Capella University NHS FPX 6004 Policy Proposal Scoring Guide Worksheet Example Policy Proposal

Capella University NHS FPX 6004 Policy Proposal Scoring Guide Worksheet Example

Policy Proposal

Overall, between 2015 and 2016, Mercy Medical Center’s Specialty Operations and Maternity & Deliveries departments reduced the number of accidents. However, the orthopedic surgery and obesity programs departments of the hospital saw a considerable rise in the frequency of falls in 2016. Both the standards of the medical center and the well-being of the patients are gravely at risk from these accidents. This article shows why Mercy Medical Center needs to adjust its policies in order to achieve the suggested standards for reducing patient falls.

The proposed change is developing and implementing fall prevention programs throughout Mercy Medical Center to help alleviate fall rates for the orthopedic surgery and Obesity Divisions. This is because the health facility serves a lot of patients from Shakopee; hence reducing injury risks inside the orthopedic surgery and Obesity Divisions is vital. Also proposed is an increase in employee personnel to aid in lowering accident incidence and improving client results.

Need For Policy And Practice Guidelines

Mercy Medical Center needs to prioritize accidents or fall prevention in its Orthopedic Surgery and Obesity Departments. Miscommunication and understaffing are among the major factors contributing to frequent falls at the medical facility’s Orthopedics and Bariatric Services. Admittedly, preventing patient falls in healthcare facilities is a challenge shared by many health organizations across the country. 

The national average fall incidents in United States hospitals range between 3.3 to 11.5 falls per 1,000 patient days (Bouldin et al., 2013). Research has proven that the falls vary considerably by unit or department type, with high incidents recorded in hospitals working with the elderly, surgery, and physically disabled patients (Gygax, 2017). Mercy Medical Center is among the hospitals with high fall incident rates close to the national average, due to cultural differences and few staff members to attend to patients.

Patient falls in hospitals have a significant negative effect on the patient’s health, which derails their recovery process. The leading causes of high patient fall in hospitals include inadequate monitoring, miscommunication, non-compliance to fall safety protocols and practices, and understaffing (Sentinel Event, 2015).

According to Schwendimann, Bühler, and Milisen (2006), patient falls in medical centers often lead to negative outcomes, among them severe injuries, prolonged hospitalization, and legal responsibility to the hospital. Mercy Medical Center is vulnerable to legal liability due to high patient falls in the hospital’s Orthopedics and Bariatric department. Without proper fall prevention programs in place, accidents in hospitals like Mercy Medical Center are inevitable. Patients’ health should be the priority of any healthcare facility; hence incidents of accidents should be the least of hospitals’ problems. 

Other patient characteristics such as age, mental status, severe illness, and the use of ambulation aids also significantly contribute to falls due to the lack of enough healthcare providers at the facility. A policy that requires staff members at the hospital to be vigilant at all times will be successful if the patient-to-health providers’ ratio is balanced. According to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a balanced patient-to-nurse ratio is intertwined with positive healthcare outcomes – both patients and nurses experience success when a safe nurse staffing method is utilized (AFL-CIO, 2011).

Further, high workloads and lack of breaks between work shifts overwhelm healthcare providers to the extent they neglect patients that need close monitoring. Evidently, the prevalence of fall incidents at Mercy Medical Center calls for policy change at the facility, which will see the number of trained staff increase and accidents managed considerably. Patients’ recovery at health facilities depends on the presence of healthcare providers to monitor their progress and prevent possible accidents.

Mercy Medical Center serves a lot of Shakopee patients, with the majority, according to the 2017 U.S. Census, being Caucasians. On the contrary, about 85% of Mercy Medical Center staff are white (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017). Based on these statistics, opportunities for intercultural differences and miscommunication are enormous. Challenges associated with cultural views, linguistic limitations, and interaction can also be lin