Beyond Any Distance Ever Reached Before to Find the Best Laundry System
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BEYOND ANY DISTANCE EVER REACHED BEFORE TO FIND THE BEST LAUNDRY SYSTEM IN RESIDENTIAL CARE FACILITIES by Kim Thu Tran A Project Plan Presented to the Faculty of the Department of Public Policy and Administration School of Business and Public Administration CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, BAKERSFIELD In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN HEALTH CARE ADMINISTRATION DECEMBER 2017 Copyright By Kim Thu Tran 2017 Beyond any distance ever reached before to find the best laundry system in residential care facilities By Kim Thu Tran This thesis or project has been accepted on behalf of the Department of Public Policy and Administration by their supervisory committee: Chandrasekhar Commuri, Ph.D Date Jinping Sun, Ph.D Date I Acknowledgement I would like to thank my mom and dad for always supporting and believing in me. Throughout the years, both of my parents always had faith in me, that I too would become successful in achieving success in my academics. I am blessed to have both of my parents care so much about me and wanting me to have a bright future. They have prayed a lot for me and always have been there for me to remind me that I am just as capable as other students who are also trying to accomplish success in college. I would also like to thank my professors Dr. Commuri for his patience and for continually motivating and reminding me to stay on tasks with frequent follow up feedback appointments. Each of the appointments with him provided me with stable ground of where to go next with improving my paper and how to do so. Thank you, Dr. Sun for your continued support and guidance. Both Dr. Commuri and Dr. Sun have convinced me that, I, too can also accomplish my goal of completing the Master’s program. It has been quite a long journey. Thank you both Dr. Commuri and Dr. Sun for being so wonderful throughout this whole writing process. I am very thankful to receive both of your time and helpful feedback for me to even improve my paper throughout the semester. It has been a wonderful journey because I have finally made it. Thank you so much! i Executive Summary Residents expect to receive care by health care providers in residential care facilities. Health care providers are knowledgeable and skilled in what each person does. The existing problem at care facilities is a continuation of residents’ complaints about the same recurring misplaced laundry. The first thing, then is to identify that there is a growing need to fix this problem. Once there is realization that it is a problem is when it can be placed higher on the to- do list for the administrators to work with all his involved departments to agree on what will likely work and to decide on where or how to begin fixing the problem. Project RSQIC will be the first implemented plan to be practiced in care communities at first. If it turns out all components of this project shows efficiency and outstanding improvement, it can also be adopted by other care facilities too. Initially, laundry service issues were not seen as a complex issue. Throughout time, with so much more research has convinced the researcher otherwise. Therefore, whichever solutions are keeping the problem under controlled should be transparent to other care communities to adopt. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research (2015), the six domains of health care are safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable. Similarly, a solution that will work also has to be timely and effective. The established modified laundry system will be monitored to identify any additional modifications administrators will need to come up with to improve the laundering process. As of now, it is to the best interests of the organization to become more motivated to make time to control the number of incidences of misplaced or lost clothing. Without enough efforts from all the employees involved in the laundering process, one of the worst faced scenarios will happen: Time of thinking for a way to retrieve back the missing clothing. If the problem had been taken care of in the first place, there was never going to be a demand for how to find the misplaced clothing. ii List of Tables Table 1: Comparison of all types of housing for older adults ........................................................... 10 Table 2: Objectives and methods for the project ................................................................................ 25 Table 3: Points of Contact ...................................................................................................................... 26 Table 4: Budget ....................................................................................................................................... 36 iii List of Figures Figure 1: Incidence of reported missing laundry ................................................................................ 12 Figure 2: Plan, Do, Check, Act model .................................................................................................. 18 Figure 3: Theory of Change model ....................................................................................................... 19 Figure 4: Cost-related factor and health access ................................................................................... 20 Figure 5: Project Timeline ..................................................................................................................... 32 Figure 6: Theory of change applied to modifying laundry process .................................................. 33 Figure 7: Budget Narrative .................................................................................................................... 36 iv Table of Contents Acknowledgement ..................................................................................................................................... .i Executive Summary .................................................................................................................................. ii List of Tables ............................................................................................................................................ iii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................................... iv Chapter One: Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Background .................................................................................................................................... 2 Older Adults ................................................................................................................................... 3 Description of Residential care communities ............................................................................ 4 The Study ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Statement of the Problem ................................................................................................ 5 Purpose of the Study ........................................................................................................ 5 Research Approach .......................................................................................................... 6 Significance of the Study ................................................................................................ 6 Overview of the Project ................................................................................................................ 7 Chapter Two: Literature Review .............................................................................................................. 8 Residential Care Facilities............................................................................................................ 8 Prevalence of laundry service problems .................................................................................. 11 Equipment in laundry department ............................................................................................ 12 On-site versus off-site laundry services .................................................................................. 14 Policies ......................................................................................................................................... 15 Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007, S.O. 2007, c. 8............................................. 15 New Jersey Title 8 § 8:36- subchapter17.8 ................................................................ 16 Theory of Change and its Application ..................................................................................... 18 Chapter Three: Project Plan ................................................................................................................... 22 Background ................................................................................................................................. 22 Mission Statement ...................................................................................................................... 22 Vision ........................................................................................................................................... 22 Values .........................................................................................................................................