Differences in Costs and Quality of Nursing
The nursing department witnessed significant changes in 2016, the primary ones concerning the issue of expenses and the inconsistency in the quality of the services provided. A by the Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc. (2014) shows that the pricequality correlation leaves much to be desired at present. To address the issue, an APN should consider the redesign of the values that the members of the along with the introduction of a more sustainable approach that will lead to reducing the costs taken by hospitals on a statewide level.
The report states quite explicitly that the quality rates are not only different based on the choice of a hospital but also inconsistent with the prices set by the local nursing facilities. A closer look at the subject matter, however, will show that the quality issue should be attributed to the extent, to which the significance of nursing competencies increase is promoted among the employees (Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc.). As an APN, one should consider the development of training courses for the nursing staff and the incorporation of a set of more rigid rules into the environment of nursing facilities. Focusing on the analysis of the standards that the nursing staff adheres to and redesigning it to make the treatment more efficient, an APN is likely to create prerequisites for a consistent improvement in the quality of the services provided (Mun & Ghani, 2013).
In addition, the problem regarding the costs needs to be managed correspondingly. As stated above, although quality rates of the services provided to the target members of the the same, if not reduced, the costs taken by hospitals are becoming increasingly high. The phenomenon mentioned above affects the nursing environment greatly, causing the employees to lose their motivation and reducing the number of customers significantly. An APN could improve the current state of affairs by redesigning the costs management strategy implemented in the local hospitals currently (Healthgrades Operating Company, Inc.). To be more accurate, one should view the idea of lean management and sustainability as the primary objectives. Indeed, by definition, the sustainability approach implies that the existing resources should be allocated according to where they are needed most (Mun & Ghani, 2013). In other words, each domain will receive the amount of money that it needs to retain its current performance rates, whereas the remaining part of the finances will be used to enhance the operations of other departments. The lean management approach, in its turn, will serve as the foundation for implementing the strategy above (Stanton et al., 2014).
Even though the nursing environment has been suffering rather , with a rapid increase in the costs taken by healthcare facilities, the implementation of a sustainable lean management approach by APNs will create prerequisites for a major improvement. More to the point, an increase in quality is expected as a result of the introduction of a lean approach. It should be noted, though, that an APN will have to redesign the very attitude of the staff members toward the process of nursing services provision. Particularly, it will be a sensible step to enhance the significance of nursing ethics and values so that the principles of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) could be introduced into the target environment.
