¶ … healthcare industry is undergoing fundamental change. Inaction of the affordable care act rapidly increases the insured population in America. Not only have the number of insured individuals increased, but the varied of these individuals has also grown. Now more minorities and younger individuals are now insured. Due in part to these changing demographics, industry aspects has been altered. Customers are now expecting highly quality of care. They are also demand a much larger variety of treatment options. The industry must therefore adapt their practices to better coalesce around these changing ideals. Once manner in which to do so is medical reconciliation. As noted earlier, customers now expect a much higher degree of care for their ailments. On manner in which to do so is through the prevention of adverse drug events. Adverse drug events (ADEs) are a top priority for many healthcare firms. Preventing harm has many societal, economic and reputational benefits. Now that more people are insured, the consumer now has the power of choice in regards to treatment. Having a firm that makes very few mistakes and has a strong reputation can lead to increased revenues. It also provides the firm with more notoriety and prestige, leading to further increases in revenue. Medical reconciliation helps immensely in this regard.

In short, medical reconciliation allows firms to create the most accurate list possible of patient treatments. Information includes drug names, frequency, and amounts. This list is then compared with the physician's notes to insure accuracy. In its simplest form, medical reconciliation...

The primary tools are listed below:
1) Outcome Assessment Information Set (OASIS)

2) The Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers Survey (HHCAHPS)

3) Organizational Performance Improvement

Each has a distinct set of strengths and weakness that will be outlined briefly. Irrespective of their differences, each offers healthcare firms a means to better prevent costly reporting errors. OASIS is a nationwide data collection toll that focuses on patient outcome. It collects a variety of data including hospital transfers, discharge from home health hospitals, and admission into these hospitals. HHCAHPS is also a nationwide data collection tool. However, its focus is on customer and patient satisfaction. It handles mostly third party information. Finally, Organizational Performance Improvement in an internal application that has a multi-directional focus. As an internal application, the process improvement team generally manages it. The application focuses on timeliness of care, effectiveness of care, accessibility, and other internal aspects of healthcare firms.

Milestones are an important part of patient safety plans and eventual implementation. The first quality milestone is an overall improvement in the quality of care for all patients. This will be measured through customer service surveys, as well has treatment outcomes over an extended period of time. The project must see at a least a 5% improvement in overall customer's satisfaction and quality scores in order to be successful. Second, the firm should achieve savings that justify the expenditures…