Currently, there is a growing need for the provision of quality nursing healthcare for the blossoming elderly patient’s population in most states in the US, including the state of Ohio. Most of these older members of the society face a plethora of health-related challenges owing to their susceptibility to contracting illnesses. The purpose of this paper is to carry out a review of the variant evidence-based literature related top quality improvement and measurement. Further, this paper will analyze the literature material in relation to the elements of QAPI document and other quality improvement measures aimed at addressing the challenges facing the older population
As a consequence of changes and health complications that come with old age, a number of the elderly are susceptible to several health-related conditions like diabetes, heart diseases, arthritis, and dementia. Moreover, these conditions make it difficult for them to easily access quality healthcare facilities without proper assistance and directions. They also face challenges of discriminatory treatment, neglect, falls and malnutrition due to poverty and disability.
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"Evidence-Based Quality Healthcare Improvement for Older Adults".
According to the American Geriatrics Society (2005), there is evidence of the rapid growth of geriatric medicine as a discipline that promotes certain values, clinical skills and knowledge that nurses are required to have in order to provide palliative care and improve healthcare services for old people. The geriatric medicine hence assisted to a great extent in the treatment of common geriatric conditions that are common in old people. This body has also lobbied for the provision of advanced treatment facilities and quality healthcare for the aging population. This represents one of the elements of the QAPI, that is, quality assurance performance improvement guidelines.
Furthermore, according to Simkins (2008), other evidence of attempts by healthcare providers to improve the quality of healthcare for the aged is through the fight against ageism which is the discrimination of old people in the provision of basic services to the population by institutions and government. The writer argues that nurses have successfully countered the apparent prejudice towards old people through education programs for healthcare providers concerning the impacts of ageism. The nursing profession has also been actively involved in advocating the provision of unbiased quality healthcare for the elderly. Such initiatives could be argued to incorporate the leadership and governance of healthcare homes as an element of QAPI used in this article.
Furthermore, literature material by Wagner et al. (2002) shows that there is evidence of improvement of healthcare quality for the old population by coming up with strategies of improving care for old people suffering from chronic illnesses. According to these authors, there are several system changes or improvements with regard to chronic illness care for the elderly that are within a framework that guides quality improvement.
Scalzitti (2001) provides an evidence-based guideline for application in the clinical health practice by nurses in efforts to improve quality of healthcare particularly to old population. These guidelines for medical practitioners are aimed at helping nurses and other medical care givers to make the best healthcare decisions when dealing with special categories of patients like the elderly. This is also meant bolster the quality of healthcare for the aged and the healthcare providers are expected to incorporate these strategies into their expertise while taking into account the values, status and conditions of individual patients.
Moreover, an article by Grady (2011) on depression care for the elderly indicates that there is evidence of reduction of barriers to evidence based practice with regards to depression challenge in old people that adversely affects their life quality, mortality and status in the society. This depression is majorly caused by physical disability and illnesses common in adult age. According to this writer, most of these barriers have been overcome through the provision of psychological and pharmacological therapy treatments for the aging population. There have also been advancements in reducing ethnic and racial diversity in the elderly by proving cultural-sensitive quality healthcare.
Old age is normally associated with several physical and emotional changes. Old population in most states undergoes changes such as deconditioning, functional decline, skin quality; stigmatization and integrity loss, delirium, incontinence, depression, mental illnesses and poor self-care.
Thorpe, Thorpe, Kennelty and Pandhi (2011) categorize these barriers as predisposing, enabling, needs and service use that are related to accessibility, accommodation and availability of healthcare services for the elderly. Other barriers include poverty, lack of healthcare information, mental illness stigma, poor communication with health providers and poor nutrition. The best solutions to these barriers would be to improve nutrition among adults, increase functional mobility, provide access to care information, facilitate access to healthcare facilities and institutions and improvement in health care delivery for the aged.
Though there are numerous challenges concerning the provision and improvement of quality healthcare for the elderly, there are future prospects if the state authorities fully implement the quality assurance performance improvement and the evidence-based healthcare system. The evidence from the present literature reveals that there are significant improvements in quality of healthcare among the aging population
In conclusion, improving healthcare for the elderly through responsible clinical governance and performance improvement strategies will go a long way in effectively reducing the healthcare access disparities between the elderly and other members of the society. Increasing the awareness, involving the elderly ion healthcare planning and systemic action analysis will all help in the quality improvement of healthcare for the elderly.
