Introduction
Different factors affect patient outcomes in tertiary, primary, and secondary care settings. This leads to variations in disease superiority among patients in care facilities. To explain these findings, different studies show that mortality, comorbidity, and morbidity, among other elements that define disease severity and prevalence, vary among patients based on demographic characteristics and healthcare settings. Therefore, for healthcare stakeholders to standardize care and improve and maintain positive patient outcomes, examining factors that affect clinical results and variations is essential. Similarly, recommending the best solutions to problems that lead to patient outcome variation would be key to promoting patient safety and reducing illness severity. Thus, the primary factors that encourage variations in patient outcomes include hospital environments, inappropriate use of resources, poor rapport, and poor health literacy. Contrarily, the solutions to control patient outcome variations in healthcare settings include patient education, professional training, and clinical monitoring and supervision.
Causes of Patient Outcome Variations
Biological factors are among the fundamental causes of variation in patient outcomes. To justify this, Cole et al. (2017) indicate that patients respond differently to treatment plans and medication for Knee Osteoarthritis because of biological differences. Similarly, Scherer et al. (2016) theorize that patients with Lymphoma may have different outcomes because of variations in genome subtypes and patterns. Thus, the variation in hormonal and gene development affecting the immune response of patients in clinical settings promotes differences in clinical outcomes and illness severity in healthcare.
Hospital environments also lead to differences in patient outcomes in clinical centers. In this case, conducive hospital surroundings promote positive patient results. Ideally, an excellent hospital environment should have the right resources to promote positive patient outcomes. Based on Rangachari and Woods (2020), these resources may include enough equipment, medication, beds, technology, food, washrooms, ward rooms, and staff necessary to promote patient safety and satisfaction. On the other hand, unconducive hospital environments negatively affect patient outcomes. These surroundings may lack the right resources needed to deliver quality care and promote safety.
Inappropriate utilization of healthcare resources also promotes differences in patient outcomes. In support of this, Arab-Zozani, Pezeshki, Khodayari-Zarnaq, and Janati (2019) show that underutilization and overutilization of hospital resources affect clinical results. Both events increase the risk of patients experiencing severe disease symptoms and signs. An excellent situation where patients may underutilize or overutilize hospital resources is when they receive underdoses or overdoses from providers. For these reasons, misuse of healthcare resources leads to negative patient outcomes and clinical results.
Poor rapport between providers and patients also results in variations in patient outcomes. This is because negative rapport affects the communication between patients and caregivers. As a result, this affects the quality or credibility of information shared between providers and patients during care provision. Therefore, a provider may fail to understand the patient’s clinical needs to develop appropriate care plans and medication. Hence, as Guttman et al. (2021) explain, communication barriers and challenges may affect the quality of care delivered to patients and their clinical results.
Improper health literacy may also lead to dissimilarities in patients’ outcomes. This may occur when health professionals fail to provide patients with the right information regarding managing disease manifestations. According to Glick, Brach, Yin, and Dreyer (2019), this may lead to misinterpretation of clinical instructions by patients. Generally, health literacy determines how patients change their behavior and lifestyle to promote their well-being and safety. Thus, patients who receive the right education from providers about healthy living may have better outcomes. Contrarily, patients who access inappropriate information about disease management and health promotion may experience poor clinical results.
Ways of Reducing Patient Outcome Variations
Proper patient education will reduce variations in patient outcomes. Glick et al. (2019) indicate that providers need to provide patients with the right clinical information and instructions to promote their outcomes. For instance, prescribers should provide the right knowledge about the importance of adhering to prescription instructions. Physicians may also guide patients regarding the benefits of feeding healthily and engaging in physical exercises. Ultimately, this will reduce disease severity among patients receiving care in specific clinical settings.
Professional training and education for providers will also reduce differences in patient outcomes. Amaral et al. (2022) indicate that healthcare facilities should incorporate patient safety programs into the professional training curriculum. In these programs, healthcare professionals may learn about implementing care plans based on appropriate theories and evidence-based practices that promote patient safety and well-being. In professional training, providers will generally learn about the benefits of following professional ethics and standards when delivering care to patients.
Finally, reducing patient outcome variations may require clinical monitoring and supervision. For instance, monitoring therapy results is essential for providers to promote patient outcomes. Brattland et al. (2018) suggest that providers should routinely monitor patient outcomes after administering specific care plans. This will help identify negative results from patients under a specific treatment and develop risk mitigation measures to promote patient safety during the continuity of care.
Conclusion
In summary, variations in hospital surroundings, poor use of hospital resources, negative relationships, and improper health education are the leading causes of patient outcome variations. On the other hand, reducing differences in patient outcomes requires proper patient education, training of providers, and monitoring and supervision of clinical results of patients. Thus, the causes and solutions to patient outcome variations are multidimensional and systemic.
References
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Arab-Zozani, M., Pezeshki, M. Z., Khodayari-Zarnaq, R., & Janati, A. (2019). Balancing overuse and underuse in the Iranian healthcare system: a force field theory analysis. Ethiopian Journal of Health Sciences, 29(2).
Brattland, H., Koksvik, J. M., Burkeland, O., Gråwe, R. W., Klöckner, C., Linaker, O. M.,… & Iversen, V. C. (2018). The effects of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) on therapy outcomes in the course of an implementation process: A randomized clinical trial. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 65(5), 641.
Cole, B. J., Karas, V., Hussey, K., Merkow, D. B., Pilz, K., & Fortier, L. A. (2017). Hyaluronic acid versus platelet-rich plasma: a prospective, double-blind randomized controlled trial comparing clinical outcomes and effects on intra-articular biology for the treatment of knee osteoarthritis. The American Journal of Sports Medicine, 45(2), 339-346.
Glick, A. F., Brach, C., Yin, H. S., & Dreyer, B. P. (2019). Health literacy in the inpatient setting: implications for patient care and patient safety. Pediatric Clinics, 66(4), 805-826.
Guttman, O. T., Lazzara, E. H., Keebler, J. R., Webster, K. L., Gisick, L. M., & Baker, A. L. (2021). Dissecting communication barriers in healthcare: a path to enhancing communication resiliency, reliability, and patient safety. Journal of Patient Safety, 17(8), e1465-e1471.
Rangachari, P., & L. Woods, J. (2020). Preserving organizational resilience, patient safety, and staff retention during COVID-19 requires a holistic consideration of the psychological safety of healthcare workers. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(12), 4267.
Scherer, F., Kurtz, D. M., Newman, A. M., Stehr, H., Craig, A. F., Esfahani, M. S.,… & Alizadeh, A. A. (2016). Distinct biological subtypes and patterns of genome evolution in Lymphoma revealed by circulating tumor DNA. Science Translational Medicine, 8(364), 364ra155-364ra155.