Quality Improvement Tools Have you ever used a pro and con list to work through a challenging decision? Have you checked items or steps off a notepad as you completed them? The seven tools of quality—and their many derivatives—assist healthcare professionals in a similar way, by breaking down complex processes so that they can be […]

Quality Improvement The Institute of Medicine’s six domains of healthcare quality—safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable—provide a framework for assessing quality and guiding improvement. Though broad, the domains can help in generating more specific measures to monitor within an organization.   For example, if a nurse executive were interested in the timeliness of care, […]

Differentiating Strategic, Operational, and Tactical Planning   Continuous planning is an important activity for any organization that aims to evolve to stay current in its industry and serve its intended purpose. There are several types of planning used by nurse executives: strategic planning, operational planning, and tactical planning. Each type of planning usually occurs at […]

Identifying a Strategic Plan Issue To Prepare: Consider any feedback you received from your Instructor and colleagues during this week’s Discussion.   If appropriate, refine your focus to clarify the strategic plan issue. Conduct additional research as necessary to support your proposed plan.   Use the Strategic Plan Issue Template, provided in this week’s Learning […]

Health Care Marketing Plans   In an industry that is continuously evolving, organizations must plan for the future, making marketing planning essential to their success. Effective marketing plans align to value-based delivery systems and implement strategies for branding and promotion. By engaging consumers and building their reputations, health care organizations can gain a sustainable competitive […]

The Four Ps of Marketing Health care organizations can influence a targeted market through the 4 Ps of marketing—product, price, promotion, and place. The 4 Ps, also known as the marketing mix, essentially provide a framework for a marketing strategy. To effectively reach consumers, each of the four components must align. For example, you might […]

Quality Improvement   The Institute of Medicine’s six domains of healthcare quality—safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable—provide a framework for assessing quality and guiding improvement. Though broad, the domains can help in generating more specific measures to monitor within an organization.   For example, if a nurse executive were interested in the timeliness of […]

Personal Improvement Project Topic   The aim of the Personal Improvement Project is to experiment with a small change that is under your personal control; collect, analyze, and interpret data; and then reflect on what you have learned from your project about the general challenge of changing something. Through this multi-week project, you will see […]

You have likely looked around your healthcare organization at some point and identified a problem. Perhaps you have said, “There must be an easier way,” or “That process just doesn’t make sense.” The issue may not have been addressed, due to time or money constraints—or due to legacy thinking about the right way to perform […]

Review the Community General Hospital Case Study presented in the Learning Resources.   Complete the Week 7 Discussion in which you research quality and safety measures and select 6–8 measures for inclusion in a dashboard for the Community General Hospital Board.   Review any feedback received in Discussion about your chosen measures.   Determine how […]