Outcome Measures, Issues, and Opportunities

Guiding Questions
Outcome Measures, Issues, and Opportunities
This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the Outcome Measures, Issues, and Opportunities assessment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise, an outlining tool, or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assessment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assessment. Do not turn in this document as your assessment submission.

Drafting the Report
Analyze organizational functions, processes, and behaviors in high-performing health care organizations or practice settings.

For example, consider such functions, processes, and behaviors as leadership practices, communications, quality processes, financial management, safety and risk management, interprofessional collaboration, strategic planning, using the best available evidence, and questioning the status quo on all levels.

What makes these organizations high performers?

What are these organizations doing that less successful organizations are not?

How does your organization or practice setting compare to these benchmarks of high-performance?

Determine how organizational functions, processes, and behaviors affect outcome measures.

What is the extent of the positive and negative effects on the outcome measures?

What are the reasons for these effects?

Identify the quality and safety outcomes and associated measures relevant to the performance gap you intend to close.

Create a spreadsheet showing the outcome measures.

Refer to the example outcome measures spreadsheet, linked in the resources, that shows medication reconciliation compliance rates.

Identify performance issues or opportunities associated with particular organizational functions, processes, and behaviors and the quality and safety outcomes they affect.

What issues or opportunities are relevant to the systemic problem that you are addressing?

What factors give rise to these performance issues or opportunities?

What are their potential effects on outcomes?

Outline a strategy for ensuring that all aspects of patient care are measured and that knowledge is shared with the staff.

What are the key steps needed to implement your strategy? You are encouraged to use one of the change models included in the Mitchell (2013) article.

How will information, knowledge, and best practices be shared?

Writing, Supporting Evidence, and APA Style
As you begin composing your report, consider the purpose of the report, the appropriate tone and style, and the expectations of the executive leaders who will be reading it.

Write coherently and with purpose, for a specific audience, using correct grammar and mechanics.

Express your main points, arguments, and conclusions clearly and concisely.

Proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your report.

Integrate relevant and credible sources of evidence to support assertions, correctly formatting citations and references using APA style.

Integrate relevant evidence from at least 6 scholarly or professional sources.

Submission Reminders
Has your analysis of organizational functions, processes, and behaviors shown what high-performance organizations are doing that less successful organizations are not?

Have you determined how and why organizational functions, processes, and behaviors affect outcome measures?

Have you completed your spreadsheet showing quality and safety outcomes and their associated measures?

Have you identified performance issues or opportunities arising from particular organizational functions, processes, and behaviors?

Have you outlined your strategy for outcomes measurement and knowledge sharing?

Are your claims and conclusions well supported by at least 6 sources of credible evidence?

Is your analysis properly formatted and 6 pages in length, including the title page and reference page?

Did you add the outcome measures spreadsheet to your report as an addendum?

Have you proofread your writing to minimize errors that could distract the audience and make it more difficult to focus on the substance of your presentation?