Assignment 1: Legal Aspects of U.S. Health Care System Administration
Due Week 3 and worth 200 points

Prevailing wisdom reinforces the fact that working in U.S. health care administration in the 21st Century requires knowledge of the various aspects of health laws as they apply to dealing with medical professionals. Further, because U.S. health care administrators must potentially interact with many levels of professionals beyond the medical profession, it is prudent that they be aware of any federal, state, and local laws that may be applicable to their organizations. Thus, their conduct is also subject to the letter of the law. They must evaluate the quality of their professional interactions and be mindful of the implications and ramifications of their decisions.

Nearly 65 million surgical operations were performed in 2015 in the U.S. resulting in an estimated 200,000 deaths from complications or other post-operative issues (Ghaferi, Myers, Sutcliffe, & Pronovost, 2016). Ongoing innovation in healthcare can improve patient outcomes. According to the Harvard Business Review article, The Next Wave of Hospital Innovation to Make Patients Safer, over the past several decades, there have been three distinct waves of surgical improvement: technical advancements, standardizing procedures, and high reliability organizing.

Assume the role of a top health administrator at We Care Hospital. You are interested in propelling the hospital to the next level by applying for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. However, you want to ensure surgical outcomes for patient morbidity and mortality rates. You begin by researching the Surgical Care Improvement Project (SCIP) aimed to improve adherence to quality protocols. You need to ensure the hospital policy is consistent with the law and that the hospital is correctly reporting Sentinel Events to the Joint Commission, a hospital regulatory agency.

Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze how standardizing procedures and documenting steps can improve outcomes when performing a complex procedure. Review the peer-reviewed journal article, The Next Wave of Hospital Innovation to Make Patients Safer. Articulate your position as the top administrator concerned about the importance of professional conduct and negligence in SCIP quality guidelines.
2. High Reliability Organizing emphasizes the varying actions that can affect patient safety given that standardized systems ignore the fact that each patient is different. Ascertain the major ramifications when the health care team “fails to rescue” the patient. Identify what hospital policies should be in place and identify previous case laws.
3. Analyze the four (4) elements required of a plaintiff to prove medical negligence.
4. Discuss the overarching duties of the health care governing board in mitigating the effects of medical non-compliance as they apply to the rules of practice set forth in the We Care Hospital governing board’s manifesto.
5. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not quality as academic resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Describe the sources of law in America, the relative legal procedure, and the related court system.
• Examine the various applications of the law within the health care system.
• Describe how advances in medicine have advanced quality in today’s health care system.
• Analyze how such various applications of the law affect decisions in the development and operation of a health care organization.

Click here to view the grading rubric for this assignment.