The QIO program is a federal program and one of the largest in the US. It focuses on the provision of quality healthcare services to the beneficiaries of Medicare. The program is affiliated to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) with an aim to provide better healthcare at an affordable cost. Legally, QIO focuses on the improvement of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of services offered to the beneficiaries of Medicaid (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, n.d.). QIO comprises of quality experts, consumers, and clinicians who seeks to improve the quality of healthcare provisions for the beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid in alignment with the protection of the integrity of the Medicare Trust Fund; ensuring that the funds only pay for services that are characterized with reasonableness and necessity and provided satisfactorily and; ensuring that the complaints of the beneficiaries are addressed appropriately (MMS, n.d.).
Descriptive vs inferential statistics
Descriptive statistics entails data through which one can accurately explain a situation or phenomenon. Inferential statistics involves use of data to create general meaning in alignment with a given phenomenon (Isotalo, n.d.).
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Ordinal measurement
If I was to survey my members in alignment with the quality program chosen herein, I would apply the ordinal measurement where the values given can be based on the level of importance of the attribute being measured (Social research methods, n.d.). This measure may be used to offer information about the satisfactory level of the service delivered in alignment with the prerequisites of the quality program. In this sense, zero would represent dissatisfaction while five would be for highly satisfying.
Benefits of the measure to patients
A major benefit of quality measures to the recipients of a service or product is that the measurements provide a benchmark for the improvement of quality to fit the consumer’s preferences. Where some patients report dissatisfaction with the delivery of healthcare services, the facility involved will try to explore various ideas in an attempt to attain the highest levels of satisfaction for their patients. Those who report high satisfaction levels may also offer insights into the improvement of service delivery by exposing the actions of their servers and the attributes of a service that were most satisfying (Rubin, Pronovost & Diette, 2001).
Types of healthcare organizations impacted by the qio program standards
QIOs are usually private organizations that fall under the category of not-for-profit organizations. They comprise of physicians and healthcare experts whose concern is the quality of service delivered to the patients. The organizations impacted by the QIOs’ standards include healthcare facilities that assist Medicare beneficiaries, nursing homes, and home health agencies as well as any other organization whose purpose is to offer healthcare services (The American Health Quality Association, n.d.). QIOs also work directly with healthcare organizations that wish to adopt technology in enhancing the quality of service. This remains one of the programs that target the community health facilities in attempts to attain the accessibility of quality healthcare for all Americans.
Recommendations
One of the recommendations I would make in alignment with the commitments of the QIOs is that accessibility to care, leave alone quality care, remains a problem to some Americans, particularly the marginal groups and the immigrants (O’Donnell et al, 2016). It would be appropriate to engage in endeavors where access to care for such groups is revisited. It seems that the program focuses more on those who are readily in a position to access healthcare with the major concern being whether the services offered meet the quality prerequisites. As such, those who never access healthcare to some barriers have no one to address their sentiments. QIO should, therefore, collaborate with some other stakeholders who engage in matters accessibility to healthcare to ensure care for all.
References
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (n.d.). Quality improvement organizations. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/
Isotalo, J. (n.d.). Basics of statistics. Retrieved from http://www.mv.helsinki.fi/home/
O’Donnell, C. A., Burns, N., Mair, F. S., Dowrick, C., Clissmann, C., Muijsenbergh, M., … MacFarlane, A. (2016). Reducing the healthcare burden for marginalized migrants: The potential role for primary care in Europe. Health Policy, 120 (5), 495-508. Doi: 10.1016/j.healthpol.2016..03.012
Rubin, H. R., Pronovost, P. & Diette, G. B. (2001). The advantages and disadvantages of process-based measures of healthcare quality. International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, 13 (6), 469-474.
Social Research Methods (n.d.). Levels of measurement. Web Center for Social Research Methods. Retrieved from https://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/
The American Healthcare Quality Association (n.d.). Quality improvement organizations. Retrieved from http://www.ahqa.org/
