Principles of Triple Aim Initiative

Principles of Triple Aim Initiative

Introduction

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement developed a framework used to help healthcare systems optimize performance through various metrics. The framework makes use of three approaches hence the name Triple Aim. The Triple Aim Initiative focuses on enhancing patient experience, enhancing the health of general populations, and lessening the per capita costs of health care. These principles can significantly promote patient satisfaction, safety, and quality of care in long-term care or acute care settings. Communities and organizations that achieve the Triple Aim are likely to have healthier populations due to the new designs that identify solutions and problems better. Patients can also expect more coordinated and less complex care, and the burden of illness will lessen. Furthermore, lessening or stabilizing the per capita cost of care for the populations will offer organizations the chance to become more competitive and reduce the pressure placed on publicly funded health care budgets (Institute for Health Care Improvement, 2021). Cost of care, patient safety, and satisfaction are also enhanced when medical errors are minimized.

Triple Aim Principles

In order to improve the patient experience of patients in long-term care, it will be important to assess the general health of the patients and identify the prevailing concerns and evaluate the general mortality rates. One of the major concerns is usually preventable hospitalizations. By lessening these, it will be possible to improve care, lower costs and improve health. Lessening hospitalizations could be impactful to the chronically ill and frail adults and older people receiving long-term care since they often experience negative effects from prolonged hospitalization, including morbidity, hospital-acquired conditions, and loss of functional abilities (Ouslander & Maslow, 2012). Improving communication among the health care providers can also enhance the patient experience in long-term care settings. Complete and clear communication between the health care providers is an essential requirement for safe patient management and is one of the major priorities of the 2008 Joint Commission (Tija et al., 2019). Patients in long-term or acute settings can benefit from collaborative, coordinated, and communicative care. Technologies like Electronic Health Records can help improve patient satisfaction by eliminating or lessening the risk of errors, increasing morbidity and mortality. Through the coordination of interprofessional teams, patients can receive quality care which will enhance their experience and lessen the cost of care.

The US is said to have the most costly healthcare system in the world, accounting for about 17% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (Norman, 2020). Most developed nations have been able to attain a higher quality of care, albeit at a reduced cost. The cost of long-term care, as well as acute care, is very high. In the US, about $848 billion is used on long-term care and this is expected to increase with the increase in chronic conditions and aging populations (O’Neill, 2020). Reducing preventable hospitalizations lessens the cost of care in long-term care facilities. It can also be lessened by using technologies that can assist patients with various illnesses such as bedrails. I would also advocate hiring more trained staff who can help lessen workload in long-term care settings since understaffing is linked with increased accidents, injury rates, and insufficient supervision. This will help improve patient safety by lessening such incidents as medication errors.

The last principle of the Triple Aim is to make the health of the population better. One of the best ways to ensure patients receive quality and low-cost care to increase their satisfaction would be to identify the populations at risk of various diseases and use health promotion strategies to improve their health outcomes. By collaborating with other health care providers, I will be able to enhance my knowledge on how individuals can take care of themselves and prevent or manage chronic diseases like diabetes. For individuals in long-term or acute care, it would be important to find out any risks that could worsen their conditions and mitigate them. It would also be important to engage the patients in the process of care to improve quality and customer satisfaction. Engaging patients in the process of care and in formulating treatment plans increase their satisfaction (Richard, Glaser & Lussier, 2017). When patients are involved in decision-making about their care, they are more likely to cooperate and adhere to medication, and this improves the quality of care patient satisfaction and lessens costs due to prolonged hospitalizations.

Future Role in Healthcare

A healthcare administrator is responsible for overseeing the daily administrative operations in hospitals and other facilities in the institution. They also need to supervise and plan all medical services. Monitoring budgets and updating of health records are also among their major roles. Leadership plays an important role in improving patient satisfaction. I plan to make use of my leadership as an administrator to ensure cost-effective quality care is in place to improve patient safety and satisfaction. Improving various healthcare services, such as encouraging effective patient-staff interaction, ensuring easy accessibility of information for both patients and service providers, ensuring sufficient and efficient facility provision, and encouraging collaboration and coordination to facilitate person-centered care are among the ways that I can use my administrative role to enhance cost-effective quality care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. I would also use my role to encourage the adoption and implementation of various technologies that will help improve the quality and safety of care, improve patient satisfaction, and ensure cost-effective care.

Asif et al. (2019) encourage participative leadership, which involves making efforts to develop a healthy work environment that encourages the employees to take part in decision-making, thus increasing their communication level. With support from leadership, service delivery is enhanced, and the relationship between patients and the administrative staff is also improved. As an administrator, I will advocate for participative leadership that will ensure individuals are involved in various decision-making. This will enhance staff commitment and satisfaction levels, thereby encouraging them to offer quality services and enhance patient satisfaction. I will also strive to ensure the budget is spread in an effective manner for the benefit of all units and personnel, with the necessary facilities and technologies offered to individuals to help in the provision of care services.

Minimizing Medical Errors

Medical errors are a severe public health problem and are considered among the leading causes of mortality in the US (Rodziewicz, Houseman & Hipskind, 2021). By identifying the untoward events that result in medical errors, learning from them, and finding ways to prevent them, it is possible to improve patient safety. One of the solutions or strategies to minimize medical errors is creating and upholding a culture of safety and system improvement and implementing viable solutions instead of embracing a culture of punishment, shame, and blame (Rodziewicz, Houseman & Hipskind, 2021). Frontline nursing staff tend to be at higher risk of making certain medical errors due to understaffing, which results in work overload, fatigue, anxiety and stress, and other factors like constant distractions and poor communication with other healthcare workers. These healthcare professionals risk psychological impacts like inadequacy, guilt, depression, suicidal ideation, and anger due to perceived errors and the threat of probable legal action. Fear of being punished causes some of them to fail to report errors, and this endangers patient safety. Therefore, finding viable solutions, such as offering training, can help minimize medical errors, which then lessen the cost of care.

It is also important to encourage effective communication, especially in inter-professional teams. Nurses often work in collaboration with other healthcare professionals. The Joint Commission considers poor communication as the leading cause of about 70% of preventable hospital mortality rates (Murphy & Dunn, 2010). Communication errors take place when important patient information is wrong, misinterpreted, or missing. Poor communication also encourages prolonged conflicts among the inter-professional staff, thereby preventing collaboration and encouraging medical errors. Promoting a culture of open communication with clearly defined communication channels can help minimize medical errors.

Compared to other units, research suggests that the emergency unit is one with the most medical errors due to its rapid and intensive pace as well as noise, dynamic, and complex structure (Kiymaz & Koç, 2018). Frontline nurses in these departments experience major stress and depression, and therefore, it would be important to make use of strategies that could lessen the pressure experienced in their units. One of the strategies would be to ensure the availability of mental health services and encourage frontline nursing staff to use these services. It would also be important to ensure that highly complex and visited units like the emergency units are adequately staffed to lessen workload and minimize the probability of medical errors.

Conclusion

Generally, addressing the root cause of errors, such as understaffing, poor training, and poor communication, is among the best ways to deal with medical errors. Frontline nursing staff should be encouraged to report any medical errors. The confidence to do so and the ability to take accountability is only increased when a non-punitive, safe, collaborative, and communicative culture is in place and strategies like training to enhance skills and knowledge are in place. Together with good leadership, organizations can promote cost-effective, safe, and quality care in support of the Triple Aim.

References

Asif, M., Jameel, A., Saito, N., Hwang, J., Hussain, A., & Manzoor, F. (2019). Can leadership enhance patient satisfaction? Assessing the role of administrative and medical quality. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(17), 3212.

Institute for Health Care Improvement. (2021). The IHI Triple Aim. http://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/TripleAim/Pages/default.aspx

Kiymaz, D., & Koç, Z. (2018). Identification of factors that affect the tendency towards and attitudes of emergency unit nurses to make medical errors. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(5-6), 1160-1169.

Murphy, J. G., & Dunn, W. F. (2010). Medical errors and poor communication. Chest, 138(6), 1292-1293.

Norman, A. (2020, February 29). An Overview of the Triple Aim. Very well health. https://www.verywellhealth.com/triple-aim-4174961

O’Neill, T.H. (2020, February 18). The Ballooning Costs of Long-Term Care. American Action Forum. https://www.americanactionforum.org/research/the-ballooning-costs-of-long-term-care/

Ouslander, J. G., & Maslow, K. (2012). Geriatrics and the triple aim: Defining preventable hospitalizations in the long‐term care population. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 60(12), 2313-2318.

Richard, C., Glaser, E., & Lussier, M. T. (2017). Communication and patient participation influencing patient recall of treatment discussions. Health Expectations, 20(4), 760-770.

Rodziewicz, T. L., Houseman, B., & Hipskind, J. E. (2021). Medical Error Reduction and Prevention. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

Tjia, J., Mazor, K. M., Field, T., Meterko, V., Spenard, A., & Gurwitz, J. H. (2019). Nurse-physician communication in the long-term care setting: perceived barriers and impact on patient safety. Journal of Patient Safety, 5(3), 145.

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Assignment:

Reflect upon the patient experience, patient safety, and healthcare cost, as well as the Joint Commission’s role in quality healthcare. Write a paper that addresses the following questions:

Principles of Triple Aim Initiative

How would you apply the principles of the Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety, and satisfaction in the acute care or long-term care setting?
Reflect on your current or future role in healthcare. How would you, in the role of director of nursing or healthcare administrator, contribute to improving cost-effective quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety?
What practices would you apply to minimize medical errors among front-line nursing staff?

Assignment Expectations

Length: 1500-2000 words in length

Structure: Include a title page and reference page in APA format. These do not count towards the minimal word amount for this assignment. Your essay must include an introduction and a conclusion.

References: Use the appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources utilized to answer the questions. A minimum of two (2) scholarly sources are required for this assignment.