Free Essay: Transitions of Care and the Prevention of Readmissions

Hospital readmission rates are likely to be high if the necessary measures of ensuring that the patient's conditions are managed well are not followed. The careful transition of care procedures are essential for they ensure that patients manage to realize healing effectively lowering readmission cases to a hospital. It is wrong to treat patients and after several days, they revisit the healthcare center with the same ailment. Offering patients educational training, effective nutritional care, suitable medical care, undertaking follow-up programs, and support systems is critical. However, if these measures are not followed, there is a high likelihood of the patients getting readmitted even before 30 days are over from the moment that they left a health center. In this study, there will be a determination of whether the lack of following these programs triggers massive readmission rates. The research will be conducted in upmc of Allegheny health network and the questionnaire method of data gathering will be utilized. Considering that the research seeks to determine whether the administering of transition care processes can help to lower the readmission rates, speaking to the relevant parties, such as patients will help to get useful data.

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Description and Justification of the Data Gathering Process

The questionnaire data gathering process is a simple and speedy tool to research details about individuals that are scattered in a wide area. A questionnaire form is forwarded to patients where they will be required to answer the questions in it and send it back to the researcher. The scope is limited, but effective considering that the queries highlighted in this form is specific and well formulated (Roopa & Rani, 2012). A respondent has the responsibility of filling it properly to ensure that a researcher manages to derive the right set of details. Considering that the number of patients visiting the healthcare center is high and it is not possible to send questionnaires to all of them, there is a need to select a sample. The random sampling procedure will enable researchers to select the group that they will include in this research (Shorten & Moorley, 2014). The process involves selecting participants without following a particular order meaning that every patient has an equal chance of being selected into the subset. The unbiased representation of patients will help to build a group of study participants that is adequate for the study process.

Justification

A questionnaire is the appropriate tool to undertake this research process and this us because it is an inexpensive procedure that can help in the collection of a wide range of data. A self-administered questionnaire means that a researcher will not hire a person to implement face-to-face interviews and a large volume of information is collected from many people in a short duration of time. The process of sending them can either be through an email or a website which are the platforms that can be considered to be less costly. The procedure is a practical way of gathering data considering that the questions can be sent to the group of people that a researcher wants, and there is the chance to select the questions and format that they can use (Elfil & Negida, 2017). Another reason that makes the questionnaire procedure to be the best tool for gathering this form of data is that it offers a faster way of gathering information. The use of online tools helps to easily reach the respondents and they can give their responses immediately. Considering that they will be filling a form, there is a possibility of reaching and receiving responses of over 1,000 people in less than 30 minutes. When the data is received, it is possible to compare and contrast it from information from other sources and make recommendations for change. Therefore, it is possible to minimize errors that may result from translation where the comparability levels are improved. When the questionnaire provided is quantitative in nature, it becomes easier to facilitate the analysis process. When collecting personal information about people, one of the most crucial things to maintain is anonymity which is achieved through the process of implementing questionnaires. Therefore, respondents are likely to provide accurate and most sensitive details about their lives an issue that will help a researcher to have a successful research process.

Therefore, relying on a system that can guarantee to deliver accurate information is critical in any study for this ensures that the conclusion reached is accurate and can be relied upon to make a conclusion. Additionally, managing expenses when undertaking a study is also critical for this helps to manage the research process. The easiness of collecting data when a lot of respondents are involved makes the questionnaire procedure an appropriate tool in this study. Undertaking other procedures, such as face-to-face can take a lot of time, resources, and respondents may fail to give accurate information especially the ones pertaining to their private life.

Steps of Data Gathering

The data gathering procedure involves collecting information that will be used in making analysis and realizing a conclusion on a given topic under study. The most critical step in data gathering when the questionnaires are involved in the designing process. When the questionnaires are not designed in the right way, there is the possibility of response rates being so low to the extent that the researcher will not manage to realize the desired outcome. Therefore, various processes need to be observed when designing the questionnaires and they include understanding the aim of the study.

All the questions raised should address research objectives and it is crucial to know that there is a possibility of people failing to complete a question form if it has a lot of questions. Therefore, queries should be short, clear, and to the point. It is essential to run a polite study to ensure that the potential respondents clearly understand the matter at hand. When ordering the questions, a researcher should begin with the least sensitive questions to the more sensitive ones, or from general to specific ones. It is crucial to ensure that the responses to questions are not influenced by the previous query. A researcher should avoid technical jargon and ensure that they are using simple language that is applicable by the persons involved in the study while the presentation should be professional, concise, and clear.

Steps of Data Collection

In addition to having a suitable questionnaire, the following steps are necessary to ensure that the desired objectives are realized.

Step 1: Identity the Opportunity for Data Collection and Population Description

Managing to know the opportunity that arises for data and information collection is essential for this enables a researcher to model the queries to the topic under discussion. There is a need to conduct a review of practices, policies, and procedures that are applicable to the community under investigation. In this case, when determining whether the rate of re-admission to a hospital is increased by a lack of undertaking the necessary measures, it is crucial to understand the policies that are likely to affect them persons that are involved in the research process (Hayes, 2019). The population that will be involved in this study will be the person visiting the hospital with a detailed analysis of whether they have been readmitted. Additionally, it will also be crucial to determine if they are getting managed by follow-up programs,

Step 2: Set Goals

Setting goals and objectives on what needs to be done are essential to the success of a research process. It is crucial to understand that the main issue under discussion is the determination of whether readmission rates to a hospital are increased by lack of following the right measures, such as availability of support systems and appropriate follow-up programs. It is crucial to determine if there is a fundamental reason to collect information about the readmission rates among patients treated in upmc of allegheny health network (highmark).

Step 3: Planning Methods and Approaches

The process involves determining the persons that will be surveyed and in this case, will be the patients that have been treated in the hospital. The procedure of data collection is also highlighted and in this case, it will be a questionnaire, the data sources, and duration of data collection (Ponto, 2015).

Step 4: Data Collection

The data will be collected through the questionnaire process and it is essential to raise the challenges that are likely to be experienced at this stage.

Step 5: Data Analysis and Interpretation

The method used to analyze data depends on the method of data collection used. In this case, the data analysis technique that will be used is the mean computation that will help a researcher to find if the lack of follow-up programs will trigger a rise in the rate of re-admission to a hospital. By determining the average number of patients that have been readmitted to a hospital, it will be possible to understand the measures that can be undertaken to ensure that the rates of readmission are low.

When analyzing the data, it is important to define the measurable questions and they should either disqualify or qualify possible solutions to the issue at hand. The second step in the analysis process should involve setting measurement priorities by determining how it will be measured. In the third step, data has been collected by making questionnaires and this should be followed by the data scrubbing process (Perez, 2019). The step involves removing unnecessary data to avoid cases of duplication, redundant or incomplete information. After the analysis has been done and the mean value has been computed, interpretation of data is essential to draw a conclusion. After the analysis process, it will be possible to know whether the transition of care is helping to lower the cases of readmission of patients to healthcare centers. A researcher will manage to know whether the right health treatment processes, follow-up processes and offering education on the measures that they can undertake to manage the treatment process can manage to realize the right outcome.

References

Elfil, M., & Negida, A. (2017). Sampling methods in clinical research; an educational review. Emergency, 5(1). Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5325924/

Hayes, A. (2019, 30 April). Simple Random Sample. Investopedia. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/simple-random-sample.asp

Perez, E. (2019, 29 April). What is Data Analysis and Its Methods? Utreee. Retrieved from https://www.utreee.com/what-is-data-analysis-and-its-methods%EF%BB%BF/

Ponto, J. (2015). Understanding and evaluating survey research. Journal of the advanced practitioner in oncology, 6(2), 168.

Roopa, S., & Rani, M. S. (2012). Questionnaire designing for a survey. Journal of Indian Orthodontic Society, 46(4_suppl1), 273-277. DOI: 10.5005/jp-journals-10021-1104

Shorten, A., & Moorley, C. (2014). Selecting the sample. Evidence-based nursing, 17(2), 32-33. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Calvin_Moorley2/publication/260374111_Selecting_the_sample/links/56531ed608aeafc2aabb0038/Selecting-the-sample.pdf