HEALTHCARE

A Governance Model for an Outpatient Dialysis Clinic

A Sample of a Governance Model for an Outpatient Dialysis Clinic

A Template For Governance Modeling

Healthcare management students are often asked to create models of operations for various clinical settings. The following statement is a basic model for an outpatient dialysis clinic that describes the various work expectations concerning the outpatient care of dialysis patients in a clinic setting. This model is meant to provide a template for creating a governance plan.

Our Mission and Standards

As the new manager of the Dialysis Clinic, I wanted to take the time to express my pleasure to be working in this facility. It is my goal to produce the highest standards of care and to accomplish our mission through the setting of standards for care. Our mission is, “To provide consistent quality care to dialysis patients using a family-centered approach.” The following standards are designated to accomplish this mission.

Standard 1: Care and Compassion

The Dialysis Clinic is committed to providing healthcare services that are sensitive to the needs of patients and their families. The clinic’s services with being infused with care and compassion that is both culturally sensitive as well as patient centered.

Expectations

Staff will consistently provide services that reflect care through the use of making eye contact, actively listening, timely assistance, using a friendly and professional tone, providing all information and explanations as needed. Staff will take notice and identify special needs such as disabilities that may impact treatment or need special treatment, age-specific needs, and any other conditions which warrant specialized services. As well, staff will take notice of cultural differences which may warrant specialized care such as language assistance, reading assistance, and all other forms of assistance that may be required to meet the standards for providing patients with quality care and ethical concerns such as informed consent.

Standard 2: Teamwork

Today’s workplace is a highly diverse place with both patients and staff having individualized needs. The Dialysis Clinic values diversity and inclusiveness and these concepts will be the leading characteristics for how staff will conduct themselves as teams. As such, the clinic will be considered a team, and each team member should be recognized for his or her value and skills. The success of accomplishing our mission is contingent on combining staff talents and skills in a manner which will provide the most comprehensive care for patients and families.

Expectations

In the spirit of collaboration, the following expectations are defined for teams:

· Team members should arrive to work prepared and on time.
· Unplanned absences should be avoided and time off needs to be scheduled as far in advance as possible.
· Team members will be responsible for the tasks in their respective departments and areas.
· Team members will be flexible in the work schedule.
· Create a culture of positive work where each member assists other co-workers.
· Teams will work together to ensure efficient, timely delivery of care and services for patients.
· A positive culture of problem solving will be required meaning that teams will work together to create suggestions and solutions to issues.
· Positive attitudes and adaptability to changes in the workplace are essential for team members.
· All team members should conform to the dress code and have a willingness to maintain a professional image.
· This is a multi-cultural workforce and patient population and as such an attitude of mutual respect is necessary.
· Co-workers and clients must be treated with dignity and respect.
· Workplace conflict is sure to arise and team members will be expected to positively resolve these differences in a manner which takes differences into account and seeks opportunities for change.
· As a team, we will seek to continuously improve processes and operations.

Standard 3: Privacy / Confidentiality

The Dialysis Clinic is committed to maintaining and protecting privacy and confidentiality in all our work endeavors. Informed consent and confidentiality are two areas of medical care that are both ethical directives as well as a law. According to Pozgar, (2011), informed consent provides for the right of the patient to know all “potential risks, benefits, and alternatives of a proposed procedure prior to undergoing… treatment,” and gives providers the knowledge that the patient understands and consents to treatment (Pozgar, 2011).

Another legal issue is confidentiality. Confidentiality is the safeguarding of a person’s personal information concerning treatment. This area of law is governed under many different laws both state and federal. Most notably, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects this information when it is being transmitted (Pozgar, 2011).

Expectations

Under the law, the patient must provide consent and must understand what she is consenting to have performed. This should be done in writing as well as verbally in many instances. Staff will obtain consent using forms and will make sure that the individual understands what he or she is signing (Pozgar, 2011). The following expectations are to be maintained for confidentiality:

· Team members will follow HIPAA privacy regulations and applicable laws.

· All staff will respect the privacy and dignity of the patient during the dialysis process by adhering to protocols such as closing doors and curtains, and providing gowns and blankets as needed or any other necessities to make the treatment process more pleasant.

· Staff will secure all documents and privileged information using locked filing cabinets, shredding, closing software programs when unattended, and not leaving files unattended.

· Staff members will avoid accidental disclosures of information by not discussing patient, employee, and organizational information in private outside of clinical areas.

Guiding Philosophy

According to Koren (2010), the person-centered care approach is founded on the concept of culture change. This culture change is defined as a paradigm shift from patient-based care to patient-centered care (Koren, 2010). This shift in cultural thinking is being driven by alteration is the way quality of care is perceived. Rather than considering patients in terms of quality of care, they must now be considered in terms of quality of life (Koren, 2010). Patient-centered care replaces the current physician-centered system with one that revolves around the patient. The Dialysis Clinic adopts this form of care and embeds it into the culture and practices of daily care to provide our dialysis patients with the highest level of quality of life possible.

With patient-centered care as our guiding philosophy, we will strive to provide the most consistent and highest quality of care to our patients. This philosophy will guide us to creating the most positive culture possible and provide us with the opportunities to build more effective practices. Ultimately, the Dialysis Clinic will seek to continue building the highest quality of care through dedication to these standards and to teamwork.

References

Koren, M. J. (2010). Person-centered care for nursing home residents: The culture change movement. Health Affairs, 29(2), 312.

Pozgar, G. (2011). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration. New York, NY: Random.

~Citation~

Triola Vincent. Fri, Jan 01, 2021. A Governance Model for an Outpatient Dialysis Clinic Retrieved from https://vincenttriola.com/blogs/ten-years-of-academic-writing/a-sample-of-a-governance-model-for-an-outpatient-dialysis-clinic

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