that should be a minimum of 100 words. In your peer replies, you are encouraged to challenge responses to promote critical thinking on all sides of a discussion.

Classmate Post #1

Health care facilities (HCF) are set up to treat patients and to treat them with beneficence in mind. In keeping with that thought, the last problem HCF’s want to give is a facility acquired infection. But it does happen. The CDC and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid realize this, through data collection, and have a national reporting clearinghouse for facilities to report their data. This clearinghouse is called the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN).

The NHSN provides the following:

1. Information on best practice by benchmarking best practices on facilities
2. Antibiotic resistance trends
3. Compliance with state and national reporting of infection rates
4. Quality improvement
5. Education on accurate reporting, data tools and best practice

The analyzed data from these facilities is also used to make suggestions in changes in care. For example:

1. Ventilator patients should have the head of their bed at least 30 degrees if possible. Minimizes inhalation of oral secretions.
2. Mouthcare should be completed every 2 hours. Keeps the mouth clean & oral secretions to a minimum.
3. Tube feedings should be held when pulling up or laying patients flat. Reduces inadvertent vomiting and inhalation of stomach contents.
4. Scheduled surgical patients are given a specific body wash to use the night before and day of their surgery to prevent surgical site infections.
5. Every effort is made to not put an indwelling urinary catheter into a patient. By leaving the catheter out, it minimizes the incidence of urinary tract infections.
6. Guidelines for special hospital apparel during certain procedures is recommended. Reduces infections of surgical sites and indwelling line infections.

The 6 items seem simple enough and should be common place thinking, but these were learned through trending and careful data analysis. How does this impact quality and cost? By utilizing the 6 suggestions noted above ( there are more), there is a direct correlation between best practice and reduction in HAI. And there is less time spent in the HCF for the patient, which drives down healthcare costs and improves patient satisfaction.

Sincerely, Holly

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov>nhsn

Classmate Post #2

One of the issues that I found was with reporting information within the healthcare industry. There seems to be a lot of issue with the way that it is transmitted. The accuracy and integrity of the data has a critical issue on the accuracy and reliability of the report. Poor data at the outset will produce suspect reports at the end of the process, which can be detrimental for clinicians who are trying to use the information to treat patients. Reporting is often the prerequisite for analysis the data must be extracted before it can be examined but reporting can also stand on its own as an end product. A great deal of the reporting in the healthcare industry is external, since regulatory and quality assessment programs frequently large volumes of data to feed quality measures and reimbursement models. To better this issue they can rely on their reporting tools that is within the HER and web portals that they use to make sure that they are using it properly and to standard.

Lynette Magee

Reference:

Bresnick, J. (2017). Top 10 Challenges of Big Data Analytics in Healthcare. HealthIT Analytics. Retrieved from https://healthitanalytics.com/news/top-10-challenges-of-big-data-analytics-in-healthcare

Classmate Post #3

The intervention I choose to speak about is, Reducing intimate partner Violence and Sexual Violence Among Youth. This intervention seeks to help educate teens and young adults on how to build healthy relationships with each other, establish protective spaces, and reduce violence amongst intimate partners. I see this as a great intervention due to most people have their first relationship as a teenager and along with that comes the pressure to do things you don’t want to do because of the fear of being ostracized. In my area, the population consist of predominantly active duty military, retirees, and their families. Everyone is from somewhere different and teens that experience the constant moving around are always meeting new teens with various personalities. This program could benefit in my area by educating teens and young adults on how to deal with varying personalities and backgrounds to minimize and hopefully prevent intimate and sexual violence. Showing teens and young adults that it’s ok to be different and from a different place, with a different home life is ok. Also, offering free or reduced counseling within the area or at the local schools early on could potential help teens and young adults understand what they’re feeling and going through during this crucial change in their lives. The Boys and Girls Club is a nationally recognized organization that help youth reach their full potential by offering mentorship and a safe place for youth to learn and grow (Boys and Girls Club, 2017). This organization has been a huge contributor to reaching large amounts of youth and providing them with a different view of what life can be and offering resources for youth regarding intimate violence and sexual violence would assist in ensuring these young people reach their full potential. The Boys and Girls Club is a nonprofit organization, so they receive funding by donations and or private investors who take an interest in what they are doing, so in this case philanthropist or community funding would be the most likely way this resource would be funded.

Kimia Jackson

Reference

Boys and Girls Club. 2018. Retrieved on August 2, 2018 from,

https://www.bgctx.org/Default

Classmate Post #4

The topic I chose from the Community Guide is physical fitness. The United States is at a constant increased rate of obesity and overweight adults who lack physical fitness in their daily lives. The lack of physical activity results in a list of health concerns to include diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The healthcare intervention proposed is for “community sectors work together to implement community-wide campaigns to increase physical activity using highly visible, broad-based, multicomponent strategies (e.g., social support, risk factor screening, health education)” (Physical, n.d., para. 2). The campaigns may include an emphasis on physical activity alone or also incorporate other cardiovascular disease risk factors such as tobacco use and nutrition information. Living in St. Louis, it will be relatively easy to include this program in our community. The program can encourage citizens to participate in a weekly 5K run.

The local organization involved can well-known local sports store in our city named the Cardinals Clubhouse. The sports store can host the weekly 5K runs for participates. The run can begin close to their store and end in Forest Park, a familiar fitness location in the city. The sports store may encourage participants to join the fitness activity by hosting a raffle afterward for prizes. The items may be simple such as water bottles, sweatbands, or Cardinals baseball tickets to motivate the runners. Currently, there are random runs in the city, but nothing organized to help the community with a fitness schedule. Individuals interested in funding this intervention may include local sports stores, gyms, or fitness clubs. However, the event may be relatively free relying on donations and volunteers to host the event.

Tiffany Tison

References

Physical Activity: Community-Wide Campaigns. (n.d.). The community guide. Retrieved from https://www.thecommunityguide.org/findings/physical-activity-community-wide-campaigns