Policies and Performance Evaluation in Healthcare Report

Part One: Healthcare Policy

Healthcare workers use their competencies to provide high quality support and care to their patients (Bouphan, Apipalakul, & Ngang, 2015). Hospitals should have powerful policies to measure the performance of their employees. Effective performance measurement can make it easier for healthcare facilities to understand how they accomplish their objectives. When done efficiently, performance measurement can guide hospitals to understand what is not working effectively.

Evidence-based data should be gathered in order to implement better healthcare delivery models (Lizarondo, Grimmer, & Kumar, 2014). Performance measurement is therefore defined as “the regular collection of information and data to ensure various processes are implemented in a professional manner” (Kundu, 2015, p. 20). The ultimate goal should be to deliver quality care to the targeted patients. This discussion therefore presents a powerful healthcare policy in this field.

Performance Evaluation Policy

Purpose

The proposed Performance Evaluation Policy is aimed at monitoring, guiding, and ensuring every healthcare worker acts diligently in order to improve the health outcomes of the targeted clients. Medical institutions are characterized by different departments. The units have qualified healthcare professionals who work together to maximize the health outcomes of the targeted patients. This situation might have adverse effects on the quality of services available to every client. This is the case because some workers might fail to act ethically or use their skills effectively (Bouphan et al., 2015). The healthcare working environment is also characterized by a wide range of uncertainties, risks, and challenges.

Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and caregivers must overcome these challenges in order to deliver quality care to their clients. There are also different regulatory boards that monitor the responsibilities and performance of health practitioners. However, such regulations and obligations might not guarantee positive performance in different working environments (Nuti, Seghieri, & Vainieri, 2012). This gap, therefore, explains why a performance evaluation policy is needed to guide and hold NPs accountable. By so doing, the policy will compel practitioners to focus on the health outcomes of their respective clients.

Definitions

1. Policy. The proposed policy is a performance evaluation process that must be completed for every healthcare worker annually (Lizarondo et al., 2014). The supervisors in every health organization will guide the professionals to complete the policy documents and make the most appropriate adjustments.
2. Appraiser. This term refers to the team leader or supervisor whose role is to complete the performance evaluations for the employees. The healthcare workers will be appraised after every twelve months.
3. Evaluation. This refers to the formalized procedure through which the performance of an employee is evaluated to provide the best feedback.

Duties

The performance evaluation policy targets different healthcare professionals in every hospital. The targeted practitioners should use their competencies in an attempt to provide professional and sustainable care to the clients (Kundu, 2015). The performance of each professional will be governed by this policy. The targeted duties include:

1. Hospital Administrator (NA). The NA is expected to ensure there is a framework for assessing the performance of every employee in the healthcare institution.
2. Supervisor. This is the individual responsible for the annual evaluation of the employees annually. The institution might also allow the targeted employees to present their personal evaluations (Nuti et al., 2012). Throughout the evaluation process, the supervisor will guide and empower the healthcare workers. He or she should liaise with the top management in order to support the assessment process.
3. Healthcare Workers. These are the individuals who are engaged throughout the evaluation process. This category includes different professionals such as Nurse Informaticists (NIs), Nurse Practitioners (NPs), physicians, Nurse Managers (NMs), caregivers, and nurse aids (Bouphan et al., 2015). These workers play a positive role towards supporting the diverse needs of the targeted clients.
4. Nurse Manager. This professional will guide the nurses to be part of the policy. The approach will ensure the employees are aware of the importance of the performance evaluation initiative. The NM will collaborate with the supervisor in order to deliver positive results. The manager will embrace the best practices in an attempt to support the diverse needs of the healthcare workers (Lizarondo et al., 2014).
5. Human Resources. The human resources will be responsible for “the oversight of this appraisal system, policy, and overall development of the process” (Nuti et al., 2012, p. 3). The HR department should constantly use the collected forms to make appropriate decisions regarding transfers and promotions. The assessment process will encourage health professionals to worker harder in order to provide quality care to their respective patients.

Body of Policy

1. Issue Statement. Employee evaluation in a hospital is the best way to ensure nurses focus on the expectations of their patients. The performance management and evaluation policy (PMEP) is aimed at measuring healthcare delivery effectiveness in hospitals (Kundu, 2015). The workers will be compelled to function optimally and focus on the targeted objectives.
2. Policy Position. Many agencies such as the American Nursing Association (ASA) believe that healthcare practitioners should be evaluated periodically in order to maximize patient outcomes. The performance evaluation model should assess the productivity of the NPs in accordance with the outlined responsibilities. The evaluation should focus on specific attributes such as leadership, judgment, and ability to communicate effectively. The caregivers should be on the frontline to deliver evidence-based, quality, and timely patient support. Supervisors will be “expected to provide evaluate feedback to the workers” (Bouphan et al., 2015, p. 129). Different stakeholders should be allowed to support the policy in order to produce positive results. The NPs and caregivers should collaborate with different supervisors throughout the process. The process will play a positive role towards empowering, mentoring, and supporting the performance of the healthcare workers.
3. Role of the Institution. The hospital should develop and implement the best framework to provide feedback to the healthcare workers. The framework should also measure the progress of the targeted employees. This framework will play a positive role towards improving the performance of the healthcare facility (Nuti et al., 2012).

Implementation

A powerful process will be used to implement the performance management and evaluation policy. The implementation procedure will have these three steps:

1. Evaluation. Using the PMEP document, the performance of the employees will be assessed after every twelve months. Performance appraisal can be conducted when a healthcare worker is being sacked or transferred (Kundu, 2015). Reviews and suggestions will be indicated in the PMEP forms.
2. Review and Analysis. The supervisor will guide the workers to sign the PMEP document. The employees will be allowed to retain a copy of the PMEP document. The supervisor will then forward the signed forms to the human resource (HR) department (Lizarondo et al., 2014). The HR managers will review the information and make the most appropriate recommendations.

Monitoring Compliance

The issue of compliance must be taken seriously. Healthcare workers who transfer during the indicated period for evaluation will have to liaise with their supervisors. This practice will ensure the performance evaluation is executed in a professional manner. The supervisor will be expected to collect quality information from the targeted employees (Nuti et al., 2012). The healthcare workers will have to collaborate with their supervisors throughout the assessment period.

The HR department, the supervisors, and the management must collaborate to monitor the performance of the workers. The policy should be implemented in each department to guide the performance of the employees. Recommendations and suggestions should be presented by the supervisors. The collected PMEP forms from the workers will be used to make the most desirable recommendations (Nuti et al., 2012). Healthcare workers will be promoted depending on the information gathered using the performance evaluation process.

The appraisal process must have been completed within two months after the end of the year (Kundu, 2015). The supervisors (or appraisers) will be required to send to filled forms to the HR department. The appraiser should also attach the relevant supporting documents whenever sending the files to the HR manager. In order to maximize the targeted outcomes, several stakeholders will be considered throughout the implementation process (Lizarondo et al., 2014). These stakeholders will include Medical Managers, Information Technology Experts, Financial Officers, Quality Assurance (QA) Managers, and the Nursing Managers (NMs).

Part Two: Healthcare Procedure

Performance evaluation can be implemented in a healthcare institution to improve the quality of services available to different clients. The first approach towards having a successful performance evaluation process is through the use of a powerful policy. The policy suggested in Part One can help medical institutions to assess the performance of every caregiver. This is a tested approach that has continued to support the effectiveness of different medical facilities across the globe. The second approach is the use of a powerful healthcare procedure.

The approach encourages different stakeholders and workers to evaluate their contributions in a department. The framework plays a critical role towards identifying the existing gaps and improving the quality of patient care (Lizarondo et al., 2014). The proposal below gives a detailed healthcare procedure that has the potential to support the performance evaluation philosophy of a hospital. The proposed healthcare procedure is known as the integrated employee evaluation process (IEAP).

Integrated Employee Evaluation Process

Healthcare professionals work synergistically in a hospital to address the diverse needs of their clients. Human beings are social beings and tend to work together as teams. The concept of teamwork is critical towards ensuring that every hospital provides desirable support to their patients. Medical facilities have embraced the use of performance evaluation to assess the effectiveness of their employees (Nuti et al., 2012). However, performance evaluation has been observed to focus on the contributions of individual healthcare workers. The integrated employee evaluation procedure can be implemented as a meaningful healthcare procedure capable of minimizing the gaps affecting the quality of care available to every client. The integrated employee evaluation process (IEAP) framework therefore borrows most of the associated with lean.

Objectives

The recommended healthcare process should be guided by the three objectives presented below. The objectives will help medical facilities understand the contributions of different employees and the best approaches to improve performance.

• Monitor and evaluate the performance of the healthcare professionals.
• To make the most appropriate administrative decisions about the healthcare workers in the health organization. Some of these decisions include dismals, compensations, layoffs, and promotions.
• Identify the best opportunities for employees’ growth based on their strengths and competencies.

Definitions

1. Healthcare Procedure. This refers to the integrated employee evaluation process that should be implemented in a healthcare institution (Kundu, 2015). The procedure will be characterized by continued analysis and evaluation of the activities undertaken by different healthcare workers.
2. Evaluation. This refers to the formal procedure through which the responsible leaders will analyze the performance of the targeted caregivers. The process will outline the gaps and strengths that influence the quality of health services available to the clients.
3. Monitoring. This term focuses on the continuous analysis of the engagements, activities, and goals of the employees (Lizarondo et al., 2014). The process has the potential to identify the existing gaps and propose new processes to improve the nature of healthcare delivery.
4. Lean. This concept refers to a powerful strategy aimed at examining the gaps affecting performance. The framework goes further to propose new strategies towards improving the level of employee performance (Lizarondo et al., 2014).
5. Employee Growth. One of the objectives of the suggested healthcare procedure is to identify the challenges making it impossible for caregivers to offer quality services. The performance evaluation process should be aimed at empowering the workers depending on their competencies (Kundu, 2015). The leaders will identify the existing gaps and offer new ideas to promote employee growth. The practice will eventually improve the nature of healthcare services.

Roles and Responsibilities

The healthcare procedure will be guided by a number of roles and responsibilities (Kundu, 2015). The procedure will be characterized by different professionals in order to produce positive results. These leaders (and their respective responsibilities) are presented below.

1. Nurse Manager (NM). This professional will guide the employees in the institution to be part of the procedure. The NM will collaborate with the workers in order to deliver positive results. The manager will identify the strengths and weaknesses of the targeted healthcare workers.
2. Human Resource (HR) Management. The HR manager will monitor the performance of the health professionals. This manager will analyze the behaviors of the employees (Lizarondo et al., 2014). The department will outline the grievances and challenges affecting different units.
3. Hospital Management. The role of the top managers is to monitor the goals of the hospitals and examine the contributions of different workers. By so doing, the management will understand the issues affecting the hospital (Lizarondo et al., 2014). The major areas for improvement will be identified. The management will implement and support the use of the lean concept. This concept will ensure the most appropriate improvements are guided by the challenges affecting the quality of care available to the targeted clients.
4. Healthcare Workers. The healthcare practitioners will be required to support the procedure. These professionals will have to collaborate with the HR manager and the top leaders in order to implement the procedure (Kundu, 2015). They should also cooperate in order to implement the best training practices.

Process

A top to down strategy is proposed for this healthcare procedure aimed at promoting performance evaluation. The senior managers will be required to initiate the process. They will begin by “examining and evaluating the effectiveness of the healthcare practitioners using various parameters” (Lizarondo et al., 2014, p. 578). Some of these parameters include ability to work in teams, deliver of adequate services, addressing workplace problems, decision-making, and empowering patients (Kundu, 2015).

The institution should design an appropriate framework to determine if an employee has been able to support the expectations of the healthcare facility (Lizarondo et al., 2014). This process will make it easier for the management to identify the achievements and philosophies of the healthcare workers. The main focus should be on the quality of healthcare services available to the patients.

The healthcare professionals in the institution should be required to fill up their personal performance evaluation forms. The workers should outline their responsibilities, competencies, and weaknesses. They should also outline their models towards supporting the diverse needs of their patients. The supervisor should use this information to highlight the achievements and competencies of every health practitioner (Grigoroudis & Zopounidis, 2010). The top management should use these performance evaluation documents to make the most desirable conclusions.

The next important thing is to implement the concept of lean. This approach will identify the weaknesses or issues affecting some of the healthcare workers. The gathered information will be used to design powerful models to empower the followers. The process will improve their skill sets and equip them with better organizational competencies (Grigoroudis & Zopounidis, 2010). Continuous improvement should be implemented as part of the healthcare procedure. This means that new ideas and practices will be considered in order to ensure the healthcare practitioners in the facility work hard to maximize patient outcomes.

Compliance

The health leaders, supervisors, and NMs will have to collaborate in order to monitor the performance of different caregivers. The procedure should be implemented in each department to monitor and evaluate the performance of the healthcare professionals. Recommendations and suggestions should be presented to the HR department. The practitioners will be guided to focus on the proposed healthcare procedure (Grigoroudis & Zopounidis, 2010). The strategy should be embraced as a critical aspect of the institution aimed at improving the level of performance. The gathered information will be used to implement a powerful lean model that can improve the competencies of the workers. This practice will eventually ensure the targeted employees work hard to maximize the health outcomes of their respective patients.

Evaluation and Recommendations

The healthcare procedure should be characterized by a number of practices to improve the level of performance evaluation. The evaluation process should be done continuously in the hospital. The procedure will identify the existing gaps and offer new suggestions to improve the level of performance. Several recommendations have the potential to make a difference for nursing institutions. For instance, there should be positive communication between the subordinate and the superior in the healthcare organization (Grigoroudis & Zopounidis, 2010).

Whenever a problem is identified, third parties should be allowed to intervene in order to minimize biasness. Training should be implemented as part of the healthcare procedure. This practice will empower the healthcare workers and eventually improve the level of performance. The management should match the needs of the workers with the available resources. This approach will ensure the implemented healthcare process supports the ultimate goal of performance evaluation. New improvements will be implemented and ensure the healthcare facility becomes a leading provider of sustainable medical services.

References

Bouphan, P., Apipalakul, C., & Ngang, T. (2015). Factors affecting public health performance evaluation of sub-district health promoting hospital directors. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences, 185(1), 128-132.

Grigoroudis, E., & Zopounidis, C. (2010). Developing an employee evaluation management system: The case of a healthcare organization. Working Paper, 1(1), 1-19.

Kundu, P. (2015). Performance evaluation of hospital employees through ongoing appraisal systems. International Journal of Thesis Projects and Dissertations, 3(2), 19-27.

Lizarondo, L., Grimmer, K., & Kumar, S. (2014). Assisting allied health in performance evaluation: A systematic review. BMC Health Services Research, 14(1), 572-589.

Nuti, S., Seghieri, C., & Vainieri, M. (2012). Assessing the effectiveness of a performance evaluation system in the public health care sector: Some novel evidence from the Tuscany region experience. Journal of Management and Governance, 1(1), 1-11.