Quality in healthcare consists of the provision of care needs to all patients at the time that it is required. Additionally, this care service must consist of safe procedures for patients by ensuring that it does not cause harm through addition or omission. In this health organization, healthcare quality involves ensuring that the patients are treated without negligence and that the service provided is offered without delay. Mostly, health organizations fail to bridge gaps that exist in service delivery resulting in worsening of cases or in other instances increasing mortality ( Swain et al., 2017 ). Quality Healthcare is supposed to eliminate situations where diseases recur and development of complications through mutation as a result of failure to give the right treatment. There are six dimensions of quality healthcare which consist of safety, patient-centeredness, effectiveness, timeliness and equity.
The Detroit VAMC support the dimension of perceived quality. Which focus on understanding and meeting the needs of patients while helping them to heal. The VA calls this “patient-centered care”, VA (2020). Which consist of focusing on the person; improving overall health and well-being; encouraging patients to be proactive; identify and minimize health risks; lifelong planning; teamwork and health care partnerships. The other five dimensions of quality healthcare include safety, effectiveness, timeliness, efficiency and equity.
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The problem identified is misdiagnosis among the patients who have been treated in the hospital. It is a significant issue in healthcare worldwide which involves situations which involves various cases of negligence by the health workers of failure by the technologies used. It is a crucial issue as it causes administration of drugs and procedures not necessary in treatment of the actual disease of the patient while overlooking existent diseases. For instance, there has been a misdiagnosis of patients suffering from other illnesses that involve inflammation as suffering from cancer while the actual condition is arthritis.
Managing the issue of misdiagnosis is essential to the quality of the organization as it will help reduce fatalities in the hospital. The failure to correctly identify a disease has, in most cases, been causing the inability to manage conditions such as tuberculosis and cancer in their early stages hence inability to avoid degeneration. This issue is a problem as the wrong prescription due to misdiagnosis might weaken the immune system making the patient susceptible to attack by other diseases. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that the –right medication is given to patients by providing correct identification of diseases.
Another issue that is related to misdiagnosis is negligence by the nurses and doctors in the organization. Essentially, negligence is one of the causes of misdiagnosis as some of the doctors assume the disease the patient is suffering from through generalization of symptoms. The failure to ensure safety by adequately analyzing the symptoms and confirm through various methods indicates negligence of the patient. This issue is essential as healthcare outcomes cannot be fully realized without ensuring professionalism. By managing negligence, nurses will ensure adherence to ethical principles, including non-maleficence, which makes sure that all procedures in the hospital focus on solving the health problem without harming the patient ( Swain et al., 2017 ). In some cases, negligence causes death or the infection of other individuals as the measures of intervention to prevent spread and manage the disease are not taken especially in cases involving tuberculosis.
Failure to test is also an issue since some of the patient conditions are not recognizable through observation of patient history or symptoms. This failure to test has in various situations caused the development of pathogens causing severe conditions that should have been treated on their onset after microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses are detected. For instance, patients who have had sexually transmitted diseases for long may develop infertility causing long term damage. This fact indicates the importance of this issue to quality since its management will prevent the emergence of other conditions such as mental illness and infertility in STDs which are not the initial health problems. Also, conducting clinical tests on patients is crucial to ensure that there no other conditions that have not manifested but which could cause serious health complications in the future by testing as a preventive measure to improve safety in procedures such as surgeries. ( Swain et al., 2017 ). Essentially, factors such as blood type, preexisting conditions, and blood pressure are vital in determining the feasibility of surgery.
In some instances, self-diagnosis has emerged as a serious risk as it is likely to result in damage of the organs as liver due to the constant intake of wrong medications through self-prescription. Wrong self-diagnosis results in the wrong prescription among most patients as they lack proper medical knowledge to deal with complicated illnesses. Essentially, preventing this issue is crucial in ensuring quality as certified professionals should make a diagnosis. The issue is a hospitals problem as it makes it difficult for health providers to manage diseases due to lack of reporting to facilities on time. The prevention of consequences of fatalities and other problems caused by intake of wrong drugs due to patients diagnosing themselves such as disability can be achieved through sensitization of the patients to ensure that cases are reported at the hospital.
The lack of skills that are up to date is a critical issue in the organization since most of the staff are either have outdated skills or are fresh from school and without experience. When the workers are not regularly trained, they lack knowledge of changes in the medical field, due to the existence of new strains. The failure to conduct medical studies on the new diseases and treatments is part of the reasons this problem exists. In essence, this issue is crucial to the quality of health care in the hospital since new strains require up to date skills to avoid cases of recurrence of illnesses. Ensuring that the nurses have updated skills on necessary skills such as critical thinking will be essential in managing similar conditions in different communities ( Swain et al., 2017 ). The nurses need to learn how to approach patients in consideration of local community practices for quality healthcare to be achieved.
The root problem that has hindered the achievement of quality in the organization is the lack of resources. The unavailability of resources includes the lack of enough health workers and funds. For instance, the lack of workers has hindered the initialization and sustenance of sensitization programs in the community. Such programs are critical in making sure that patients are educated about common diseases in the community and how to manage them. Despite the need to avoid widespread self-diagnoses due to the need to prevent fatalities, there is need to educate patients on various symptoms of common illnesses such as diabetes to avoid delayed diagnosis which causes more deaths that can be managed if the patients are aware of the signs and indicators. Additionally, money is needed in ensuring the procurement of equipment for testing to enhance the detection of diseases and treatment. Also, the organization lacks enough funds to conduct regular training of health workers and the recruitment of more skilled nurses to ensure more professional health care services.
Conclusion
Quality healthcare involves the satisfaction of the needs of patients at the time that the health care services are needed. In this case, the preventable error is misdiagnosis which is affecting the provision of quality health care. With the identification of issues such as self-diagnosis, failure to test, negligence and unskilled workers, the root problem seems to be lack of enough resources. If these issues are addressed, quality healthcare provision will be achieved by the organization.
VA Medical Center, Detroit (2020). Quality of healthcare. Centering Care around You . Detroit. https://www.va.gov/QUALITYOFCARE/new-approach/centering-care.asp
Swain, S., & Kar, N. C. (2017). A holistic framework for conceptualizing hospital service quality. Journal of Health Management , 19 (1), 84-96
