Question

In an effort to establish controls, a new manager decides to spend one afternoon each week double-checking every chart his nursing care staff has completed for the previous week.

(a) In what ways is this attempt at control ineffective?

(b) What would be examples of an internal and an external control the manager could set up to improve any problems with charting?

Answer 1

a)     The attempt to double-checking every nursing chart of his care staffs and its comparison with previous week’s report is not an effective approach to improve performance standard of care employees. It is time-consuming and does not provide any fruitful the outcome of performance evaluation. In several ways this attempt at control ineffective because:

·       Double checking is a time-taking task and there is no scope available to improve the chart if any performance base loophole is addressed

·       Comparison with previous weeks result does not provide any effective result because of a comparison without training and healthcare performance improvement activities is completely useless

·       It is not an appropriate measure of control healthcare employees. If he performance loopholes and employee issues are not properly triggered, this rechecking process may completely fail.

b)     Examples and effective ways of the internal environment to improve any problems with charting are as follows:

·       Keeping records of each healthcare staffs properly with a regular evaluation

·       Teamwork culture must be implemented in the healthcare operations to track the chart details of staffs

·       Providing healthcare training to staffs every week for each performance related loopholes.

Examples of external controls are mentioned below:

·       Evaluation of communication system

·       Change in the quality care policy

·       Ethical maintenance of state rules on keeping healthcare performance charts