You are a DNP-prepared nurse working at a hospital focused on improving patient satisfaction. After receiving care at your hospital, patients are provided a scorecard to survey their patient experience. The patient surveys range in questions from wait time to effectiveness of care, and these surveys provide your hospital with a scorecard indicating how the hospital is performing against these metrics. Upon reviewing the scorecards, you are able to highlight areas of improvement and areas of success, however, you find the responses are often difficult to analyze, as there are a wide range of responses, and there are many variables.

You are a DNP-prepared nurse working at a hospital focused on improving patient satisfaction. After receiving care at your hospital, patients are provided a scorecard to survey their patient experience. The patient surveys range in questions from wait time to effectiveness of care, and these surveys provide your hospital with a scorecard indicating how the hospital is performing against these metrics. Upon reviewing the scorecards, you are able to highlight areas of improvement and areas of success, however, you find the responses are often difficult to analyze, as there are a wide range of responses, and there are many variables.

Practice Gap Identification

During the deadly pandemic called Coronavirus or COVID 19, my organization implemented Telehealth. Telehealth implementation was one of the big projects for my organizations to avoid exposure to the virus. Services were suddenly challenged to find a new way of seeing and treating patients to prevent the further spread of the virus. The telehealth implementation has strengthened the capacity of the providers to care for an increased volume of patients without in-person visits. However, despite the telehealth platform’s ability to alleviate many obstacles, it can present new ones for older adults patients. The gap identifies in my practice is the challenges among the older adults with telehealth implementation.

The older population has grown significantly since the onset of the 20th century and will continue to do so for many decades to come. Seniors currently face a subset of barriers to healthcare such as disabilities, chronic disease, rising costs of care while on a fixed income, and limited transportation. The most prevalent disability for all older population age groups is serious difficulty walking. Additionally, more than 40% of seniors have difficulty doing errands alone, such as visiting a doctor’s office. In 2014, patients 65 and older spent over 5 More and almost three times more on personal health care than a child and working-age person, respectively. Though seniors only made up 15% of the population, they accounted for 34% of healthcare spending in 2014.

Potential Quality Improvement Practice Gap For my DNP project

Emails to activate the Telehealth Procle account usually sent out to patients a week before the visit. However, patients over the age of 50 do not activate their accounts most of the time. The purpose of the project is to improve access to telehealth among seniors in the neurology clinic. The project will focus on improving the outcomes in Telehealth among the seniors in my practice. My DNP project will explore the needs of the senior population in a diverse community while advancements towards telehealth are being made for patient care. The project will help identify the subsets of the aging population that need supplemental outreach to activate their telehealth accounts. Acknowledging the technological barriers that seniors may face can help improve health outcomes, especially for patients without caregivers.

Rationale:

Telehealth is becoming more widespread to improve accessibility and address healthcare disparities (Okoye et al., 2021). The importance of online Telehealth platforms has become more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Telehealth can alleviate health obstacles and reduce healthcare-related financial burden, activation, and platform utilization present new challenges for some vulnerable users (CDC, 2020). The project will focus on reaching out to patients over the age of 50 and need assistance activating their Telehealth Procle account. Telehealth Procle is HIPAA compliant social networking platform that helps clinicians connect with their patients. It is important to note that in addition to an age disparity and health inequity among minorities, persons with certain neurological disorders are vulnerable and less conversant to digital technologies (Okoye et al., 2021). Continuous healthcare access and monitoring at home for the senior minority populations While limiting their risk exposure during the pandemic, it has served to improve and implement a patient-tailored Telehealth platform.

Project Methodology

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, all patients in the neurology clinic received an activation email for Telehealth Procle, a HIPAA compliant social networking platform. The project will involve approximately 90-100 participants. All patients Fifty years and older will be contacted to see if they need assistance with activating their accounts. Education sessions on how to activate the Procle telehealth account will be provided. A set of written and verbal instructions will specifically design to disseminate to the patients. The written instructions will be typed in large boldface font with accompanying screenshots to illustrate the steps needed to activate their telehealth account. The written guide will be sent as an attachment via e-mail to those who requested it. Verbal coaching will also provide over the phone as needed.

The level of assistance needed by each patient will be designated into one of the three following categories: (1) written help, (2) written and verbal help, (3) no help. The number of patients who activate their accounts after receiving instructions will be recorded. Additional notations will be made if a family member or caregiver aided the patient.

Rationale:

Older patients may be l