Developing an action plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Developing an action plan - Essay Example In fact, the concern for the quality of care provided by a healthcare facility is as old as the field of medicine. Increasingly, governments, stakeholders in the industry, and regulatory agencies have identified the importance of ensuring that the quality of care was addressed. In effect, stakeholders have designed approaches that healthcare facilities can use in order to improve the quality of care they provided. In addition, stakeholders have identified the incentives to provide to healthcare facilities whose quality of care was in line with the requirements provided by the regulatory agencies and other stakeholders. While the need to improve the quality of care cannot be overemphasized, the healthcare industry has witnessed a number of measures that are pertinent in awarding healthcare institutions rankings after they met various standards. One such measure is the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores, which healthcare providers are supposed to implement in order for them to benefit from incentives accrued from its implementation and high ranking (Zusman, 2012; Jennings, 2010). The proviso of attaching HCAHPS scores to incentives of a healthcare provider has played an instrumental in the need to improve the quality of care. In this case, healthcare facilities have realized that improving the quality of care provided to their patients was an effective approach towards raising their HCAHPS scores. Improving the quality of care is an essential element of enhancing customers’ experience in the healthcare sector, which is crucial in creating a positive customer perception about a healthcare facility. Consequently, customers whose experiences in a healthcare facility were positive provided positive feedback regarding their perception based on their experiences during their time as patients in a healthcare institution, which improves the HCAHPS scores of a healthcare institution. In effect, a high ranking ensures that a n organization receives reimbursements and funding of its projects. In line with this, this article develops an action plan for improving HCAHPS scores in a healthcare facility. To carry out a comprehensive plan, the article will highlight the objectives of raising the HCAHPS scores, processes that will address improvement of HCAHPS scores, the implications of the plan on staff, patients, and resources, cost-benefit ratio, and the timeline for implementing the action plan. Objectives The specific objective of raising HCAHPS scores is to improve the quality of care provided by a healthcare facility. On the other hand, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) together with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which were instrumental in developing HCAHPS surveys, identified three goals for HCAHPS. In this case, the two organizations identified the first goal as the production of meaningful data regarding patients’ perceptions on healthcare facili