Case Study Part 1

Maya works at a community hospital in an urban setting that is going through the accreditation process this year. To be prepared for this accreditation process the quality assurance team has been formed. Maya has decided to join this team to provide a unique nursing perspective related to patient safety.

To gain a better understanding of the accreditation process, Maya reviews the significance of accreditation for a hospital and the associated steps provided by Accreditation Canada. Hospital accreditation is a process of assessing health organizations relative to standards of excellence within applicable categories to identify areas of improvement and strength. Accreditation provides a better understanding of the need for possible resource allocations, quality and safety issues and improves communication between staff resulting in saved money and time. Often time accreditations results are used as a means to secure funding for the hospital to make future improvements.

The first step of the process is to complete a survey of the current safety measures of all the units within the hospital. Therefore, the quality assurance team has decided to complete a needs assessment on different units with a focus on patient safety measures used to minimize patient risk. Maya is assigned to the emergency department, inpatient mental health unit, and pediatric unit. Maya plans on conducting an email survey and focus group interviews during education huddles on each of these units over the course of one month.