Draft a written proposal and implementation guidelines for an organizational policy that you believe would help lead to an improvement in quality and performance associated with the benchmark metric for which you advocated action in Assessment 1.

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

In advocating for institutional policy changes related to local, state, or federal health care laws or policies, health leaders must be able to develop and present clear and well-written policy and practice guidelines change proposals that will enable a team, unit, or the organization as a whole to resolve relevant performance issues and bring about improvements in the quality and safety of health care. This assessment offers you an opportunity to take the lead in proposing such changes.

Assessment Instructions

In this assessment, you will build on the dashboard benchmark evaluation work you completed in Assessment 1.

Preparation

After reviewing your benchmark evaluation, senior leaders in the organization have asked you to draft a policy change proposal and practice guidelines addressing the benchmark metric for which you advocated action.

In their request, senior leaders have asked for a proposal of not more than 2–4 pages that includes a concise policy description (about one paragraph), practice guidelines, and 3–5 credible references to relevant research, case studies, or best practices that support your analysis and recommendations. You are also expected to be precise, professional, and persuasive in justifying the merit of your proposed actions.

When creating your policy and guidelines it may be helpful to utilize the template that your current care setting or organization uses. Your setting’s risk management or quality department could be a good resource for finding an appropriate template or format. If you are not currently in practice, or your care setting does not have these resources, there are numerous appropriate templates freely available on the Internet.

Proposal Requirements

Note: The tasks outlined below correspond to grading criteria in the scoring guide.

In your proposal, senior leaders have asked that you:

• Explain why a change in organizational policy or practice guidelines is needed to address a shortfall in meeting a performance benchmark prescribed by applicable local, state, or federal health care laws or policies.
  • What is the current benchmark for the organization? What is the numeric score for the underperformance?
  • How might the benchmark underperformance be affecting the quality of care being provided or the operations of the organization?
  • What are the potential repercussions of not making any changes?
• Recommend ethical, evidence-based strategies to resolve the performance issue.
  • What does the evidence-based literature suggest are potential strategies to improve performance for your targeted benchmark?
  • How would these strategies ensure improved performance or compliance with applicable local, state, or federal health care laws or policies?
  • How would you propose to apply these strategies in the context of your chosen professional practice setting?
  • How would you ensure that the application of these strategies is ethical and culturally inclusive?
  • Does your policy encompass the key components of your recommendations?
• Analyze the potential effects of environmental factors on your recommended strategies.
  • What regulatory considerations could affect your recommended strategies?
  • What organizational resources could affect your recommended strategies (for example, staffing, finances, logistics, and support services)?
  • Are your policy and guidelines realistic in light of existing environmental factors?
• Propose a succinct policy and guidelines to enable a team, unit, or the organization as a whole to implement recommended strategies to resolve the performance issue related to the relevant local, state, or federal health care policy or law.
• Identify colleagues, individual stakeholders, or stakeholder groups who should be involved in further development and implementation of your proposed policy, guidelines, and recommended strategies.
  • Why is it important to engage these colleagues, individual stakeholders, or stakeholder groups?
  • Do your proposed guidelines help colleagues, individual stakeholders, or stakeholder groups understand how to implement your proposed policy?
  • How might engaging these colleagues, individual stakeholders, or stakeholder groups result in a better organizational policy and smoother implementation?
  • Are your proposal and recommended strategies realistic, given the care team, unit, or organization you are considering?
• Communicate your proposed policy, guidelines, and recommended strategies in a professional and persuasive manner.
  • Write clearly and logically, using correct grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
• Integrate relevant sources to support your arguments, correctly formatting source citations and references using current APA style.
  • Did you cite an additional 3–5 credible sources to support your analysis and recommendations?

  Suggested Resources

  The resources provided here are optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The NHS-FP6004 – Health Care Policy and Law Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.

  Ethical Decision-Making to Improve Quality Performance

  This interactive media applies an ethical decision-making process to a workplace health care issue in a hypothetical scenario, which may give you some ideas about how to incorporate ethical considerations into your policy change.

  • Organizational Ethics Decision-Making Process in Health Care.

  This short briefing outlines issues related to quality-related policy development and the potential solutions offered by new regulations such as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) and the ACA.

  • Whitlock, R. (2016, April 15). United States: Talking about the challenge of quality in health care policy development. Mondaq Business Briefing.