Procedures for the Compliance Plans

Paper details: This paper must be written in a language employees can understand. Proper APA formating is required. Please see the attachment for the requirements of this paper. Thank you. Both compliance plansÕÉ≠†Њ† are introduced in the overview and a policies for compliance plans were also written. Please read both The Overview for the compliance plans and the Policies for both Compliance Plans are attached in the file requirements1.doc. Use them as a guide for the "Procedures." Thank you! Requirements: Procedures for Compliance Plans In a 4-page paper, describe the procedures for each of the two compliance plans. Break each procedure section into 2 pages each. Remember to support your procedures for each of two plans with a total of three research sources (1-2 per procedure), cited at the end in APA format. Write your procedures in a way that all employees will understand at a large medical facility where you are the Compliance Officer. Remember, you chose two compliance policy plans under the key compliance areas of: Compliance Standards, High-Level Responsibility, Education, Communication, Monitoring/Auditing (for Safety), Enforcement/Discipline, and Response/Prevention (BOTH COMPLIANCE PLAN MUST HAVE ALL THESE KEY ELEMENTS FOR THE PROCEDURES. (Check them out if you forget! Remember, you may have written about different policies for the two different compliance plans.) Criteria: 1. First section presents procedures for first compliance plan based on the policies covered for the two compliance areas. 2. Second section presents procedures for second compliance plan based the policies covered for the two compliance areas. 3. Procedures for each compliance plan are written in a way that all employees will understand at a large medical facility. 4. Contains at least three research sources total cited in APA format in a References page. Proper APA and reference format. Please see the Overview and Policies for both of my Compliance Plan below: Overview of Compliance Plans Compliance 1: Clinical staff members are not washing their hands between patients. Hygiene is one of the fundamental aspects of preventing the spread of infections, particularly in a hospital environment. The reason for this is that many diseases are highly contagious and transmittable via physical contact with infected patients. Health institutions, therefore, provide clear guidelines pertaining to the code of conduct of the staff as far as handling of patients is concerned. In particular, this compliance plan provides for the professionals to minimize instances of transmission of diseases across different patients through physical contact (Vian, 2008). This is a mechanism of self-initiated processes of reducing transmission across different persons. In this regard, the compliance plan will minimize the levels of fatalities caused by different ailments through effective control of infections via a premeditated plan. Therefore, the implementation of the compliance plan will ensure guarantee safety of both patients and the staff with a central locale of patients’ hygiene safety. 1. Purpose Most of the secondary infections that are experienced by patients, especially in the surgical departments, are brought about by the failure of the clinical staff members to wash their hands before they transit between one patients to the other. As such, if the previous patient had a certain infection, then it would spread to the others. Notably, according to Gould et al. (2010), hand hygiene is the best way in which cross infections can be prevented in the healthcare setting. This plan seeks to ensure that the clinical staff members clean their hands between patients. This washing can either be traditional, where the hands are cleaned with soap and water, or the decontamination of the hands via the use alcohol-based hand rub. In this regard, the purpose of this compliance plan is to ensure that these cross infections are not reported, as the clinical staff members will ensure that they wash their hands (Erasmus et al., 2010). Additionally, the compliance standards will also seek to reduce the cases of nosocomial infections which arise out of the uncleansed hands. 2. Benefits of Supporting the Compliance Plan There are massive benefits that will arise out of the support of this compliance plan. In the view of Helder et al. (2010), the first and most important one is that the patients in the healthcare facility will remain healthy and devoid of any major infections that might arise out of the contaminated hands of the clinical officers. Secondly, the HCAHP scores of the healthcare facility would go up. Specifically, the satisfaction scores of the patients would rise as they will have more trust in the health personnel who are clean (Gould et al., 2010). Additionally, these scores would go up as a result of the high level of cleanliness that will be observed in the facilities. Finally, following the compliance plan standards would ensure that the clinical staff members will not have to deal with secondary infection cases. 3. Employees’ Benefits a. Benefits of Accepting High Level Responsibility Each staff members should take it personally to ensure that they clean their hands between patients. Indeed, accepting the high level of responsibility will bring seriousness in the compliance and hence ensure that they all comply (Erasmus et al., 2010). Additionally, this responsibility will attract fear for penalties in case of breaches. b. Benefits of Accepting Education Learning how to wash hands is critical, as this will give the clinical staff members the rationale. Additionally, this education will ensure that they wash them in the proper way to avoid the infections. c. Benefits of Accepting Communication Communication ensures that there is collaboration among the members. Additionally, any clarifications will be made on the way to clean hands through effective communication. 4. Supporting Monitoring and Enforcement The compliance will be for the benefit of each member of staff. As such, supporting the monitoring and enforcement will ensure that no one clinical officer fails the others by not washing his/her hands. Additionally, according to Helder et al. (2010), this support will ensure smooth implementation of the standards. Compliance 2: Employees are not knowledgeable in the use of fire extinguishers. One of the fundamental safety concerns, in many instances, is the ability of occupants of a given premises to correctly operate fire safety gear in order to effectively confront the fire and/ or minimize damage during a fire (Greenfield & Braithwaite, 2008). This is of particular concern for the hospitals, where the ability of employees to correctly use fire extinguishers ultimately determines the level of safety the hospital can guarantee its patients. The responsibility for these concerns lies with hospital management in that it is management’s duty to ensure the hospital staff is prepared for such occurrences. The development and implementation of a compliance plan will help to mitigate any potential risk of the misuse of the fire extinguishers in the healthcare facility. 1. Purpose This compliance plan is very critical in the control of any fire that might arise accidentally on the hospital premises. However, in the opinion of Entwistle et al. (2010), the employees ought to have the knowledge that is necessary for them to be able to use the fire extinguishers and put out any fire that will threaten to burn down the hospital facilities as well as the crucial documents and health records of the customers. In this case, this plan will state the standards with relation to education, communication, and the level of responsibility that each individual employee is supposed to put in place to ensure that the standards are followed and that no fire breakouts will subdue the efforts of the clinical staff members (Davis, Sevdalis, & Vincent, 2011). 2. Benefits of Supporting the Compliance Plan One of the most fundamental benefits that will arise out of the compliance with the standards is the safety of the patients. Specifically, any fire outbreak would be a threat to the patients and staff who would find it hard to escape the fire. As such, they would just have to put out the fire quickly before it spreads to the inpatient department (Davis, Sevdalis & Vincent, 2011). The safety of the health records for the patients will also be ensured as a result of the compliance. In this regard, the staff members would be able to preempt any threat of fire that might accidentally occur. Lastly, complying with this plan would also ensure that the healthcare infrastructure is safe. In this case, in case of any fire outbreak, there would be no panic as the staff members would be knowledgeable on how to put off the threat. 3. Employees’ Benefit a. Benefits of Accepting High Level Responsibility When each of the clinical staff accept a high level of responsibility, the standards will be taken personally and no one will want to be at fault in case of any fire breakout (Entwistle et al., 2010). As a result, all the employees would take personal initiatives to ensure that they extinguish the fire if it occurs. b. Benefits of Accepting Education Education will provide employees with the knowledge on the use of the extinguishers. Secondly, attaining education for all will ensure that each and every staff member can use the fire extinguisher and hence avoid panic in case of an outbreak. c. Benefits of Accepting Communication Effective communication among the staff members will ensure that there is proper coordination in case of a fire outbreak. Additionally, communication will help in strategizing on the best way to put out the fire. 4. Supporting, Monitoring, and Enforcement Naturally, some of the staff members would fail to observer the standards. As such, it is critical that they monitor each other and occasionally remind one another of the need to seek education on the use of fire extinguishers. To conclude, the two compliance plans are equally critical in the healthcare setting. Washing hands ensures that secondary infections are reduced. Additionally, complying with the fire extinguisher education will ensure that any fire outbreak is properly managed. This will ensure the safety of the patients and their healthcare records. As such, there is a need for the clinical staff members to comply with the standards and hence increase the HCAHP scores of the healthcare facility because of high levels of customer satisfaction. References Davis, R. E., Sevdalis, N., & Vincent, C. A. (2011). Patient involvement in patient safety: How willing are patients to participate? BMJ Quality & Safety, 20(1), 108-114. Entwistle, V. A., McCaughan, D., Watt, I. S., Birks, Y., Hall, J., Peat, M., ... & Wright, J. (2010). Speaking up about safety concerns: multi-setting qualitative study of patients' views and experiences. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 19(6), e33-e33. Erasmus, V., Daha, T. J., Brug, H., Richardus, J. H., Behrendt, M. D., Vos, M. C., & van Beeck, E. F. (2010). Systematic review of studies on compliance with hand hygiene guidelines in hospital care. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 31(03), 283-294. Gould, D. J., Moralejo, D., Drey, N., & Chudleigh, J. H. (2010). Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care. The Cochrane Library. Greenfield, D., & Braithwaite, J. (2008). Health sector accreditation research: a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 20(3). Helder, O. K., Brug, J., Looman, C. W., van Goudoever, J. B., & Kornelisse, R. F. (2010). The impact of an education program on hand hygiene compliance and nosocomial infection incidence in an urban neonatal intensive care unit: an intervention study with before and after comparison. International journal of nursing studies, 47(10), 1245-1252. Vian, T. (2008). Review of corruption in the health sector: theory, methods and interventions. Health policy and planning, 23(2). Policies for Compliance Plans Compliance 1: Clinical staff members are not washing their hands between patients. Primarily, maintaining hygiene is very important in the medical filed since the staff is always in contact with the patients. It is incumbent to note that most of contagious diseases are spread through unwashed hands (Gould, 2010). The following are the policy plans that ought to be observed: Compliance Standards This is where one assesses the primacy of having a regulation and compliance plan. The aforesaid plan would aid the clinical staff to know the best approaches that they ought to devise so that proper hygiene is observed when handling patients (Erasmus, 2010). This policy is imperative as credible procedures are stated as to prevent the spread of bacteria or infectious diseases. Education • Educating clinical staff members in the hope of bettering their skills in proper hygiene. • Having requisite knowledge on how to handle the patients in a professional manner. Monitoring/Auditing (for Safety) • Proper washing of hands on a regular basis. • Making a diagnosis. • Ensuring proper handling of surgical tools. • Observing professionalism. • Reduction of the spread of contagious diseases which are very prevalent in such places where one does not properly wash their hands. High-Level (personal) Responsibility • Being responsible for their hygiene and that of the client. • Supporting initiation by stepping up their services and performance delivery (Helder, 2010). • Understanding the primacy of their work when dealing with the patients. • Consistency in performance and ensuring clean hands before handling any client. Enforcement/Discipline • Enforcements of provisions related to hygiene issues amongst all the employees. • Taking some punitive measures to the employees who fail to observe hygiene issues to the latter. • Having one senior officer who is to be the overall medic in charge of hygiene in the health centre. • Reporting to the said officer in case of hygiene issues or problems related to the same. Communication • Clear communication guidelines to all the employees within the sector. • Maintaining effective communication at all times. • Forming good and appropriate channels of communication for better dissemination of information or messages to the health centre. • Listening to any eminent issues raised by staff for adoption in order to improve washing of hands. • Constant consultation of the staff and the management. Response/Prevention • Formulation of stringent regulation to see to it that everyone adheres to proper hand washing instructions. • Putting on the required attire including the medical gloves to protect spreading of germs. Compliance 2: Employees are not knowledgeable in the use of fire extinguishers. It is important to state that every employee ought to have requisite knowledge on how to operate fire extinguishers effectively. This is in the view of combating any fire emergency cases that may arise on their premises. Therefore, measures are put in place for safety precaution in case of any eminent threat on the said premises. Compliance Standards The compliance plan is very important is this case as every employee ought to be acquainted with basic knowledge on how to deal with a fire in the healthcare facility. Moreover, it is geared towards enlightening the employees on the basic skills on what to do in case a fire breaks out (Davis, Patient involvement in patient safety, 2011) within the health care premises. Similarly, the plan is aimed at ensuring that the employees are well trained so as not to be panicky in such situations as indicated above. It is commonsensical to state that fire outbreak is a very great threat to the patients. High-Level (personal) Responsibility • All employees to be responsible for their safety and that of the patients. • Ensuring safety at all times regardless of the situation. • Accepting and taking the safety adherence positively. • Every employee would take personal responsibility for their safety and their patient’s and in the long run, no case of blame game on the premises (Entwistle, 2010). Education • Training of the staff on appropriate way of handling safety tools such as a fire extinguisher. • Educating the employees on the right way of evacuating the clients in case a fire breaks out. • Having regular education to enable every member to be well trained on safety measures (Davis, Patient involvement in patient safety, 2011). • Acquainting them, with the practical skills that will enable them to handle such items as extinguishers appropriately. • Reminding each other of the need of seeking periodic education so as to better their skills on fire safety (Greenfield, 2008) Enforcement/Discipline • Making sure that clear stipulation concerning safety measures are adhered to. • Each staff to be given hand-outs on the safety measures so as to be acquainted with it. • Appoint one staff member to be the overseer of the safety in the health sector. • Taking serious measures upon those who fail to religiously adhere to safety measures. Response/Prevention • Taking immediate action in case of a fire without making patients panic. • Following the stipulated measures such as putting on the correct attire for such situations. • Evacuating the patients in a good manner and protecting them from any threat. Communication • Communication is crucial in health care most importantly when it is faced with a fire outbreak. • Being in constant consultation to enhance mutuality in the system. • Maintain immediate communication in case of a fire outbreak. • Raising when arises for every staff to be alert on the imminent problem. Monitoring/Auditing (for Safety) • Constant surveillance to make sure that everything is in its rightful place and is functioning well. • Regular assessment of the safety tools to establish its efficacy and whether they are in good condition (Entwistle, 2010). Conclusively, the two compliances are very instrumental and of necessity in day to day activities. Complying with washing of hands reduces chances of bacterial diseases, likewise in complying education on use of fire extinguishers; one is brought to light to understand the primacy of safety in healthcare. References Davis, R. E. (2011). Patient involvement in patient safety. How willing are patients to participate? BMJ Quality & Safety, 20(1), 108-114. Entwistle, V. A. (2010). Speaking up about safety concerns. multi-setting qualitative study of patients' views and experiences. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 19(6). Erasmus, V. D. (2010). Systematic review of studies on compliance with hand hygiene guidelines in hospital care. Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 31(3), 283-294. Gould, D. J. (2010). Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care. The Cochrane Library. Greenfield, D. &. (2008). Health sector accreditation research. a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 20(3). Helder, O. K. (2010). The impact of an education program on hand hygiene compliance and nosocomial infection incidence in an urban neonatal intensive care unit. International Journal of nursing studies, 47(10), 1245-1252.