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Essay / Qi Issue Impacting Quality of Care
Providing holistic care is among the most important aspects of proper clinical care, hence the need to always maintain it at an optimal level. Optimization includes constant improvement to the best standards, hence the concept of quality improvement (QI) in nursing practice. In QI, professionals learn from past practices and combine them with available research to continue improving systems and policies. Among the critical areas of QI that affect the quality of nursing care is the reduction of cesarean section (CS) births in U.S. hospitals (Kingdom, Downe & Betran, 2018). About 33% of all births in America occur by CS. However, some hospitals have a ratio of CS births that is less than 20%, while others have a ratio greater than 50%, which is a huge difference in ratio. From a care perspective, CS births are more disadvantageous for both mother and child. It is on this basis that it is essential to reduce the rate of CS births in any hospital. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get Original EssayIn this research paper, the IQ question of CS birth reduction will be evaluated based on a case study of Monterey Park Hospital in Los Angeles. Angeles, California. Monterey Park Hospital Institutional Policy on CS Births While Monterey Park Hospital does not have an express policy on the CS section, available statistics and commentary provide an avenue for evaluating general policy from the hospital on the subject. According to Keehn (2016), the hospital has a CS birth rate of 41.6%. The exponentially high rate means that there is almost one CS birth for every two average births that take place in the hospital. Additionally, according to Keehn (2016), Monterey Part gave no response when an investigation was conducted regarding their CS birth rates and whether they intended to reduce them. For comparison, Sutter Davis Hospital has a CS birth rate of 12%, while Bakersfield Memorial Hospital has a rate of 15%. Based on the above, it would be correct to conclude that Monterey Park Hospital's policy is to encourage, rather than seek to reduce, the rates of CS births at the hospital. The gap between the QA issue of CS rate reduction and institutional policy The approach undertaken by Monterey Park Hospital, as noted above, runs counter to the standard approach engendered in the QA question of reducing the CS rate. The assessment is based on the fact that the general rate in the United States is approximately 33% and that the hospital involved here is well above that average. Additionally, as noted above, the hospital's CS rate is almost four times that of some of the hospitals in the same state in California. Monterey Hospital would therefore be a viable candidate to adopt QI on the issue of CS rate reduction, as it urgently and effectively needs to stop its out-of-control CS rates. An appropriate QA approach would gradually reduce CS rates, at least to the level of national average rates. People at Risk Based on available research and commentary, CS births pose a health risk to both mother and child. Besides the risk, the process of CS birth and subsequent recovery is more expensive than that of virgin births. Additionally, as far as the mother is concerned, a CS delivery increases the risk of injury during the birthing process. CS deliveries involve intervention.