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Leveraging IT Solutions to Improve Compliance and Patient Outcomes in Heart Failure

Management

Laura Dominguez

Professor: Carmen Lazo

9/13/2024

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Leveraging IT Solutions to Improve Compliance and Patient Outcomes in Heart Failure

Management

Introduction

In nursing management, technology is a critical tool for reaching goals in patient

satisfaction and organizational success. Among the measures proposed to control and manage

complications related with fluid in HF patients, it is suggested that weight should be measured on

a daily basis. Yet it can be fairly challenging to ensure that this practice is practiced as it should

be practiced. Some of the potential IT projects that could facilitate a way to meet the compliance

with weight monitoring for HF patients in the HF/Cardiac step-down unit are described in this

paper. It also elaborates the reasons for the health data literacy for the NLEs and also depicts the

roles of requisite members for a competent IT project team.

IT Projects to Promote Compliance with Daily Weights

An appropriate IT project that can help in solving the problem of non-adherence to daily

weight monitoring is the improvement of the electronic health record (EHR) system. Therefore,

the presence of the field that the system would require to be filled daily with weights could assist

the system to alert the nursing staff when the data is missing. This also makes it possible to

ensure the weights are recorded on time, these are helpful, especially when managing HF

patients as the trends in weight are so vital (Conroy et al., 2019). It could also be used to make

early fluid predicts indication and take early interventions in instance such as fluid retention.

Another possible intervention includes the creation of an application through which HF

patients can enter their daily weights. This data could be automatically transferred to the

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hospital’s EHR system thus providing a smooth patient and provider interface (Sohn et al.,

2020). In terms of nurses, it enables follow up based on real-time information.

A third approach involves integration of automated weight monitoring devices which

feed data directly into the EHR system thereby reducing human interference. These devices

could be placed within the patient rooms and they could also be given to the patients for home

use upon release from the hospital. The automation improves the quality of documentation,

which makes the overall care management for HF patients better (Kennel et al., 2022).

Importance of Health Data Literacy for Nurse Leaders

Any nurse leader should have some level of health data literacy as it prepares a leader to

make the right decisions based on data. Knowledge and analysis of health information is crucial

in informing logical and informed decisions that will enhance healthcare outcomes and

organization functioning (Raffaghelli & Stewart, 2020). In addition. Nurse leaders who are data

literate can therefore train their staffs on the importance of collecting and analyzing data as a

way of enhancing compliance and patient care.

Data literacy also facilitates health nurse leaders to work with interdisciplinary teams

who include IT experts and data analysts involved in complicated QI projects (Raffaghelli &

Stewart, 2020). Out of all the skills, this is a crucial one, as all team members need to have a

clear understanding of the clinical and/or operational objectives of the project.

Key Team Members for IT Projects

One of the most crucial factors when carrying out an IT project is talent acquisition and

having a pool of talented and diverse people. Frontline Staff nurses are critical to the team

because they are the direct consumers of the implemented system. It is particularly appreciated

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for defining what should be done technically in the framework of the clinical unit and could be

done more efficiently with a correct functional setting. It also means that they can contribute to

the testing and rollout phases that would further shape the project.

Data analysts have a crucial role to perform extraction, transformation, and loading

(ETL) process. They make sure that data collected is properly cleaned and formatted for analysis

so as to offer important insights for decision making.

IT specialists carry the main responsibility of actual implementation of new tools and

also assessing how the system performs. They are responsible for data protection, adherence to

policies, and solving any technical problems faced when implementing the systems.

Last but not least, nurse informaticists are essential stakeholders, as they help connect

between clinicians and technology. Their combined experience guarantees that the

implementation of the technologies in practice complies with contractual norms and operations.

Conclusion

Thus, the enhancement of IT projects on the HM unit of the Heart Failure/Cardiac step-

down unit can help in attaining higher compliance with the daily weight monitoring and, thus,

the patients. To this end, nurse leaders must pay special attention to improving the levels of

health data literacy in the teams for effective implementation of these technologies. Structuring

multifaceted IT support teams that combine both clinical staff and IT professionals such as

frontline employees, data analysts, IT personnel, statisticians, and nurse informatics is also

crucial for implementing IT projects. Consequently, by employing these resources, nurse

managers can be in a better position to promote the best solutions, which can address both

patient care and system concerns.

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References

Conroy, M. B., McTigue, K. M., Bryce, C. L., Tudorascu, D., Gibbs, B. B., Arnold, J., … &

Fischer, G. S. (2019). Effect of electronic health record–based coaching on weight

maintenance: a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine, 171(11), 777-784.

Kennel, P. J., Rosenblum, H., Axsom, K. M., Alishetti, S., Brener, M., Horn, E., … & Uriel, N.

(2022). Remote cardiac monitoring in patients with heart failure: a review. JAMA

cardiology, 7(5), 556-564.

Raffaghelli, J. E., & Stewart, B. (2020). Centering complexity in ‘educators’ data literacy’to

support future practices in faculty development: A systematic review of the

literature. Teaching in Higher Education, 25(4), 435-455.

Sohn, A., Speier, W., Lan, E., Aoki, K., Fonarow, G. C., Ong, M. K., & Arnold, C. W. (2020).

Integrating remote monitoring into heart failure patients’ care regimen: A pilot

study. PLoS One, 15(11), e0242210.