QUESTION
Before attempting this assignment, it is recommended that you refer to this week’s readings for helpful information related to healthcare quality.
Examining quality and performance in the healthcare organization enables healthcare professionals to deliver reliable, cost-effective, and sustained healthcare processes. Quality initiatives enable healthcare organizations to achieve their goal of improving care while enhancing patient outcomes. This week, you will review quality improvement initiatives as a way to measure, analyze, improve, and control the ways care is delivered to patients.
Instructions
Write a 2-3 page paper in which you:
Explain the importance of healthcare quality in healthcare organizations by providing at least three examples.
Analyze three quality initiatives found in the chapter readings that are prevalent in healthcare organizations.
Explain quality in a healthcare system using three real world examples of quality initiatives in current use at a healthcare organization.
In addition to the textbook, provide two sources to support your writing. Choose sources that are credible, relevant, and valid. Cite each source listed on your source page at least one time within your assignment. For help with research, writing, and citation, access the library or review library guides.
This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:
Propose initiatives to increase quality while reducing healthcare costs, medical errors, and adverse events.
ANSWER
Importance of Healthcare Quality
The delivery of healthcare services is dispersed and complex. Quality may be a standard paradigm in healthcare to meet the requirements of all populations. Quality improvement is the process approach to the organization’s operational challenges (Aggarwal et al., 2019). The global effort to raise the standard of healthcare has gained traction. The time has come for a quality revolution in how services are provided, putting the patient at the center and tailoring those services to suit their needs. This article aims to instruct healthcare professionals on attaining overall quality by thoroughly examining quality management in healthcare organizations.
Essential preventative maintenance is more critical to quality in healthcare than overall service maintenance. The structural component includes everything from infrastructure to administrative systems for providing healthcare to the skill and qualifications of healthcare professionals. The process considers the many facets of care and their interactions. The outcomes include survival, function restoration, and recovery.
Dependability, certainty, and responsiveness are the three major components of quality. Donabedian’s seven pillars of quality are effectiveness, efficiency, optimality, acceptability, validity, equality, and cost (Castro, 2018). A quality management system’s effectiveness may be improved with the usage of tools throughout time. Examples may include internal quality audits, topic feedback, and corrective/preventive steps to meet pertinent criteria.
The Deming Cycle, often referred to as the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle, is a four-step quality paradigm widely used for ongoing quality improvement (CQI). The Kano model has been employed to ascertain patient demands and raise patient satisfaction with healthcare services. While certification is an example of an external quality control measure, internal quality control methods also include well-defined protocols, regularly trained staff and standard operating procedures, to mention a few.
In the health care field, the quality management paradigm has shifted from expecting errors and imperfections to holding out hope for a perfect patient experience. According to Philip Crosby, the easiest method to guarantee quality is to steer clear of it rather than judging it. According to the literature, the primary causes of mortality in hospitals are nosocomial infections and medical malpractice. These tragedies might easily be avoided by introducing quality assurance procedures.
System designs are essential to health care administration, yet they are insufficient. The most effective utilization of resources to attain a set high level of clinical quality is the clinical care of high value (Lee et al., 2018). The yield produced by Six Sigma design is almost defect-free. No model has been demonstrated to be better than others in the quality management sector. However, it is essential to note that any system would work if top management and the workforce were committed to excellence.
A quality assurance program’s desired outcome is patient satisfaction, which calls for patient-centered care and adherence to standards and effective procedures. According to the Institute of Medicine, “care that is respectful of and representative of individual patient choices, needs, and values, ensuring that patient values guide all clinical decisions,” is what is meant by “patient-centered care.” A different approach is collaborative decision-making, in which doctors and patients work together to make decisions based on the best information.
Patient satisfaction is a complex phenomenon that is primarily subjective. It is a vague term without a clear, accepted definition. Excellent amount of research to understand the nuances of the relationship between the three crucial elements of service quality has been undertaken in developed countries due to cultural differences, and it cannot be extended to developing countries’ environments. The overall standard of dental care is among the most critical factors that individuals look into when selecting a dentist.
HCO quality assurance programs aim to set up a system to manage healthcare services and deliver a high-quality, measurable service. The answer is TQM, a system that can address every issue facing the firm (Kanade & Kale, 2021). Total Quality Management (TQM) is a management idea that emphasizes people and work processes while emphasizing customer happiness and improving organizational performance. Both delivery quality and content quality are mentioned. It lowers the possibility of errors, upholds optimal infrastructure use and medical personnel utilization, and manages quality control. TQM’s fundamental principles may often include customer focus, quality obsession, scientific approaches and long-term commitment to mention a few. It includes indirect medical operations like procurement and administration and direct medical services like diagnosis and treatment. The nurses are the team’s most crucial contributors to the program’s success.
The specialized quality department supports TQM implementation. Several metrics have been developed to evaluate the caliber of healthcare services. Everyone benefits from higher quality since it reduces expenses and finds problems early before they cause harm. TQM supports the constant improvement of high-quality services and personnel and the elimination of high-quality waste. There hasn’t been much study on TQM implementation, particularly in developing countries like India.
Conclusion
The primary focus of health treatment is religious and scientific, not commercial. The appropriate authorities should enforce the responsibility of providing good healthcare facilities standards and care. The rules should think about modifying the curriculum to ensure that upcoming experts are adequately taught. If HCOs want the necessary momentum, they must start a new Quality Movement to improve the general quality of healthcare services. It is a requirement, a problem, and an outlook for the future.
References
Aggarwal, A., Aeran, H., & Rathee, M. (2019). Quality management in healthcare: The pivotal desideratum. Journal of Oral Biology and Craniofacial Research, 9(2), 180-182. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212426818301118
Castro, A. C. (2018). Evaluating the effect of external inspections of the Care Quality Commission of acute NHS hospitals in England (Doctoral dissertation, University of York). https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/21399/
Kanade, D., & Kale, S. (2021). Significance of total quality management practices in improving quality of services delivered by medical and dental hospitals. Journal of Dental Research and Review, 8(4), 250. https://www.jdrr.org/article.asp?issn=2348-2915;year=2021;volume=8;issue=4;spage=250;epage=255;aulast=Kanade
Lee, H., Chalmers, N. I., Brow, A., Boynes, S., Monopoli, M., Doherty, M., … & Engineer, L. (2018). Person-centered care model in dentistry. BMC Oral Health, 18(1), 1-7. https://bmcoralhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12903-018-0661-9
To get your original copy of this paper, please Order Now
Related Questions
Health & Medical Discussion (ANSWERED)