CMS Quality Strategy Guides Paper

The CMS develops the Quality Strategy guides, which is built on the foundation of the CMS Strategy and the U.S. Health and Human Services National Quality Strategy for Improvement in Health Care (NQS). The CMS Quality Strategy guides focus on Medicare payments for hospitals by quality of services not quantity of services with three strategies: improvement of the quality of care by creating healthcare environment more reliable, accessible, patient-centered, and safe; reducing the cost of care while providing high quality services; increasing the health outcomes by developing interventions to enhance the social, behavioral, and environmental characteristics of healthcare. The NQS further instruct that hospitals should reduce the issues that may

cause harm to patients in the process of caring, advance in communicating and coordinating with others for the continuation of cares, and promote the new care methods to make the quality of care more affordable to every American. The CMS will offer incentive payments for hospitals, which prove to have the development to enhance the quality of provided services in these criteria: improving patient safety and reducing medical errors, preventing hospital readmissions, and boosting patients’ health outcomes (CMS, 2016).

All three quality improvement interventions that Fielder Medical Center staffs have been working on adhere closely to the CMS Quality Strategy guidelines. The hospital has been applying plans to assist patients and their families in ensuring the steady care processes before and after discharges to reduce the readmission rate. Additionally, the Center creates various research professional teams and mandated educating programs for all staffs in the efforts to reduce the hospital-acquired infections related to central line catheters and urinary catheters. These activities have helped Fielder Medical Center in raising the quality of provided cares to all of their patients and eliminating preventable errors, which give the patients the best experience during their stay and reducing the unfavorable addition costs to overall

cares.
A4. New York State’ laws on minimum standards for hospitals
As stated in New York Part 405 -Hospitals-Minimum Standards, section 405.7(a) (15) (16) regarding patients’ rights, hospitals’ staffs are responsible to inform the patients and family members the plan of the patients’ continuation of health care following discharges or transfers to other facilities.

The staffs need to give all relevant information necessary to the reason of discharges and transfers. Additionally, before the planned discharges, the staffs must provide the written descriptions and documentations related to the discharges to patients under federal and state law. In section 405.5(b) (3) regarding the nursing services, the law requires that patients’ education, which includes the patients and their families’ knowledge of care processes, must be included in the nursing plan (New York State Department of Health, 2017). Fielder Medical Center policies and procedures have been adhering closely to the state requirements. The hospital has been trying to provide the best of cares before, during, and after discharges to ensure patients’ care processes are steadily continuing at their homes or at other places. The discharges plans are always given to patients and their families along with the education of home medications about how to administer the drugs and the possible side effects that they should

expect.
According to Section 405.11 regarding infection controls, the law demands hospitals to develop effective infection control program to prevent, control, investigate, and report all incidences of infections. The program must be reviewed and updated at least once a year. Section 405.11(a) requires hospitals to assign infection control personnel, who will be responsible for the establishing and implementation of infection control program. Section 405.11 (b) (i) (ii) demands hospitals infection control program to include procedures to reduce the risk of nosocomial infections for patients and hospital personnel. The hospitals must gather and analyze observance data related to nosocomial infections to prevent, control, and reduce the risk of the infections (New York State Department of Health, 2017). Fielder Medical Center policies emphasize on researching and practicing the best methods to prevent hospital acquired infections, including CLABSI and CAUTI. The hospital forms various teams of nurses and providers to address the problems. The teams work conscientiously to develop appropriate techniques that assist clinical professionals reducing the risk of the infections to the minimum. The teams not only work internally but also collaborate externally with other hospitals to gather information so they can develop better plans and procedures to address the issues.