Capella University Current Health Care Problem or Issue Analysis Write a 4-6 page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a propos

Capella University Current Health Care Problem or Issue Analysis Write a 4-6 page analysis of a current problem or issue in health care, including a proposed solution and possible ethical implications.

In your health care career you will be confronted with many problems that demand a solution. By using research skills you can learn what others are doing and saying about similar problems. Then you can analyze the problem and the people and systems it affects. You can examine potential solutions and their ramifications. This assessment allows you to practice this approach with a real world problem.

DEMONSTRATION OF PROFICIENCY

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 1: Apply information literacy and library research skills to obtain scholarly information in the field of health care.
Use scholarly information to describe and explain a health care problem or issue and identify possible causes for it.
Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care.
Analyze a health care problem or issue by describing the context, explaining why it is important, and identifying populations affected by it.
Discuss potential solutions for a health care problem or issue and describe what would be required to implement a solution.
Competency 3: Apply ethical principles and academic standards to the study of health care.
Analyze the ethical implications if a potential solution to a health care problem or issue was implemented.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others, and that is consistent with expectations for health care professionals.
Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Write following APA style for in-text citations, quotes, and references.
INSTRUCTIONS
Describe the health care problem or issue you selected for use in Assessment 2 (from the Assessment Topic Areas | Transcript media piece) and provide details about it.
To explore your chosen topic, you should use the first four steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking. This approach was introduced in the second assessment.
Identify possible causes for the problem or issue.
Use scholarly information to explain the health care problem or issue.
Identify at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles about the topic.
You may use articles you found while working on Assessment 2 or you may search the Capella Library for other articles.
You may find the applicable Undergraduate Library Research Guide helpful in your search.
Assess the credibility of the information sources.
Assess the relevance of the information sources.
Analyze the problem or issue.
Describe the setting or context for the problems or issues.
Describe why the problem or issue is important to you.
Identify groups of people affected by the problem or issue.
Discuss potential solutions for the problem or issue.
Compare your opinion with other opinions you find in sources from the Capella Library.
Provide the pros and cons for one of the solutions you are proposing.
Analyze the ethical implications if the potential solution (the one for which you provide pros and cons) were to be implemented.
Discuss the pros and cons of implementing the proposed solution from an ethical principle point of view.
Provide examples from the literature to support the points you are making.
Describe what would be necessary to implement the proposed solution.

Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:

Assessment 3 Example [PDF].
Additional Requirements
Length: At least 4–6 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
APA Template: Use the APA Style Paper Template [DOCX] as the paper format and the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOC] for guidance.
Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Using outside sources: Integrate information from outside sources into academic writing by appropriately quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, following APA style.
References: Integrate information from outside sources to include at least three scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles and three in-text citations within the paper.
APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citations of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.

Organize your paper using the following structure and headings:

Title page. A separate page.
Introduction. A brief one-paragraph statement about the purpose of the paper.
Elements of the problem/issue. Identify the elements of the problem or issue or question.
Analysis. Analyze, define, and frame the problem or issue.
Considering options. Consider solutions, responses, or answers.
Solution. Choose a solution, response, or answer.
Ethical implications. Ethical implications of implementing the solution.
Implementation. Implementation of the potential solution.
Conclusion. One paragraph. Running head: ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
Analyze a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
Learner’s Name
Capella University
Developing a Health Care Perspective
Analyze a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
March, 2018
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
1
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
2
Analyze a Current Health Care Problem or Issue
Patient safety, as discussed in the previous assessment, is an important element of quality
health care. This assessment will expand upon patient safety issues that occur when patients are
exposed to inadvertent harm or injury while receiving medical care. Health care organizations
should maintain and develop a safety culture to prevent patient safety issues. Patient safety
culture is defined as a system that promotes safety by shared organizational values of what is
important and beliefs about how things work. It also encompasses how these values and beliefs
interact with the work unit, organizational structures, and systems to produce behavioral norms
(Ulrich & Kear, 2014). As such, care should be taken to improve the infrastructure of health care
organizations. Improving patient safety should be discussed and addressed by every individual
associated with public health care.
Elements of the Problem/Issue
Research shows that while getting treated at health care organizations, patients might be
at risk of experiencing the harm or injuries associated with medical care. The most likely causes
of patient safety issues are preventable adverse events, which are adverse events attributable to
error. These errors can be classified as diagnostic errors, contextual errors, and communication
errors (Ulrich & Kear, 2014).
Diagnostic errors take place when health care professionals provide a wrong or delayed
diagnosis or no diagnosis at all (James, 2013). An example of a wrong diagnosis is a health care
professional diagnosing a patient with gastric troubles when the patient is actually experiencing a
heart attack. An example of a delayed diagnosis is a patient not being notified of an abnormal
chest X-ray, thereby delaying diagnosis of a serious medical condition. An example of a missed
diagnosis is a patient not being diagnosed with heart failure despite warning symptoms.
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
3
Contextual errors occur when health care professionals fail to consider their patients’
personal or psychological limitations while planning appropriate care for them. An example is a
health care professional’s failure to recognize that basic follow-up discharge instructions may not
be understood by patients with cognitive disabilities (James, 2013). It is important for health care
professionals to be aware of their patients’ mental and physical abilities before they formulate a
plan of care.
Communication errors occur when there is miscommunication or lack of communication
between health care professionals and patients (James, 2013). They can cause severe harm to
Comment [A1]: You provided a clear
explanation regarding the problem
investigated. The possible causes were
explored.
patients. An example of this is a nurse failing to tell a surgeon that a patient experienced
abdominal pain and had a drop in red blood cell count after an operation, resulting in the death of
the patient due to severe internal bleeding. Limited health care knowledge; language barriers;
and auditory, visual, and speech disabilities could also lead to communication errors and cause
safety issues.
Analysis
As a medical transcriptionist, it is important for me to be aware of potential transcription
errors and privacy standards, which affect patient safety. Errors like these pose dangerous risks;
therefore, it is necessary to have an overall quality evaluation of the transcribed documents.
Also, I must ensure that serious difficulties in transcription resulting from poor-quality voice
files are reported immediately to the manager, who will then convey this to the health care
professionals involved in the process. This will help ensure that patient safety is not
compromised.
Context for Patient Safety Issues
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
Comment [A2]: Which error classification
describes these errors? Add this information to
add continuity.
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
4
With the advancement of medical technology, health care processes have become extremely
complex. Health care professionals are required to stay up-to-date with a lot of new knowledge
and innovations obtained from research. This often overburdens them as there is a need to apply
the learning from research in their practice. Also, at the individual level, there is a dearth of wellbalanced continuing education programs, which has resulted in a lack of attention to patient
safety among health care professionals. At the system level, organizations fail to deliver
optimum health care as a result of being understaffed, an inability to provide appropriate
technology, and ineffective execution of patient care transfer (James, 2013). Overcrowding and
understaffing delays initiation of treatment and puts critically ill patients at significant risk. All
of these factors contribute to a rise in patient safety issues.
Comment [A3]: You effectively indicated
which causes were the most likely to create
safety issues.
Populations Affected by Patient Safety Issues
Patients with a psychiatric history are also a vulnerable group of people who face patient
safety issues because their psychiatric records are often combined with their current symptoms.
Patients with a documented history of psychiatric illness may avoid seeking health care services
as they feel that their care will be based on their past record of illnesses and not their present
needs. Therefore, psychotherapists should implement measures such that their psychiatric data is
concealed from their medical records before it is shared with the third party, which helps protect
patients’ confidentiality (Shenoy & Appel, 2017).
Considering Options
Patient safety in hospitals can be achieved by creating a culture of safety that involves
effective communication, correct managerial leadership styles, and the use of Electronic Health
Records (EHRs).
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
Comment [A4]: This section was very
informative about special populations, but it
would be of value to also include the general
populations discussed earlier in this paper
(such as public health patients and hospital
patients).
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
5
Effective communication while passing patient-specific information from one health care
professional to another is essential in ensuring continuous and safe patient care. Training the
team could likely improve consistent successful communication and help prevent errors.
Standardizing critical content that needs to be communicated by the initial health care
professional ensures safe transfer of care (Farmer, 2016).
It is essential for leadership teams to adopt organizational strategies that would improve
patient safety and transform their organizations into reliable systems for enhanced patient
satisfaction. They should set strategic safety goals, which could include adhering to standards of
health, assessing quality, using patient satisfaction reviews, and analyzing adverse event reports
to determine improvement in safety issues (Parand, Dopson, Renz, & Vincent, 2014).
An EHR is another potential solution to prevent patient safety issues. It is a digital record
of a patient’s medical information that includes history, physical examination, investigations, and
treatment (Ozair, Jamshed, Sharma, & Aggarwal, 2015). It helps manage multiple processes in
the complex health care system and prevents errors. EHRs utilize less storage space compared to
paper documentation and allow an infinite number of records to be stored. In addition to being
cost-effective and preventing a loss of records, EHRs help conduct research activities and
provide quick data transfer (Ozair et al., 2015).
Solution
In health care, because transmission of information takes place among different people
and electronic devices, there is a high likelihood of errors occurring. For example, transcription
errors (which occur due to poor audio quality or the lack of a quality evaluation process) can be
prevented by using recording equipment with good sound quality and by maintaining
proofreading and quality checks. However, integrating transcription processes with the EHR
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
6
system helps prevent errors, helps access the required information faster, and allows health care
professionals to take accurate decisions about patients’ care.
Implementation
An EHR is an important mechanism for improving patient safety. Its advancement has
made it a viable option to prevent medical errors. However, the use of EHRs has certain ethical
implications such as security violation, data inaccuracies, lack of privacy and confidentiality, and
challenges during system implementation. Security violation takes place when patients’
confidential health information is accessible to others without their permission. To avoid security
violation, data should not only be password protected but also encrypted to restrict access to
unauthorized individuals. Firewalls and antivirus software should be used to protect data (Ozair
et al., 2015).
Though EHRs improve patient safety by reducing medical errors, data inaccuracies are
increasing. Loss of data during data transfer leads to inaccuracies that affect decision-making
related to patient care. A problem of concern related to data inaccuracy is medical identity theft,
which leads to incorrect information being filed into a person’s medical record, which in turn
leads to insurance fraud and wrong billing (Ozair et al., 2015).
In health care, information that is shared during physician–patient interactions should be
kept confidential and should be made inaccessible to unauthorized individuals. Enabling rolebased access controls based on user credentials will restrict access to the EHR system to
authorized users. The user should also be made aware that he or she is responsible for any
information that he or she misuses (Ozair et al., 2015).
As EHR is a complex software, there is a high likelihood that software failure may result
in inaccurate recordings of patients’ data. Therefore, EHR system implementation may have
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
7
ethical implications due to the violation of data integrity (Ozair et al., 2015). EHRs can safeguard
patient confidentiality by using various methods that prevent security breaches. In addition to
this, creating reminders that ask for a confirmation before accessing confidential information can
help protect data. A nesting system could be developed, which would allow, for example, a
health care professional from a specific specialty clinic to access patient records by signing into
the specialty domain (Shenoy & Appel, 2017). These methods will enable the safe and efficient
use of EHRs and ensure patient safety.
Conclusion
Patient safety involves preventing the risk of harm or injuries to patients by establishing a
safety culture and providing high-quality medical care. Health care organizations must
understand patient safety issues and find solutions for these issues by designing systems that
prevent errors from occurring. Potential solutions include effective communication, changes in
leadership style, and the use of EHRs. The ethical implications of these solutions should be
considered before implementing them in a health care setting. It is also important that health care
professionals undergo continuous education and effective training, provide appropriate medical
care, prevent errors, and follow safety practices to improve clinical outcomes.
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
Comment [A5]: The concluding paragraph
summarizes the analysis and solutions offered
in this paper.
ANALYZE A CURRENT HEALTH CARE PROBLEM OR ISSUE
8
References
Farmer, B. M. (2016). Patient safety in the emergency department. Emergency Medicine, 48(9),
396–404. Retrieved from https://mdedge.com/emedjournal/article/113659/trauma/patient-safety-emergency-department
James, J. T. (2013, September). A new, evidence-based estimate of patient harms associated with
hospital care. Journal of Patient Safety, 9(3), 122–128. Retrieved from
https://journals.lww.com/journalpatientsafety/Fulltext/2013/09000/A_New,_Evidence_ba
sed_Estimate_of_Patient_Harms.2.aspx
Ozair, F. F., Jamshed, N., Sharma, A., & Aggarwal, P. (2015). Ethical issues in electronic health
records: A general overview. Perspectives in Clinical Research, 6(2), 73–76.
http://dx.doi.org/10.4103/2229-3485.153997
Parand, A., Dopson, S., Renz, A., & Vincent, C. (2014). The role of hospital managers in quality
and patient safety: A systematic review. BMJ Open, 4(9). http://dx.doi.org/
10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005055
Shenoy, A., & Appel, J. M. (2017, April). Safeguarding confidentiality in electronic health
records. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 26(2), 337–341. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-com.library.capella.edu/docview/1882434628?pqorigsite=summon&https://library.capella.edu/login?url=accountid=27965
Ulrich, B., & Kear, T. (2014). Patient safety and patient safety culture: Foundations of excellent
health care delivery. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 41(5), 447–456, 505. Retrieved from
https://search-proquestcom.library.capella.edu/docview/1617932572/fulltextPDF/1486CC30B3624B3CPQ/1?ac
countid=27965
Copyright ©2018 Capella University. Copy and distribution of this document are prohibited.
Comment [A6]: You provided a wellresearched paper. Your paper is enhanced by
the use of recently published academic peer
review journal articles.

Purchase answer to see full
attachment