Ambulatory Care

Ambulatory Care

Overview

Ambulatory care encompasses a diverse and growing sector of the health care delivery system. Physician services are the chief components. Hospital outpatient and emergency departments, community health centers, departments of health, and voluntary agencies also contribute important services, however, particularly for underserved and vulnerable populations.

Today, patients have many options for how and where they spend their money. That includes selecting a health care provider. Hospitals seek to achieve the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award to excel in improving quality patient care and to be more competitive in health care. (For more information, see What is the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA)?) St. David’s HealthCare reviewed its operations and knew it was critical for the organization to continually improve. St. David’s HealthCare adopted Baldrige criteria.

Scenario

Recall, in the SWOT PowerPoint assignment, you were hired as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of We Care Hospital and one of your first tasks was to conduct a SWOT analysis of the HIT system at the hospital. Review your SWOT. You have now been working at the health care facility for several months. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) would like to become more competitive in the health care market and to show their patients that they are one of the top-rated hospitals. The CEO asks you to review the Malcolm Baldrige requirements to help improve emergency room waiting times. Your research found a trend analysis at St. David’s HealthCare facility that earned them the Malcolm Baldrige Award. According to the ASQ Knowledge Center, in 2008, wait times were over 45 minutes and steadily declined to just over 15 minutes in 2014.

Instructions

Write a three to four-page paper in which you: 

1. Research peer-reviewed journal articles on how to achieve clinical quality in ambulatory care and identify best practices.
2. Analyze the triage status of emergency department visits in the United States. (Hint: See Figure 5-3 in the textbook.)
3. Provide a recommendation to the CEO on whether We Care Hospital operations can potentially meet the Malcolm Baldrige award criteria. Why or why not? Justify your response.
4. Use at least three recent (within the last five years) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar websites do not qualify as academic resources.

This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Prepare a recommendation for achieving clinical quality in ambulatory care based on research of best practices.

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