NURS FPX 6200 Assessment 3 Strategic Planning Report

Strategic Planning Report

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Capella University

NURS-FPX6200

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Medication reconciliation after discharge, therefore, is a waste of patient safety at the Mayo Clinic and is directly connected with readmission rates and adverse drug events. As part of the proactive, strengths based nature of the organization, rather than the traditional SWOT analysis, the organization has opted to employ the SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirational, Results) framework to deal with this problem strategically.

Studies indicate that almost two out of five patients will have an adverse event in three weeks after discharge, and two out of three will be medication-related (Short et al., 2023). It is a five to ten-year strategic plan to be the best in the country in implementing post-discharge medication safety at the Mayo Clinic. This vision is informed by the SOAR model and Appreciative Inquiry on its way to sustainable and patient-centered outcomes.

Strategic Goals and Outcomes

Among the strategic goals that Mayo Clinic has is to continue with the medication reconciliation processes and to improve patient safety after discharge. The initial objective is to achieve 90 percent of high-risk patient discharge medication reconciliation by the Year 3 pharmacist-led. The expected outcome of such an initiative is the decrease in medication discrepancies, increase in medication adherence, and decrease in hospital readmissions. The second objective is to follow up on a telehealth visit in 48-72 hours following discharge by Year 2.

The purpose of the early follow-up is to make sure that any complication related to the medication can be identified in time and addressed without postponement, as well as to get the patient involved and provide continuity of care (Pereira et al., 2022). As part of the efforts to reinforce safe medication management, both objectives rely on electronic health record (EHR) alerts, automated reminders, and mobile health applications.

The third strategic objective is to achieve a patient self-management boost in the use of digital tools or patient portals by Year 5. This goal will serve to better medication adherence, patient satisfaction as well and patient empowerment in their care. Portal engagement rates, self-reported adherence rates, and avoidable readmission trends are the success measures that can be used to assess the success of any of the interventions using the data.

Potential Barriers

The barriers to implementation include, among others, a shortage of staff, low health literacy of the patients, and variations in levels of technology adoption. The majority of these barriers might be mitigated through the means of staff education, the use of more telehealth, patient education, and allocation of more resources to technological infrastructure and support (Zhang et al., 2020). Moreover, the effects of resistance and the necessity to maintain the momentum will be dependent on the leadership buy-in and the consistent stakeholder involvement.

Justification of Strategic Goals

The congruence of the Mayo Clinic, which focuses on enhancing medication reconciliation after discharge with its strategic objectives, is rather consistent with its mission of making a sustainable contribution to patient safety through facilitating the process of care transition. This pledge to lower

 readmission rates regardless of readmissions and to avoid medication errors is congruent with this mission and the manner in which the organization provides care. Any effort in this plan is guided by the vision to become a leader in post-discharge medication safety, high levels of innovation, and quality. These objectives refer to the core values of the organization by offering patients education and digital resources, developing a culture of safety and transparency, and promoting innovative evidence-based practices and protocols to adhere to and protect medication safety (Nadeem, 2024). In principle, the values become solidified through leadership dedication towards accountability, teamwork, and lifelong learning.

Nevertheless, despite it, there are still several strong knowledge gaps and uncertainties that are strong. In particular, they do not have a clear idea of how low health-literate patients can self-manage medications after discharge, whether it is possible to scale pharmacist-led initiatives to departments, and the variability of interest in digital health technologies by patients (Tobiano et al., 2024). Nevertheless, the available EHR system is also not optimized as of now for reconciliation and follow-up. In a bid to have long-term success, it will be important to fill these gaps by conducting specific research, pilot projects, and input from stakeholders.

Leadership Theories and Frameworks

The application of the strategic plan of post-discharge medication reconciliation at the Mayo Clinic is based on transformational and servant leadership theories. The all-encompassing vision that transformational leadership entails can guide the overall vision, inspire interdisciplinary teams, nurses, pharmacists, and physicians to change and transform, to best practice, and engage in a team effort to achieve improved patient safety outcomes (Ystaas et al., 2023).

Thus, this type of leadership introduces the culture of innovation and constant improvement since the staff members are motivated to work with the mission and long-term strategic objectives. Leaders also use the vision-driven communication technique to ensure that the momentum is maintained and to ensure that they drive their team towards professional growth. This is because they are committed to the execution of evidence-based decision-making, which makes the plan always adaptive and responsive to emerging challenges.

The specified strategy is supplemented by servant leadership, which places a special focus on enhancing team support and a high patient focus. These principles are utilized by leaders through open communication, active listening, and giving the staff the capacity to recognize and resolve issues (Elshaer and Saad, 2022). Quality audits are also conducted on a routine basis, team debriefing occurs, and feedback is used positively to enhance care delivery. They also create a secure platform of open communication in which employees can express their concerns and give their suggestions. This is unlike the past efforts that may have been limited to a few or even some of the team members; this inclusive approach goes a step higher in boosting morale and making the team members feel more accountable and proprietary to the status of the medication safety goals attained.

Gaps and Limitations

Although the capacity building applied immense leadership models, a full comprehension of how to expand the pharmacist-led program in different departments is lacking. In addition, minimal information exists on the medication management by patients once they have been discharged, particularly in the case of patients with low health literacy or limited access to technology. The next issue is the research and improvement of the system on the optimization of using EHR notifications and digital follow-up tools (Marwaha et al., 2022). The above-presented challenges can delay the entire process of implementing the strategic plan, and addressing the challenges will require further involvement of both clinical and IT teams.

Ethical, Cultural, and Regulatory Considerations

The post-discharge medication reconciliation process in the Mayo Clinic has an ethical, cultural, and regulatory framework to enable safety and equitable care to all patients. The plan is also ethically good because it aims at nonmaleficence to minimize medication errors and adverse events, and enhances autonomy to the patient through education and patient involvement in the care of the patient. Providing patients with the necessary knowledge and tools to safely and effectively control their medications will enhance the level of satisfaction (Rognan et al., 2021). Moreover, optimal curing due to both open and common decision making offers sufficient trust to ethical nursing practice and long-term adherence to patients.

The project also acknowledges that the patient pop is culturally diverse, but it is culturally sensitive, considering the variation in the levels of health literacy. It includes visual aids, simpler instructions, and the use of language-appropriate information to meet the needs of individual patients. Consequently, they increase the likelihood of having clear and culture-sensitive communication, thereby enhancing interactions with patients. Regulatively, its plan encourages the quality of Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HIPAA health information privacy requirements, and the Joint Commission requirements in safe discharge operations (Giardino & Edwards, 2020). Similarly, equity consideration is used to ensure that the underserved and marginalized populations have access to telehealth services and educational resources to address care disparities and enhance the overall outcomes of all patients.

Limitations of Goals

Despite a strong foundation of the plan in ethics and regulation, there are certain boundaries through which the plan can achieve all its goals. Patients are not always included in their care, and patients in underserved or rural regions may lack access to the necessary technology. Other drugs are even harder to comprehend by certain patients just due to the language or reading abilities (Giardino & Edwards, 2020). To solve these issues, the plan will need periodic check-ins and flexibility to make the plan effective in delivering the same results to all patients. The community groups will also be vital in collaborating with other health entities to address these issues and ensure that people have access to care.

Leadership Qualities and Skills

To succeed in the post-discharge medication reconciliation plan, which should be effective in the Mayo Clinic, various leadership skills and personality traits are required. It entails good communication skills, empathy, flexibility, and problem-solving. The leaders should also be able to align interdisciplinary staff to the long-term vision of the organization to enhance medication safety and reduce adverse outcomes. These attributes will create a corporate culture of coherent patient-centered care and perpetual enhancement (Chen et al., 2024). Moreover, the leaders should establish a culture of trust and teamwork in which all the members of the team are on board and they have put their wholeheartedness into making the plan succeed.

In the case of Phase 1, leaders will require skill in project management, the ability to conduct data analysis, and stakeholder engagement management. At Phase 2, change leadership, coaching, and facilitation of interprofessional collaboration to facilitate the wide adoption are improved. At Phase 3, leaders will focus on the progress, long-term improvement, and the organization’s scaling. To achieve this, the leadership must keep training personnel on medication safety and improve a culture of nonpunitive accountability, learning, and innovation. The feedback loops will be continuous, as will be the staff recognition strategies, to keep up the momentum and motivation.

Underlying Assumptions

This strategy also presupposes that the employees will be open to changes and will already be competent in digital tools and medication safety measures. It presupposes further institutional support of training, technology, and resource allocation at all levels of the initiative as well (Oliveira et al., 2021). Also, it assumes that the patients will use digital and follow-up tools, and the patients with technological or health literacy constraints will be offered variability.

Timeline and Milestones

The plan for the implementation of the post-discharge medication reconciliation by Mayo Clinic can be implemented over 10 years and has milestones, responsibilities that are well defined. As Year 1 will serve as the pilot year, Pharmacy and Nursing Leadership will also spearhead the design of the pilot framework of the discharge program led by a pharmacist and the subsequent collection of the initial outcomes data. As of Year 2, the Quality Improvement Team will initiate a telehealth follow-up within 72 hours of discharge, which will reduce missing follow-ups and timely actions. Year 3 aims to resolve the high-risk discharge reconciliation (pharmacist-led) to 90% and the work of the Pharmacy Team should lead to a significant decrease in adverse drug events.

By Year 4, the Health IT and Patient Education teams will assess the accuracy of electronic health records integration with patient education tools and enhance the process of patient engagement. This year, 5 will be guided by the Strategic Leadership Team, whereby the program will go global to address all discharge types, and all the units shall have consistent safety practices. Beginning with Years 6-10, the teams are all going to engage in continuous improvement and national benchmark activities to assist Mayo Clinic in becoming a national model that can be replicated in terms of post-discharge medication safety. And even though these milestones should be iterative, they can be built upon and upon to have long-term success and sustainability.

Conclusion

The plan to enhance medication safety and bring the number of readmissions at the Mayo Clinic down is based on strong leadership, new ideas, and teamwork. The clinic is implementing medication checks led by pharmacists, telehealth follow-ups up and those tools to maintain engagement with the patients after discharge and make the care safer. Mayo Clinic has a good track record of delivering quality care in a team-like manner, and this is set to make Mayo Clinic lead in this significant domain. This plan will be of benefit to local patients and can also serve as an example for other hospitals in the country. Long-term success and a patient-centered approach in care will be the concern most of the time.

If you are looking for the 4th assessment of this class, visit: NURS FPX 6200 Assessment 4