Nursing Home Unit Audit Tool
Nursing Home Unit Audit Tool | |||||||
This audit tool evaluates documentation practices, technology use, and hospital culture in a nursing home unit. This tool focuses on four themes: initial patient assessment, subsequent management, technology and culture, and discharge. | |||||||
Name of the auditor: | Date: | ||||||
Contact information: | |||||||
Initial Patient Assessment | |||||||
The patient’s name or initials are present | Yes | No | |||||
The facility’s number is present | Yes | No | |||||
Records indicate referral source (where applicable) | Yes | No | |||||
The date and time are present | Yes | No | |||||
The impression or working diagnosis is present | Yes | No | |||||
Investigations and findings are present | Yes | No | |||||
The treatment plan is present | Yes | No | |||||
Food and drug allergies are recorded | Yes | No | |||||
Total points deducted | |||||||
Subsequent Management | |||||||
The facility has an elaborate approach to promoting accurate patient identification. | Yes | No | |||||
The facility has a policy for retaining and disposing of medical records | Yes | No | |||||
The facility has an elaborate policy for informed consent for patients receiving various treatments. | Yes | No | |||||
Interventions are recorded and updated daily. The name of the clinician making these interventions is present. | Yes | No | |||||
Treatment plans are updated daily based on the patient’s progress. | Yes | No | |||||
The nutritional status and dietary needs of each patient are captured. | Yes | No | |||||
The facility upholds patient data privacy, confidentiality, and security. | Yes | No | |||||
Total points deducted | |||||||
Technology and Culture | |||||||
The facility has embraced the electronic health record system to optimize documentation. | Yes | No | |||||
The facility has leveraged barcoding to promote accurate patient identification. | Yes | No | |||||
The facility has leveraged technology such as smart infusion pumps (or any other technology) to minimize medical errors. | Yes | No | |||||
Culturally sensitive services are provided. | Yes | No | |||||
Total points deducted | |||||||
Patient Discharge | |||||||
The name and address of the patient are indicated. | Yes | No | |||||
The dates of admission and discharge are indicated. | Yes | No | |||||
The name of the discharging clinician is present. | Yes | No | |||||
The patient’s diagnosis is present. | Yes | No | |||||
The investigations (laboratory and radiological) and results are present. | Yes | No | |||||
Interventions and treatment given are present. | Yes | No | |||||
Any complications, toxicities, or hypersensitive reactions during hospitalization are recorded. | Yes | No | |||||
Medication on discharge is indicated. | Yes | No | |||||
Follow-up instructions are present. | Yes | No | |||||
ICD number is indicated. | Yes | No | |||||
Patients who leave against medical advice have consented to treatment refusal. | Yes | No | |||||
Total points deducted | |||||||
Darghahi et al. (2019) report that an audit tool enables stakeholders to identify key aspects that should be modified or changed to improve the quality of service delivery. In the healthcare sector, auditing provides an opportunity to optimize a facility’s structure, processes, and outcomes. As such, periodic audits should be conducted to direct the formation of informed decisions when developing a quality improvement program. This paper evaluates an auditing tool for a nursing home unit.
This audit tool evaluates documentation practices, technology use, and hospital culture in a nursing home unit. It focuses on four themes: initial patient assessment, subsequent management, technology and culture, and discharge. The four themes address thirty aspects of the nursing home. As such, the cumulative points are thirty. The initial patient assessment addresses eight aspects, whereas seven points are addressed in subsequent management. Technology and culture address four points, whereas discharge addresses eleven points. The auditor will award one point if each criterion obtains a “yes” response.
The initial patient assessment documents history taking, investigations, diagnosis, and interventions. This section checks medical records to ensure that they fulfill the specified criteria. The evaluation focuses on the presence of a patient’s name or initials, the facility’s number, referral source, date and time of admission, the impression, investigations and findings, and the treatment plan. Furthermore, medical records are checked to ascertain whether food and drug allergies have been indicated.
Subsequent management focuses on patient care after admission. In this section, the auditor will evaluate various aspects. They include an identification system, a policy for retaining and disposing of medical records, and an informed consent policy. Also, the auditor will check whether or not interventions are recorded and updated daily, whether treatment plans are updated daily, and whether nutritional statuses and needs are captured. Furthermore, the auditor will evaluate whether the facility upholds patients’ privacy and confidentiality.
Technology and culture will focus on the use of healthcare technology and the presence of cultural congruence. Healthcare technology optimizes the quality of care. Notably, barcodes and smart infusion pumps improve patient identification and promote safe medication administration (Michalek & Carson, 2020). Furthermore, electronic health record systems eliminate unnecessary paperwork, optimize documentation, and minimize medical errors (Bloom et al., 2021). Cultural congruence promotes holistic care by acknowledging and respecting diverse preferences among patients.
Finally, patient discharge will focus on the documentation of various aspects. Examples of these aspects include the patient’s name, admission, discharge dates, the name of the discharging clinician, and the patient’s diagnosis. The other aspects include laboratory or radiological investigations, interventions, complications or toxicities, medication on discharge, and follow-up instructions. Furthermore, this section will check for consent to refuse treatment and the ICD number.
References
Bloom, B. M., Pott, J., Thomas, S., Gaunt, D. R., & Hughes, T. C. (2021). Usability of electronic health record systems in UK EDs. Emergency Medicine Journal, 38(6), 410–415. https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2020-210401
Darghahi, H., Irandoust, K., & Mojtabayan, S. M. (2019). Evaluating the readiness of selected hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences to implement a clinical audit program from the viewpoint of hospital managers in 2018. Journal of Hospital, 18(2), 101-111. http://jhosp.tums.ac.ir/article-1-6074-en.html
Michalek, C., & Carson, S. L. (2020). Implementing barcode medication administration and smart infusion pumps is just the beginning of the safety journey to prevent administration errors. Farmacia Hospitalaria, 44(3), 114–121. https://doi.org/10.7399/fh.11410
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Question

Nursing Home Unit Audit Tool
In order to identify opportunities for improvement, as well as to meet and exceed regulatory requirements in any healthcare organization, auditing and monitoring are essential components of the Quality Improvement Program. It is your turn to develop an audit tool to assess a medical record or to conduct observational rounds (examples: hospital floor, Nursing Home Unit, Clinic, Urgent Care Center). The criteria to be included would be the title of the audit tool, the date, and the auditor’s name, and you will determine the rest.