Milestone 5: Planning

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Milestone 5: Planning

Guided by this need, there is a program plan designed to improve the care delivery to patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). This plan focuses on the issues related to physicians’ knowledge, availability of certain kinds of doctors, and policies to eliminate stereotypes. This is necessary to ensure that SCD patients receive high-quality, equitable care, irrespective of any stigma or bias (Badawy, 2021). This planning section defines the goal, principles and regulatory concerns, budgetary provisions, expected results, and time frame on how to achieve the project.

Objectives

The program aims to improve the quality of sickle cell disease (SCD) by increasing physician awareness, access to SCD specialists, and policy initiatives to eradicate prejudicial beliefs. Objectives include:

1.
Physician Education: Create a program to educate healthcare practitioners about SCD and set a goal for 80% of physicians involved in the program’s first year (Badawy, 2021).

2.
Access to Care: Collaborate with specialized centers and promote the creation of new units in medical facilities, increasing the number of patients by 50% in two years.

3.
Policy Development: Formulate policies to eliminate stereotypes in SCD across various institutions, with the goal of implementing three policy changes within the next 18 months (Badawy, 2021).

Ethical and Legal Considerations

The program will respect the four principles of ethical decision-making: autonomy, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. A key value is autonomy; therefore, patients’ self-determination will be honored in all engagements. The principles of nonmaleficence and beneficence shall inform all efforts to treat and care for the patient, so that the patient is neither harmed nor left worse off. Justice will be tackled by promoting equal treatment rights and combating prejudice in other areas, such as health facilities (Munung et al., 2023). Legal issues would include adhering to legal requirements for operating a healthcare institution and the patients’ rights to privacy, as evidenced by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

Financial Considerations

The program’s financial costs include materials and literature, training, employees, and equipment upgrades. Revenue will be obtained from hospital working capital, government grants, and contracts with non-profit organizations that are looking to address the issue of SCD. Financial plans will be prepared to allow for better fund expenditure and utilization (Munung et al., 2023). The potential benefits include better health for SCD patients, including reduced readmission rates and higher patient satisfaction, which may impact reimbursement and funding.

Anticipated Issues-Related Outcomes

The program expects several risks, such as the potential for healthcare staff to resist change, minimal budget at the start of the project, and policy adoption hiccups. To enhance implementation, plan development entails measures like stakeholder engagement to ensure commitment, phased implementation schedules to cater for financial limitations, and sustained advocacy to increase the pace of policy shifts (Munung et al., 2023). The expected benefits are better clinical status for SCD patients, decreased prejudice in healthcare facilities, and higher awareness among healthcare workers—all of which would ultimately raise the quality of care for SCD patients.

Timeline

The timeline for achieving the program objectives is as follows:

Phase 1 (Months 1-6): Administer pre-tests to measure current physicians’ knowledge and patient access barriers. Initiate the development of instructional resources and first drafts of policies.

Phase 2 (Months 7–12): Provide the educational program and initiate specific training. Start collaborations with focus care centers.

Phase 3 (Months 13-18): Assess the effectiveness of the educational program and make necessary modifications. Propose and consolidate the policy.

Phase 4 (Months 19-24): Evaluate the effects of the program on the quality of care and overall patient satisfaction. Reporting of the results and prospects for future enhancements.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the ambulatory care improvement strategy for SCD outlined here seeks to fill perceived research-, physician awareness-, specialized care-, and policy-based gaps. The importance of ethical principles, fiscal responsibility, and identification of potential issues of concern in this campaign is geared toward enhancing the quality of the care and health of patients with sickle cell disease.

References

Badawy, S. M. (2021). Clinical trial considerations in sickle cell disease: Patient-reported outcomes, data elements, and the stakeholder engagement framework.
Hematology,
2021(1), 196–205.

Munung, N. S., Nnodu, O. E., Moru, P. O., Kalu, A. A., Impouma, B., Treadwell, M. J., & Wonkam, A. (2023). Looking ahead: Ethical and social challenges of somatic gene therapy for sickle cell disease in Africa.
Gene Therapy,
31(5–6), 202–208.