Evidence-based protocols in respiratory care refer to initiating modification of a patient care plan based on a predetermined and structured set of physician orders, instructions, and interventions. Respiratory physicians are responsible for creating, discontinuing, refining, transitioning, and restarting therapy based on patient response and medical conditions. Respiratory care protocols help improve patient outcomes and provide the proper evidence to deliver quality services to patients. Protocols guarantee that treatment processes have indicators for reducing the amount of unnecessary care. Such strategic order in respiratory care helps in reducing treatment costs.
Process Protocol Addresses
The current system has limitations because it wastes time and resources. The current system does not embrace protocols, procedures, and evidence-based practices. The physician gives orders to accomplish various treatments. The treatment relies on a specific length of time for treatments, regardless of whether the treatment is good or not. Respiratory therapists encounter challenges in implementing evidence-based practices because they lack essential knowledge and do not believe in evidence-based practices. The proposed protocol will involve embracing systems that save hospital resources through evidence-based approaches. Respiratory care will engage the optimization of healthcare resources through allocating essential benefits. The strategy will reduce long stay in hospitals and minimize medication side effects. The project aims at preventing admissions to Intensive Care Units. The system will implement acute care by structuring respiratory care setting to apply critical care fixed per patient, per day, and stay rates. The setting will ensure hospitals remain profitable and save resources.
Supporting Data
Evidence-based practice and protocol in handling respiratory disease are essential because it guarantees core competency in improving healthcare outcomes. According to Dubois et al. (2021), the pulmonary disease is complex and requires treatment procedures based on evidence-based practices. Therefore, protocols enforced should have evidence gathered from research. Hess (2017) argues that pulmonary disease has complicated episodes, and physicians should not manage it using a single treatment model. Physicians and respiratory therapists should combine research, knowledge, and practices to achieve quality healthcare outcomes.
Healthcare organizations do not have well-prepared professionals to prepare for adopting Evidence-based practices. The major problem affecting the implementation of evidence-based practices in respiratory care is the lack of knowledge about implementing evidence-based practices. Assuming evidence-based training in respiratory healthcare has been delayed due to a lack of resources and exercise characterized by time management and motivation (Lafuente-Lafuente et al., 2019). Training professionals would equip them with k knowledge and clinical guidelines and improve efficiency that would fit in respiratory healthcare. Li et al. (2019) argue that enhancing quality healthcare among patients with respiratory disorders requires enforcing protocols and strategies that monitor the progress of the respiratory disease to minimize extended stays in hospitals. Healthcare organizations are preparing and adopting evidence-based practices by embracing current standards that help improve decision-making. Introducing a culture that makes respiratory therapists understand the role of Evidence-based practices and maintaining protocols would help transform health practice.
Health Care Setting
The Family Healing Center is a regional hospital specializing in secondary care treatment for patients suffering from Respiratory diseases. The hospital has four emergency, outpatient, inpatient, and intensive care units for handling respiratory complications. The facility has various respiratory professionals, including 50 nurses, 25 respiratory therapists, and ten physicians. The proposed protocol will affect all four departments in the Family healing center.
Stakeholders and Approvals
The new strategic protocol will affect the entire healthcare staff because nurses, therapists, and physicians will adhere to protocol and procedures. Other professionals involved in recent change include quality assurance and auditors. The proposed protocol will change the organization’s structure to define new communication orders and algorithms.
Obstacles
Healthcare professionals perceive that protocols would significantly increase the workload for respiratory therapists. Therefore, the proposed change can potentially encounter resistance due to fear of the unknown. Contradicting information may create challenging treatment models, and measures are established to guarantee process awareness. The strategies for reducing resistance include communicating vision, mission, and objectives for introducing protocols and evidence-based practice. Communication with various stakeholders would enhance their support and acceptance. Engaging all stakeholders during the change process would facilitate easier adoption. Physicians might not approve protocol and evidence-based practice systems due to increased workload (Li, Cao, & Zhu, 2019). However, explaining the significance and expected benefits would convince them to adopt the practice.
Presenting Protocol Idea to Leadership
The mode of delivering protocol ideas to the board, management, and executive will involve a written worksheet, presentations, and a narrative format. The proposal will be prepared for approval and later meeting with all departmental heads to communicate and introduce ideas to employees. Seminars and benchmarks will facilitate easier understanding and fast implementation of the system.
Implementation of Protocol
The first phase would involve training all staff on algorithms that would make it possible to implement the protocol. The process will include a prototype path that involves respiratory physicians recommending ways to provide respiratory care to a respiratory therapist based on evidence such as patient history, medical status, or condition (Lafuente-Lafuente et al., 2019). Therapists will define treatment as indicated to a particular patient and deliver appropriate care based on the evidence analyzed.
Education and Training
The training session will engage professional’s healthcare workers in making benchmark studies in healthcare centers utilizing protocol-based respiratory care and evidence-based treatment. The training will interact with systems that enforce protocols and evidence-based practices. Staff members will take benchmarking studies on a departmental basis, and involved partners will share new ideas and implement them at departmental levels.
Achievements
The expected outcomes include experiencing seamless schedules and role-based interventions based on research, patient-centered care, and documented healthcare processes. The strategy should reduce the number of inpatients within six months. The quality of care should significantly indicate a positive trend such that the patient receives respiratory care based on scheduled orders and procedures.
Measurement of Success
Tools used in measuring success include comparing several inpatients before and after implementing the protocol and evidence-based care. Quality care measures include determining treatment records and cured respiratory cases by comparing patient outcomes before and after the protocol. The audit of patient referrals will help indicate whether the practice impacts patient satisfaction.
Conclusion
The proposed model will increase treatment effectiveness and, at the same time, reduce medication side effects. The operation protocol will ensure that healthcare staff improves care by engaging treatment by charging only patients entitled to benefit from treatments. The strategy will satisfy patient healthcare needs through quality outcomes and patient-oriented care. In that regard, the proposed model has the potential to deliver quality care for a respiratory disease that adheres to evidence-based practices.
References
Dubois, R., Sorensen, R., Buell, B., Telenko, T., & West, A. (2021). The Respiratory Therapy Practice-Based Outcomes Initiative (RT-PBOI): Developing a framework to explore the value added by respiratory therapists to health care in Alberta. Canadian journal of respiratory therapy: RCTR, 57, 99–104. https://doi.org/10.29390/cjrt-2021-010
Hess, M. W. (2017). The 2017 Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease Report and Practice Implications for the Respiratory Therapist. Respir Care, 62(11), 1492-1500. doi:10.4187/respcare.05402
Lafuente-Lafuente, C., Leitao, C., Kilani, I., Kacher, Z., Engels, C., Canouï-Poitrine, F., & Belmin, J. (2019). Knowledge and use of evidence-based medicine in daily practice by health professionals: a cross-sectional survey. BMJ Open, 9(3), e025224. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2018-025224
Li, S., Cao, M., & Zhu, X. (2019). Evidence-based practice: Knowledge, attitudes, implementation, facilitators, and barriers among community nurses-systematic review. Medicine (Baltimore), 98(39), e17209. doi:10.1097/md.0000000000017209
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