Without quality management, the health care industry would be unregulated and quality of care would be poor, and the financial cost would be ineffective and high. Patients would not receive the care deserved and many health care organizations would not exist.
Leaders that are committed to quality improvement will positively identify the need for improvement, achieve buy-in from employees and other staff members, and develop the appropriate oversight of quality improvement initiatives. All stakeholders should be involved in the quality improvement process to include managers, consumers, and supporting government agencies and consultants. Managers and leaders in healthcare develop standards of performance and quality while consumers provide valuable feedback by completing customer satisfaction surveys. Providers and other health professional are evaluated on their performance which is measured against local, state, and national standards of performance. Providers and other health professional also play critical part of establishing quality related councils and committees, the empowerment of nurses and other health professionals, and investment of new technology an infrastructure that facilitate quality
Quality Improvement (QI) is an organizational approach that leads to the quality of patient care and services through use of specific set of guidelines, principles, and methodology. This is so that there is assurance that quality care is provided for every patient. Principles of quality improvement focus on measurements. These measurements involve data collection used to improve the quality of care, and patient outcomes. Any good quality improvement program ensures strengthening the systems through analyzes and processes.
“Running a health care organization is a team sport. It is very important that all members of the team-whether on the medical staff, in management or on the board-understand the role of governance and what constitutes effective governance” (Arnwine, 2002). Running a hospital is a difficult task. Several factors need to be seriously thought of and considered in every decision and undertaking. Unfortunately, all the three important factors in governing a hospital is not always in harmony. As likened to a team sport, if the three major components are not working with each other as a team, there will be tension and a great divide will be experienced. And often times, the patients will be in the middle and will be greatly impacted. This writer believes that there are several factors that contribute to the tension that usually exists among the medical staff, the board and administration. One factor is the disconnect, where each entity is not seeing each other eye to eye and their visions may be different from each other. Another factor may be the lack of communication in order to bridge the gap and to build a respectful and a relationship wherein there is trust for each end every member of the group. Often times, the medical staff is concerned with ensuring that patients are cared for in a manner that their practice is protected as well as the patients are getting the appropriate care. On the other hand, the board of trustees may be focused in ensuring that that
Before any quality improvement plan (QIP) can be developed, the overall aim of the project must be determined to ensure the QIP stays on track. This includes deciding what is going to be measured, what the current baseline is, what the target will be and a timeline for accomplishing the goal (Health Quality Ontario, n.d.). Thus, the aim for this QIP is to reduce the rate of worsened pain in the VC from the current value of 20.2% of residents with worsened pain by 1% by the next quarter by educating nurses on the correct way to assess and document pain in the electronic system.
The introduction of information systems in health care industry has made enormous development in patient care and satisfaction. The interoperability of the different systems with in a organization is important to achieve effectiveness of the system. The process of developing and integrating the information system is time consuming, complex and costly. This paper is a report submitted by an informatics director to the chief operating officer of an organization proposing a solution to solve the communication problems within the information system.
Quality improvement is a systematic and continuous process which leads to improvements in healthcare services. The health services are then a reflection of the improving health status of a patient population (Health Resources & Services Administration, n.d.). Quality improvement strategies are the actions which a team will take to accomplish the goals of process improvement. The Institute of Medicine (2001) has developed a vision of six aims for improvement in healthcare which include, safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care. Making improvements in these areas will better meet the needs of patients.
The issue of quality improvement should be addressed with a multi-faceted approach. Once implemented, continuous oversight and monitoring must be conducted by an experienced staff member/case manager who can verify data in the EHR, as well as conduct a daily Braden Score assessment and confer with the staff nurse and physician, as needed. While HAPU/Braden
In conclusion, this paper explored the strengths and weaknesses of this organization. A weakness is identified and improvement is recommended to create a Patient Advisory Council in the Shared Governance to promote better patient-centered care. In doing so, patients will have sense of empowerment by having their input in the plan of care. To measure the success of the recommended change, the use of HCAHPS and patient metrics are utilized and compared nationally.
The way we practice healthcare and healthcare organizations are changing due to the pressure to reduce costs, improve the quality of care and to meet rigorous guidelines. This change has forced health care professionals to examine we evaluate our overall performance. Paradise Hospital, Inc. has not had any service improvements since 1995. A physician named Avedis Donabedian (2005) proposed a model for assessing health care quality based on structures, processes, and outcomes. He defined structure as the environment in which health care is provided. This is known as the organizational characteristics such as the measurement of staffing ratios and the number of hospital beds. The process is described as the method by which health care is provided. This represents the communication and interaction seen between doctor and patient. The necessity for the tests and procedures performed. The outcome is defined as the consequence of the health care provided, was there a desirable or undesirable effect.
One way that an organization can use benchmarks and performance measures to monitor success of quality improvement initiatives is by measuring overall organizational quality improvement and benchmark amount of waste. By measuring overall quality improvement and setting quality improvement benchmarks, the team can verify if the undertaken quality improvement initiative had a positive impact on overall quality improvement for the betterment of patients. Conversely, quality improvement performance measures can also indicate if some areas of the QI plan need improvement or have been unsuccessful. By analyzing quality improvement performance measures and benchmarks, the QI initiative will provide better indication as to if the bottom line of improving patient outcomes is attainable and or achieved. Or if the quality improvement initiative has had a negative impact on patient outcomes and what QI processes need to be addresses. Benchmarking can help the QI team get a better understanding as to how well the QI initiative goals have done compared to previous processes. If the QI team sets a benchmark to improve the number of patients seen on a day to day basis by adopting a new QI process and does not succeed. The team can then use the QI initiative benchmark and quality improvement performance measures to analyze gathered data and fix the issue or change the quality improvement plan
The implementation of the board oversight of the quality of care delivered to the community is one of the effective ways to guarantee the patient-oriented standards of care. There are several strategies, which may be embodied in order to facilitate the relationships between the providers and the local officials. In this memo will be observed the three of them.
As board members we must remember that we are not only leaders of this hospital but also patients and members of this community. Introduction to a more robust communication plan, verification process and decrease reporting times to the staff and to
As the nations focus continues to be on cost and quality of medical care rendered, the push for standardization persist. Care in Anytown USA should mimic the care rendered in the most elite medical centers in the country. This is our duty to the patients that we serve. The organizations that were listed by Mr. Druse strive to universalize the care that every patient receives ensuring quality and safety for all. NDNQI participation allows nursing and organizations to stay current with the trends and avoid commonly seen errors that occur in healthcare. The IOM uses information from clinical research and standard of practice to 'fuel' their interventions and initiatives (Dunton, 2008). Quality improvement is driven by evidence- based practice and allows organizations to measure themselves against national comparative data (Dunton, 2008).