The quality of healthcare is an essential part of human well-being and should be the center of focus for any provider. According to the report, To Err Is Human, Institute of Medicine (IOM) says that most of the medical errors are because of faulty systems and processes, and not individuals. The healthcare complexity of healthcare is marred by so many factors including disparities in provider education and experiences, health insurance, changing case mix of patients, and inefficient processes. As a quality officer at Medlink Hospital (fictional), I prepare this paper for the CEO on the quality improvement initiatives for our organization.
After several complaints on the reducing quality of care in the organization, there arose several initiatives to help in addressing this. First, the use of electronic healthcare records is an important tool and thus forms part of the initiative to ensure quality healthcare in Medlink Hospital. The organization has been struggling with the paper mode of keeping patient information. This has led to a number of cases whereby some parts of the data are lost or destroyed in the process of retrieving leading to errors in the delivery of care (Miller & Sim, 2004). The paper-based system is faulty as it hampers the accessibility of the comprehensive, current medical information for the patients. Some of the pieces that are always critical during decision-making include laboratory results, medications, drug allergies, and past comprehensive medical history (Miller & Sim, 2004). With the introduction of EHR, the organization will be able to store the information for a longer period without losing or damaging them. The technological system will ensure that the data is stored in categories and retrieval can occur at the entry of a patient name.
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The other initiative will be to educate the healthcare providers on the patient-based care. The current education system for the healthcare providers does not factor in the competencies required to cater to the ever-changing demography of the consumers. There are still some prejudices that need to be rooted out for the sake of helping the individuals who seek the services. The patient-centered care education will equip the practitioners with the skills required to offer non-generalized quality care to every patient as each has unique experiences, lifestyle, and a background that influence their different preferences, values, and desired health outcomes. The current model of education focuses mainly on the generalization of healthcare with a one-size-fits-all approach. However, the consumer end of the service says a different story as patients has specific needs concerning the healthcare. Thus, Medlink Hospital seeks to educate the medical practitioners on the importance of having the competencies to tackle the specialized needs for the improvement of quality.
Thirdly, the hospital will support the value-based care system of payment and reimbursement. Instead of focusing on the volume of care provided by the practitioners, it will emphasize on the patient outcomes ( Porter, 2009) . The traditional system of free-for-service-based is inadequate in improving the quality of health care to the patients. They focus on giving services to many people while in turn reducing the quality as the focus is on meeting volume targets. In other words, the value-based care will involve initiatives to ensure the consumers experience better health outcomes instead of getting more treatment ( Adler-Milstein et al., 2017) . It is in the knowledge of the management of the hospital that the better the healthcare outcome, the lesser the expense required on reoccurrence and errors attributed to hasty services. The initiative will take care of the condition of the client and offer a full cycle of care from admission to discharge. Only when this is achieved, shall the hospital receive the reimbursement from the government.
With the organization geared to improve the reducing quality of care and address the complaints raised by the patients, cost reduction is an important step. Increasing cost is one measure of falling quality of healthcare and grapples most organizations in the United States. Clinical evidence is one forum that can be used to combat the issue of increasing costs ( Kolodziej, 2011) . The approach includes the integration of patient values and clinical expertise with the best research evidence to improve patient outcomes. The staffs in the organization are well equipped with the research skills for this job. The other factor that will support the reduction of costs is the integration of information technology into the daily operations of the healthcare services. With the advent of technology come great benefits of reduction of costs ( Shekelle et al. , 2006).
The first way is that IT reduces the amount of space required to store physical data as multiple files can be kept in a single electronic device. The cost of healthcare goes high due to the effect of errors that are experienced when providing. Information technology is helpful in the retrieval of updated medical trends that have been published around the world to provide the practitioners with the data needed at some point of care ( Miller & Sim, 2004) . This can help in the foreseeing of errors including allergies, mismatches, and duplication, which, in turn, will reduce costs.
With all the initiatives conceptualized for the Medlink Hospital, it is essential to distinguish between the single-payer government system and the free market health care system and see which one can improve the quality. The former entails a single-tiered system that incorporates the coverage of all people equally regardless of their diagnosis, employment, income, or age. Under this plan, everyone is covered by an insurance plan in their region, that which pays for their care. Generally, the single-payer government system ensures that the standards are high enough to be acceptable to all citizens thus fostering universal high quality. The single-payer system allows patients to select their practitioners and continue to get the services even after they change jobs or become financially disabled. The initiative thus makes the healthcare accessible and affordable to all. The care does not delay or is not denied based on costs. This initiative can be helpful in the unification, development of a confidential, computerized medical database that can aid in tracking the provider behavior and patient care. All the information can be collected in one place for the sake of single-payer expanding the opportunities to carry out research on the initiatives to improve healthcare investment on information systems. With the single-payer system, it is possible to monitor the quality of care delivery without meddling into the privacy of the provider-patient relationship or micromanaging every clinical decision. In addition, the approach reduces the potential for financial conflicts in the decisions. However, overall, the single-payer can result to wastage of resources by decreasing the supply of healthcare practitioners through imposing laws of licensing that restrict entry into the profession. The decreased supply leads to expensive medical services.
On the other hand, the free market system involves the providers having the freedom to set their health care prices and not involving the government as it is an entirely free agreement between the patient and the providers. This approach is also free from any intervention of monopolistic price control. It seeks to abolish the restrictions that the state imposes on the entry of medical and nursing profession thus increasing the supply of such professionals. This approach increases competition among the providers in terms of technology, prices, and services. Free market ensures that the services are aligned to the needs of consumers, as players know facilities, infrastructure, and services that are essential and which ones should be replaced or phased out. This ensures up to date technology and saving the cost of wastage hence lifting the burden on taxpayers. This improves the quality of health provided. In a free market, the organizations will be free to test improved medical medications and devices.
Common laws that are still found in the 21 st century includes information confidentiality, prevention of medical errors, and the rights to informed consent. It is the duty of every practitioner to ensure that all the data on their patients are confidential. For example, they must ensure that the unauthorized persons are not allowed to access the records or they (data) be released only according to the law. The prevention of medical errors has long been a major hamper in healthcare quality. Several cases have been heard concerning this topic and many nurses have been sued on the same. For example, an error occurs when a nurse administers a wrong drug. The common law ensures that the patient can sue the provider for such error. The third law is the right for informed consent. This rule gives the patient the right to agree to or refuse medical procedure or treatment. For instance, family members may refuse treatment when a person has reached the vegetative state. They may argue that their loved one does not desire to live the rest of their life under the circumstance.
Provision of high-quality care is essential for Medlink Hospital and their patients. It will ensure the patients have confidence in the service and profession at large. Providing quality has proven to reduce the mortality rate by delivering care at the right time. It has also done it through the prevention of development of complications. Quality health care also ensures the identification of service failures or delays. This ensures that the corrective measures are implemented as soon as possible. Finally, quality healthcare ensures the workers work as a team to achieve a common goal.
The plan for protecting patient information is through disclosing this data only when the law requires it to be done. It will involve the incorporation of software that ensures high security for the information. The organization will make sure that all the facilities housing these data are secured at the entrance with a keycard to limit the access to the area.
References
Adler-Milstein, J., Embi, P. J., Middleton, B., Sarkar, I. N., & Smith, J. (2017). Crossing the health IT chasm: considerations and policy recommendations to overcome current challenges and enable value-based care: Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 24 (5), 1036-1043.
Kolodziej, M. A. (2011). Does evidence-based medicine really reduce costs? Oncology , 25 (3), 214.
Miller, R. H., & Sim, I. (2004). Physicians’ use of electronic medical records: barriers and solutions: Health affairs , 23 (2), 116-126.
Porter, M. E. (2009). A strategy for health care reform—toward a value-based system: New England Journal of Medicine , 361 (2), 109-112.
Shekelle, P., Morton, S. C., & Keeler, E. B. (2006). Costs and benefits of health information technology.
