Quality of care is defined as the extent to which health services for all people increases the likelihood of achieving desired health outcomes that are consistent with modern professional knowledge (Kieft, Brouwer, & Francke, 2014). Measuring and improving healthcare is a key component in the current medical practice. Quality of care assessment has intensified due to the concern that unsafe and inefficient health care is costly, can lead to loss of life, can be dispensed inappropriately, and varies between physicians and locations. Interventions aim at bridging the gap that exists between reality and expectations in health outcomes (Sullivan, 2018). Improving the quality of healthcare has been the top priority of the changes enacted by the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Increased healthcare costs, awareness on medical errors and higher rate of insurance cover in the US has drawn the attention of managers towards quality improvement. As a manager, one can control internal factors such as policies and procedures used to ensure that staff provides the best quality of care to patients. By doing so, a manager creates a culture in which staff is aware of the expected standards. Failure to comply with the policies and procedures would lead to disciplinary action (Kieft et al., 2014). One can also include topics of quality of care in staff meetings to accentuate the importance of delivering optimum care to patients. Family and friends are some of the external factors that would be addressed. Ensuring that patients are not exposed to ill visitors is of high priority to maintain safety standards. Additional external factors to address would be acquiring clinically competent nurses and developing collaborative working relationships.
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The best recommendation for the organization would be the lean six sigma for quality management. Lean six sigma is a fact-based and data driven model that reduces process variation and enhances process control by identifying and eliminating defects in the delivery of healthcare. The concept behind the six-sigma process is trimming off unnecessary processes in an organization and prioritizing on processes that lead to improvement in profits, employee motivation, and quality of services. The organization develops a plan through which wasted time, money, effort and resources are recovered by improving work standardization and flow. Combined with the Kaizen initiative, which prioritizes in creating a culture of continuous improvement by implementing small positive changes over time, the six-sigma reap maximum benefits.
The main aim of modern quality improvement procedures should not be to isolate low quality aspects in healthcare but rather, to improve the entire level of standard medical practice. As indicated on the post, quality of care identifies and implements changes that ensure safety of the patients, their values and culture and advocate for the best possible care. Communication is crucial for all healthcare providers. Poor communication is responsible for 1744 patient deaths and about $1.7 billion in losses and malpractice lawsuits over the past five years (Kieft et al., 2014). Effective communication creates a conducive environment for patient recovery, cost savings and daily operational efficiency.
Managers should always ensure that their emotions do not get the best of them. Leaders are expected to be aware of the unconscious reactions that they exhibit and how to control them. Emotional expertise and self-awareness can have a positive impact on managerial success and the wellbeing of their subordinates. Positive thinking and optimism also builds staff moral leading to more productivity and efficiency. The Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a systematic program that identifies problems in healthcare, implements, and monitors corrective action (Bailie, Bailie, & Larkins, 2017). The model best applies to system issues by identifying improvement opportunities in organizational structure and function.
References
Bailie, R., Bailie, J., & Larkins, S. (2017). Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI)—Advancing Understanding of Design, Application, Impact, and Evaluation of CQI Approaches. Frontiers in Public Health , 306. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2017.00306
Kieft, R., Brouwer, B. d., & Francke, A. (2014). How nurses and their work environment affect patient experiences of the quality of care: a qualitative study. BMC Health Services Research, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-14-249
Sullivan, E. (2018). Effective Leadership and Management in Nursing . Pearson Education.
