This Performance Task Assessment is based on a case study set in Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, as the hospital confronts the new quality standards set by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) for Medicare patients. To complete this Assessment, read the scenario below, and then complete Parts I and II that follow. You will use information from the scenario, along with the supporting documents, to demonstrate your ability to adapt internal policies and practices to align with changes to healthcare laws and regulations.

Professional Skills: Written Communication, Technology, and Critical Thinking and Problem Solving are assessed in this Competency.

Your response to this Assessment should:

• Download the Academic Writing Expectations Checklist to use as a guide when completing your Assessment. Responses that do not meet the expectations of scholarly writing will be returned without scoring. Properly formatted APA citations and references must be provided, where appropriate.
• Be sure to use scholarly academic resources as specified in the rubric. This means using Walden Library databases to obtain peer reviewed articles. Additionally, .gov (government expert sources) are a quality resource option. Note: Internet and .com sources do not meet this requirement. Contact your coach or SME for guidance on using Library Databases.
• Carefully review the rubric for the Assessment as part of your preparation to complete your Assessment work.

Assessment requires submission of one (1) document (Part I) and one (1) PowerPoint presentation (Part II). Save the Word document as LE003_PartI_firstinitial_lastname (for example, LE003_PartI_J_Smith). Save the PowerPoint Presentation as LE003_PartII_firstinitial_lastname. When you are ready to upload your completed Assessment, use the Assessment tab on the top navigation menu. 

Instructions

Before submitting your Assessment, carefully review the rubric. This is the same rubric the assessor will use to evaluate your submission and it provides detailed criteria describing how to achieve or master the Competency. Many students find that understanding the requirements of the Assessment and the rubric criteria help them direct their focus and use their time most productively.

Rubric

Imagine you are an administrator at Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital in Brooklyn. One day you arrive at work to find an urgent memo from your CEO: Medicare has released its data on unplanned 30-day hospital readmission rates, and your hospital is being penalized at the maximum rate for having an exceptionally high rate of unplanned 30-day readmissions. Alarmed by these statistics, your CEO gives you a special project, outlined in Part I and Part II below.

Access the following to complete this Assessment:

• Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital Acute Inpatient Hospital Admissions Payment Policy
• Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital—Unplanned Readmission Rates (from Medicare Hospital Compare)
• James, J. (2013). Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program. Retrieved from http://www.healthaffairs.org/healthpolicybriefs/brief.php?brief_id=102

This assessment has two-parts.  Click each of the items below to complete this assessment.

Part I: Analyzing HRRP Policy and Evaluating Hospital Performance

Read the Health Affairs Policy Brief on the “Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program.” Then, analyze the document “Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital—Unplanned Readmission Rates,” which presents statistics on the unplanned readmission rates at the hospital and how they compare to the national averages. Also, review the current, “Acute Inpatient Hospital Admissions Payment Policy” document.

Use these resources to develop a report (4–5 pages) to the CEO that completes the following:

• Describe the key elements of the Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) established in the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
• Identify two factors at Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital based on the current policy that contribute to the risk of failing to meet HRRP criteria.
• Explain how current internal practices and the changes in policy might positively impact alignment to current and future healthcare laws.
• Suggest one revision to the current policy to help Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital meet HRRP criteria.
• Suggest one change in current practice across the hospital’s organization in order to help Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital meet changes in Medicare reimbursement. Include 2–3 sentences explaining the importance of adapting internal policies and practices to align with changes in healthcare laws and regulations.
• Describe at least three key elements needed in a new program to earn the maximum reimbursement under HRRP by reducing readmission rates.
• Create five goals for Brooklyn Presbyterian Hospital for earning the maximum reimbursement by following the HRRP criteria. These goals may focus on processes or outcomes.

Part II: Developing an Action Plan to Maximize Reimbursements and Adapt to Change

Political pressure will result in changes to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) policy and reimbursements. Develop a 10- to 12-slide presentation, to senior management, proposing strategies for executing a plan for earning maximum reimbursement under HRRP, specifically by changing the behavior of providers and patients. Your goal is to secure resources to put your plan into action. In this presentation, explain your approach, your plan for implementation, at least two ways you will prepare and monitor for change in CMS policy, and your education plan for staff.

  

Post a response that addresses the following questions for the case you have chosen:

ü In what way did the system fail the patient and his family?

ü What communication problems are apparent in the case?

ü Where in the process of care did incidents (errors, near misses, adverse events, and harm) occur?

 

Assignment: The Impact of Nursing Informatics on Patient Outcomes and Patient Care Efficiencies

In the Discussion for this module, you considered the interaction of nurse informaticists with other specialists to ensure successful care. How is that success determined?

Patient outcomes and the fulfillment of care goals is one of the major ways that healthcare success is measured. Measuring patient outcomes results in the generation of data that can be used to improve results. Nursing informatics can have a significant part in this process and can help to improve outcomes by improving processes, identifying at-risk patients, and enhancing efficiency.

To Prepare:

• Review the concepts of technology application as presented in the Resources.
• Reflect on how emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence may help fortify nursing informatics as a specialty by leading to increased impact on patient outcomes or patient care efficiencies.

The Assignment: (4-5 pages)

In a 4- to 5-page project proposal written to the leadership of your healthcare organization, propose a nursing informatics project for your organization that you advocate to improve patient outcomes or patient-care efficiency. Your project proposal should include the following:

• Describe the project you propose.
• Identify the stakeholders impacted by this project.
• Explain the patient outcome(s) or patient-care efficiencies this project is aimed at improving and explain how this improvement would occur. Be specific and provide examples.
• Identify the technologies required to implement this project and explain why.
• Identify the project team (by roles) and explain how you would incorporate the nurse informaticist in the project team.

 

Week 4: The Communication Plan

Submit Assignment

• Due Sunday by 11:59pm
• Points 50
• Submitting a file upload

NR631 W4 Communication Plan Guidelines and Rubric

NR631 W4 Communication Plan Template

Purpose

The process of project management has five phases: (1) design and initiation, which you just completed; (2) finalizing your plan before implementation, which you will do now; (3) implementation; (4) monitor and control; and finally, (5) evaluation and lessons learned, as well as knowledge transfer.

During Phase 2 (finalizing the project plan), you will continue to create the tools and documents you will need when you implement your project as the project manager in Phase 3.

Week 4: Communications Plan

Week 5: Deliverables and Critical Success Factors (CSFs)

Week 6: Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Gantt Chart

Week 7: Risk Management and Human Resource Management Plans

In this assignment, students act as project managers to develop and facilitate project communication, including the variety of communication needs for all team members and stakeholders. The project manager is responsible for all project communication. The communication plan the project manager develops and disseminates must detail the types of communication expected throughout the project. It also documents how the information and reports will be shared and when.

To assist you, there is a document you will complete and attach as an appendix to the professional paper you will submit, and an example of communication planning above.

Course Outcomes

This assignment enables the student to meet the following Course Outcome (CO).

CO 1: Apply leadership skills concepts of project management as a nurse executive in an organizational setting to develop, implement, and evaluate successful project plans.

Due Date: Sunday at 11:59 p.m. MT at the end of Week 4

Students are given the opportunity to request an extension on assignments for emergent situations. Supporting documentation must be submitted to the assigned faculty. If the student’s request is not approved, the assignment is graded and a late penalty is applied as follows:

• Monday = 10% of total possible point reduction
• Tuesday = 20% of total possible point reduction
• Wednesday = 30% of total possible point reduction

If the student’s request is approved, the student will be informed of the revised due date. Should the student fail to meet the revised due date, the assignment is graded and a late penalty is applied as follows:

• Monday = 10% of total possible point reduction
• Tuesday = 20% of total possible point reduction
• Wednesday = 30% of total possible point reduction

Total Points Possible: 50

Requirements

1. Complete the Communication Plan document. Attach it as an appendix to the professional paper you will develop following the guidelines for writing professional papers found in the Resources tab.
2. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing and APA format as expressed in the sixth edition of the APA manual.

Preparing the Assignment

1. All communications used during the project must be identified and detailed in your Communication Plan. Attach this as an appendix to the professional paper.
2. Ideas and information from professional sources must be cited correctly using the sixth edition of the APA manual.
3. Grammar, spelling, punctuation, references, and citations must be consistent with formal academic writing.

VERY IMPORTANT 

Hi everyone, I often get questions about the outline or format for the week 4 assignment.  All of your assignments from this point forward will follow the same basic format:

• Title Page
• Scholarly narrative section(s)
  • If there is only PM one tool for the week, you’ll have one, 1-2 page narrative section
  • If there are two PM tools, you’ll have a second section that starts immediately after the first, with an additional 1-2 pages
• Reference page
• Appendix 1: Attach your completed template
• Appendix 2: Attach your completed template (if there is a second)

When there are two PM tools, it doesn’t matter which order you list them.  Whatever order you discuss them in the narrative section should be the order they appear in the appendix.  I hope that helps! 

To help you even further, I have attached a communications plan assignment from a student in a previous section who did an outstanding job.  The attached exemplar earned a full credit score.  This should give you an idea of what I’m looking for. 

Write a critical appraisal that demonstrates comprehension of two quantitative research studies. Use the “Research Critique Guidelines – Part II” document to organize your essay. Successful completion of this assignment requires that you provide a rationale, include examples, and reference content from the study in your responses.

Use the practice problem and two quantitative, peer-reviewed research articles you identified in the Topic 1 assignment to complete this assignment.

In a 1,000–1,250 word essay, summarize two quantitative studies, explain the ways in which the findings might be used in nursing practice, and address ethical considerations associated with the conduct of the study.

Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite. Refer to the LopesWrite Technical Support articles for assistance.

Attachments NRS-433V-RS3-ResearchCritiqueGuidelinesPart II.docx