Creating a Data Strategy and a Process Map to Improve Healthcare Services

Improving Healthcare Services Using a Process Map and Data Strategy Name Institution Course and Code Professor Date Improving Healthcare Services Using a Process Map and Data Strategy Part 1 Data Strategy As per Hosch (2019), data strategy is a deliberate action plan to collect, integrate, and leverage data to advance the goals and missions of an institution. Making up the framework are seven crucial elements. These are data acquisition, quality of data, data governance, access of data, data analytics, data extraction and reporting, and data literacy and usage. Hosch (2019) points out that majority of these elements can be adapted to fit organizational maturity and context, although they all must remain present in some form. Incorporating these elements in a data strategy will ensure an organization has enough quality data to advance its goals and missions. Data strategies can be employed to enhance the healthcare services quality through adopting data analytics to provide patterns, insights, and predictions that can improve efficiency quality, and innovation. In healthcare, data analytics is transformative as it makes use of huge amounts of datasets to improve patient outcomes and streamline the provision of healthcare services. Data analytics enables actionable insights to be extracted from complex data which aids in guiding clinical decisions and policy-making (Arowoogun et al., 2024). As an analytic approach, data analytics is instrumental in identifying trends, predicting epidemics, and improving disease management. It is also important in improving the overall efficiency of healthcare systems since it plays a huge part in resource allocation, costs reduction, and disease management improvement. Process Map A process map is a visual flowchart that clearly outlines the steps involved in a process, including the information needed to start (inputs) and what results from each step (outputs). It gives a through description of the way things get done. According to Hessing (2024), it guides decision making by aiding participants see the process’s details closely. Through process mapping, one can pinpoint the significant weaknesses and strengths in the current process, including the impact of individual steps. Moreover, it improves the productivity of the process by assisting in decreasing defects and cycle times. Process mapping serves as a potent instrument for enhancing value, safety, and quality of healthcare services through streamlining its processes. Upon completion of a process map, one can visualize and study the whole process, its moving pieces, and handoffs. Subsequent data collection and study of the process utilizing the completed map captures process steps duration, queues, flow, and wait times. Once a process is fully comprehended, one can use the process map to pinpoint the steps where reliably measurable metrics that examine the steps effectiveness in the process or the results of the process completion can be gathered. Furthermore, such understanding enables the identification and quantification of opportunities for waste reduction and error within the process. Improving a Healthcare Process – Medication Errors Issue Description In the United States (US), approximately 6800 prescription medicines and infinite over-the-counter drugs are available. The public also regularly use thousands of herbs, health supplements, lotions, and portions, which further adds complexity to a practitioner’s responsibility during patient care (Tariq et al., 2023). Given the abundance of substances available, it is understandable that medication errors may occur when practitioners dispense or prescribe drugs. Additionally, there is a heightened interaction risk between these substances. In the US alone, each year sees thousands of deaths attributed to medication errors. Moreover, hundreds of thousands of patients suffer complications or adverse reactions from medication but most of the time do not report them. The economic burden of caring for patients impacted by medication-related errors affects more than 7 million people, and exceeds $40 billion annually (Tariq et al., 2023). In addition, patients undergo significant physical and psychological agony due to these errors. Furthermore, medication errors play a huge part in eroding patients trust in the healthcare system and in diminishing their satisfaction. The major reasons that lead to medication errors comprises errors involving dosing units or weight, difficulty differentiating between products with similar packaging, or confusion arising from medications with similar names (Tariq et al., 2023). It also comprises incorrect drug selection from a drop-down menu, illegible handwriting and failure to communicate drug orders. While many of the medication errors that happen are as a result of human error, many errors are attributed to systemic flaws that lack sufficient safeguards to detect mistakes. Value Of Utilizing a Data Strategy and Process Map In healthcare organizations, utilizing data strategy and process mapping is so important when it comes to reducing medication errors. Data strategy addresses individual and systematic factors that contribute to these mistakes in addition to helping healthcare organizations gather huge data amounts related to m...