Innovative systems and distribution of technology to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety.

 

 

Explain innovative systems and distribution of technology to enhance the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety.

Scenario
You are a nursing supervisor at a private, critical access hospital offering a variety of clinical care and hospital services to the community. As part of this role, you conduct weekly patient satisfaction phone calls regarding their hospital stay and create patient satisfaction improvement plans for the weekly leadership meetings for any patient concerns.
You just completed a disheartening phone call with a geriatric patient named Mabel who had a six-day hospital stay following a diagnosis of pneumonia. Mabel started the call sharing that fifteen years ago, she was hospitalized with pneumonia at your hospital but was very pleased with her first stay. Unfortunately, this hospital stay presented a lot of challenges for her. She shared she had to stay an extra night because the doctor never showed to sign discharge papers; the pharmacy was closed overnight, so her prescriptions weren’t ready; and she still had not received a bill which had to be mailed because the computer system was shut down for maintenance when she called to inquire. She continued to share that she was provided access instructions for an online portal to view her records but the link does not work, and the user ID and password she was promised would be in the discharge paperwork but was nowhere to be found.

Instructions:
You are preparing for the weekly leadership meeting and only have one patient satisfaction improvement plan to create in response to Mabel’s feedback about her hospital stay. Also, they have asked each leader to bring two innovative technologies that they feel would improve patient safety to this meeting to start a conversation for purchasing new innovation. They are looking at the next fiscal year and want to budget for the integration of 2 innovations. Create an improvement plan using the format of your choice and add the two innovative technologies under the improvement plan. Be sure to include the following components:
• Thoroughly identify all of Mabel’s hospital stay concerns.
• Specifically, identify how the failure of technology impacted her healthcare delivery.
• Thoroughly describe two innovative technologies you would recommend to improve client experience, such as Mable's.
• Describe how you would evaluate the impact of these technologies.
• A thorough description of evidence from the literature to support how each technology had a positive impact on client safety.

 

 

Sample Answer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Patient Satisfaction Improvement Plan: Leadership Meeting Report

To: Hospital Leadership Team

From: Nursing Supervisor, [Your Name]

Date: December 16, 2025

Subject: Patient Satisfaction Improvement Plan – Case Study: Mabel (Geriatric Pneumonia Care)

Part 1: Analysis of Patient Experience (Mabel’s Feedback)

Mabel’s recent six-day stay for pneumonia highlights a significant decline in service quality compared to her experience fifteen years ago. While the clinical care may have resolved her pneumonia, the logistical and digital failures created a distressing experience that compromised her safety and transition to home.

Identification of Mabel’s Hospital Stay Concerns

Discharge Delay: Forced to stay an extra night solely because a physician was unavailable to sign physical paperwork.

Medication Access: Prescriptions were not ready because the pharmacy was closed overnight, creating a gap in her post-hospital medication regimen.

Billing Inaccessibility: Inability to receive or view her bill due to a system maintenance shutdown.

Digital Portal Failure: The provided link was broken, and critical credentials (User ID/Password) were missing from the physical paperwork.

Impact of Technology Failure on Healthcare Delivery

Fragmentation of Care: The lack of a digital signature workflow meant that "human absence" outweighed "clinical readiness," wasting hospital resources (bed occupancy) and patient time.

Information Discontinuity: The missing portal credentials prevented Mabel from engaging in "Meaningful Use" of her health data, which is essential for geriatric patients to manage follow-up care.

Safety Risks: The pharmacy’s closure combined with a lack of automated prescription routing means a high risk of medication non-adherence upon her return home.

Administrative Friction: Systems being down for maintenance during peak inquiry hours indicates a lack of "High Availability" infrastructure, eroding patient trust in the hospital’s professional standards.