Nursing Sample

healthcare quality gap-analysis interdepartmental communication

892 Words UG Level Grade: A 20 Aug, 2026

Sample Content

Gap Analysis of Interdepartmental Communication in Healthcare

Purpose of the Gap Analysis Tool

The purpose of the gap analysis tool is to provide project teams with a format in which to do the following:

Compare the best practices with the processes currently in place in your organization.
Determine the gaps between your organization’s practices and the identified best practices.
Select the best practices you will implement in your organization.

Upon completion of the gap analysis, project teams will have the following:

An understanding of the differences between current practices and best practices.
An assessment of the barriers that need to be addressed before successful implementation of best practices.

Instructions for Completing the Gap Analysis

Use the tables on the following page to complete these steps:

List the expected evidence-based best practice above each table, replacing the bracketed text with the description of your best practice(s).
In column 1, list all the steps associated with the best practice process.
In column 2, document your organization’s practices and describe how they differ from each best practice element. Be specific and include information like policies, protocols, guidelines, and staffing.
In column 3, identify barriers that may hinder successful implementation of each best practice strategy. Consider systems, procedures, policies, people, equipment, etc.
In column 4, indicate whether your organization will implement the best practice strategy. If not, explain why.
Repeat steps 1-5 for each best practice, adding rows as needed.

Gap Analysis of Current Healthcare Practices

Project: Bridging the Healthcare Gap

Organization: The Los Angeles County Department of Health

Student name:

Best Practice 1: Effective Interdepartmental Meetings

Best Practice #1: [Establishment of Inter-departmental meetings (Mothiba et al., 2008)]

Best Practice Process Steps	How Your Current Practices Differ from Best Practices	Barriers to Best Practice Implementation	Implementation – Yes/No? Why Not?
Communicating and Holding meetings regularly (Forbes, 2020)	Inadequate communication between Cardiothoracic ICU and OR teams	Misunderstanding between the caregivers	Yes
Keeping everyone in the loop	No proper handover information passed on between Cardiothoracic ICU and OR Teams	Interruptions	Yes
Having a clear chain of command	No clear chain of command	Lack of leadership	Yes
Setting goals that can be achieved by working together.	No commonality of goals as there is inadequacy of discussions	Lack of team building to share a common goal.	Yes

Best Practice 2: Creating an Effective Communication Environment

Best Practice #2: [Creating an Effective Communication Environment (Mothiba et al., 2008)]

Best practice process steps	How your current practices differ from best practices	Barriers to best practice implementation	Implementation – yes/no? Why not?
Hospital should provide all the modes of communication to provide an effective communication environment (Mothiba et al., 2008)	Unstructured verbal handoffs lead to improper transmission of information across the departments	Interruption in communication	Yes
The knowledge and training of how to communicate through different modes of communication should be provided.	There is no proper communication via electronic mails and via other means	Lack of knowledge	Yes
Policies should be made for proper implementation of best practices across all departments of the center.	No structured policies to facilitate effective communication across different departments	Lack of policies and adequate learned staff to make such policies	Yes
Grievances should be heard and opinions on the modes of communication should be discussed with the management.	There is no proper structuring of a system to uptake people’s matters and make the environment conducive for grievance redressal.	Attitudinal barriers	Yes

Best Practice 3: Conflict Management Meetings

Best Practice #3: [Conflict Management Meetings (Mothiba et al., 2008)]

Best practice process steps	How your current practices differ from best practices	Barriers to best practice implementation	Implementation – yes/no? Why not?
Setting up conflict management meetings between various departments to reach a common consensus for achieving organizational goals is important (Mothiba et al., 2008)	No such meetings are being held across the departments	Attitudinal barriers	Yes
Leadership skills should be imparted	Leadership skills are there in certain healthcare workers, but work ownership is lacking	Interpersonal barriers and lack of knowledge	Yes
Team building should be encouraged	Lack of team spirit between inter-departmental personnel owing to misunderstandings and improper communication	Attitudinal and interpersonal barriers	Yes
Interpersonal skills should be enhanced	The interpersonal skills are missing	Attitudinal barriers	Yes

SMART Objectives for Improving Interdepartmental Communication

For achieving Best Practice of Effective Inter-departmental meetings, the OR department should report on the availability of beds, current status of the operated patient and the anticipated next day operations to the Intrathoracic ICU team every day by 5 pm.

It would ensure that the Specific orders are given that are Measurable, Achievable in a day’s timeframe, are Relevant as per the need of the organization and are Time bound.

SMART Objective for an Effective Communication Environment

For achieving the best practice of Creating an Effective Communication Environment, the Budget of 10% of the annually raised funds should be allocated to facilitate an effective communication environment ranging from kiosks, e-mail, intercom and other possible modes of communication should be adopted.

SMART Objective for Conflict Management

For achieving the Conflict Management practice, every week, a Conflict Resolution meeting should be held between the staff of Cardiothoracic ICU and the OR staff to ensure that the ongoing plans are in line with the organizational goals. Also, few workshops on inter-personal skills, team dynamics and conflict management would leave a great and long-lasting improving impact.

References

Forbes (2020) Eight Ways To Enhance Interdepartmental Communication. Forbes. Available at

https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2020/04/06/eight-ways-to-enhance-interdepartmental- communication/?sh=75dcc7531be1

Mothiba, TM., Dolamo, B.L. and Lekhuleni, M.E. (2008) Interdepartmental communication at

tertiary hospital campus in the Limpopo Province. University of Limpopo. Available at

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3400/6c0f97b427fdd5242dd7613ed2d3d3b53f28.pdf

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