The Institute of Medicine has in place an assessment framework that guides healthcare delivery in private and public healthcare services. According to Joshi, Ransom, Nash, and Ransom (2014), there are six critical aims as put forth by the Institute of Medicine. The six IOM's include effectiveness, safety, patient-centered care, timeliness, efficiency, and equitability. Equitability denotes to providing care irrespective on one's socio-economic status, geographic location, ethnicity, or gender. Majority of the assessments measures safety and effectiveness. Such frameworks help consumers understand and grasp the relevance and meaning of quality within the healthcare sector. The understanding allows consumers to put higher knowledge on a wide array of quality pointers. For example, Joshi et al., (2014) argue that if and when a patient is offered an explanation or understanding, of patient-centered, effective, and safe healthcare service they observe the significant categories that they deem as necessary. Such a grouping helps consumers apply a user-friendly perspective concerning their significant concerns regarding healthcare.
When Mr. Coates was admitted at Gonzales Community Health Center for a minor check-up, he expected quick diagnosis and review of his health condition. He was admitted at 8 pm, but it took over five hours for him to get the first medical attention. He has never imagined facing discrimination based on one's skin color in the facility. However, his worst fears were confirmed. Just after he was admitted, a group of whites in the range of 17 to 32 years of age was also admitted. He was informed that the entire medical team was attending to the group of whites. Majority of patients were neglected and told to wait. It took over five hours for the medical team that comprised of nurses, psychiatrists, and dentists to get back to their usual medical desks. All the while, they were attending to the white patients.
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According to the IOM's six aims, patient care should not vary due to personal characteristics such as skin color, socio-economic status, geographical location, ethnicity, or gender (Joshi et al., 2014). From his experience, Coates learned that the whites were given priority due to their "white supremacy" tag that many patients complained about. Coates discovered that the hospital facility had perfected the art of giving low priority to patients from "other races" who were considered as non-locals. Besides, lack of equitable healthcare service, Coates was also denied patient-centered attention upon his admission. Notably, it took the nurses over five hours to get back to him after his admission.
The facilities healthcare team wasted massive time and denied Coates timely treatment and attention. Despite arriving at the facility while all the medical team was available and within reach, time was wasted in giving the necessary care that Coates required. There was also multiple inefficiencies and ineffectiveness in provision of healthcare service. Wastage of time, lack patient-centered care pointed to an ineffective medical team that lacked professionalism to provide safe, effective, timely, equitable, and patient-centered service. Coates understood the measures and later described healthcare services at the facility as far below standard. On a scale of one up to ten, Coates ranked the services a paltry two out of ten. Wastage of time and lack of equitable services pointed to ineffective, inefficient, unsafe, and untimely service delivery.
References
Joshi, M., Ransom, E. R., Nash, D. B., & Ransom, S. B. (2014). The healthcare quality book: vision, strategy, and tools. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.
