Paper
Thursday, 20 July 2006
This presentation is part of : Creating an Evidence-Based Nursing Environment: Strategies & Initiatives
Promoting a Holistic Multidisciplinary Team Approach to Patient Assessment and Reassessment: Challenges and Outcomes
Dora Maria Carbonu, EdD, RN, Emergency Medical Services Department, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar and Fatima Abdulla Al Abdulla, BSc, Anatomic Pathology, Laboratory - Histopathology, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.
Learning Objective #1: describe the experiences of an AOP Committee in promoting quality patient assessment by the multidisciplinary healthcare team
Learning Objective #2: discuss the positive outcomes of educational sessions to promote and improve quality patient assessment by multidisciplinary healthcare professionals
Hamad Medical Corporation, which is the leading health care provider in Doha, Qatar, is currently undergoing a Joint Commission International (JCI) accreditation process aimed at improving the quality, safety, and availability of health care services. During its preliminary mock survey in 2003, the Corporation failed to meet several standards of patient care, with lack of collaboration among medical, nursing, and other multidisciplinary groups and services, in assessing and reassessing patients, analyzing and integrating the assessment data for patient care needs, and documenting the outcomes. In its efforts to rectify these problems, the Assessment of Patient (AOP) Committee, in 2004, conducted an intensive verification and review of documents, on-site observations, and interviews of several multidisciplinary staff. The findings included, but were not limited to: lack of corporate-wide- and unit-specific policies and procedures on patient assessment; non-availability, or lack thereof, of approved and standardized assessment forms; Progress Notes serving as the main assessment form in most units; several “self- or group-developed” forms, which were in Arabic only, while most employees are English-speaking only. Doctors were the dominant group with “demonstrated” reluctance to document. Even though the Nursing group had a variety of policies and assessment forms in place and faired well with documentation, there was still so much room for improvement. Utilizing chaos theory as the framework for action, and a standard (A-PIE) process approach, the Committee embarked on several educational sessions to promote, improve, and enhance a holistic multidisciplinary assessment and reassessment for quality patient care. The outcome has been highly positive, with an ongoing general improvement in standards of care according to subsequent mock survey results, toward the final accreditation process, which is due in June 2006. 

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