You are a member of an operating room team. The hospital is reporting an increase in complication rates from your team. Choose one of the quality models and explain how you would use it to address the causes or the adverse events.

Discussion 4-1: Quality Models

     Healthcare professionals across all units in a healthcare facility must provide quality and safe care that increases patient satisfaction and minimizes costs for both the organization and the patient. An increase in complication rates among patients who are receiving care in an operating room is a sign of poor-quality health care (Dencker et al., 2021). Nurses in the operating room should identify the source of the rising complication rates and propose evidence-based quality improvement interventions to promote patient safety. Healthcare organizations use quality models to guide them through the process of identifying and eliminating factors that might be contributing to poor quality care in their settings. The quality model that would be appropriate for addressing the causes of the adverse events in the current scenario is the Six Sigma Quality Model. This model has been chosen due to its wide application in the operating rooms in healthcare settings to address patient care issues and improve patient safety and healthcare quality (Ninerola et al., 2020).

The application of the Six Sigma Quality Model to address the causes of increasing complication rates will follow the define, measure, analyze, improve, and control (DMAIC) methodology. Using the DMAIC methodology, the nurse will Define the problem in measurable terms, Measure the severity of the problem by assessing the baseline performance, Analyze the problem by isolating the top causes associated with the measure, Improve the situation by implementing interventions to either prevent or eliminate the top causes, and Control the problem completely by sustaining the change through continued monitoring of the interventions (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2020). Following these steps will help to create a healthcare environment where care is free from errors and without complications. This will increase healthcare quality, promote patient safety, and enhance patient satisfaction.

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2020). Section 4: Ways to approach the quality improvement process. https://www.ahrq.gov/cahps/quality-improvement/improvement-guide/4-approach-qi-process/sect4part2.html

Dencker, E. E., Bonde, A., Troelsen, A., Varadarajan, K. M., & Sillesen, M. (2021). Postoperative complications: an observational study of trends in the United States from 2012 to 2018. BMC Surgery, 21(1), 393. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12893-021-01392-z

Niñerola, A., Sánchez-Rebull, M. V., & Hernández-Lara, A. B. (2020). Quality improvement in healthcare: Six Sigma systematic review. Health Policy, 124(4), 438-445. doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.01.002. Epub 2020 Feb 28. PMID: 32156468.