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The concepts of quality improvement in a health care organization
Components of quality in healthcare
The concepts of quality improvement in a health care organization
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Use of Quality Measurements outside of Reimbursement
Quality measurements, once collected, need to be used, this a reoccurring theme in the literature. One way the data is used is to help physicians meet standards and regulations and ensure quality care. The American Board of Emergency Medicine has shown great support for the development of quality measure reporting for emergency physicians (ABEM, 2015). In their article discussing the considerations for a registry for EM physicians, they are discussing such a thing because of the push for quality measurements to be linked to quality reporting, reimbursements, and their desire for continuous professional development (ABEM, 2015). They would like to use the data collected to improve their work.
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“The greatest threats to patient safety and quality in the emergency department are overcrowding and the on-call specialist shortage” (ACEP, 2014). Therefore, the article states that ACEP supports technology and the continuous development of quality measures. The article looks at the main points to consider regarding quality with patient safety. As the government moves to a physician fee for service model, quality measurements will continue to affect the quality of care emergency medicine physicians provide and their desire to do so. ACEP continues to develop policies and standards as well as quality measures as they are at the forefront of care in emergency medicine. One of their main points being, “Everyone is only one step away from a medical emergency” (ACEP, 2014). Within their article ACEP makes recommendations to improve patient safety and the concern is prevalent to ensure quality is in their emergency room …show more content…
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released the National Healthcare Quality Report in 2003 which included 57 performance measures as stated by Williams, S., et al. (2005). In the article it discussed how The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) in July 2002 set measures designed in order to track the performance of accredited hospitals and encourage improvement based on those measures for quality of care (Williams, S., et al, 2005). The article reviews their method of measuring over 3,000 accredited hospitals and how the implementation of standardized processes changed those
The standards of the Joint Commission are a foundation for an objective evaluation process the may help healthcare organizations measure, assess and improve performance. These standards are focused on organizational functions that are key for providing safe high quality care services. The Joint Commission’s standards set goal expectations of reasonable, achievable and surveyable performance of an organization. Only new standards that are relative to patient safety or care quality, have positive impact on healthcare outcomes, and can be accurately measured are added. Input from healthcare professionals, providers, experts, consumers and government agencies develop these standards.
Merwin, E & Thornlow, D. (2009). Managing to improve quality: the relationship between accreditation standards, safety practices, and patient outcomes. Health Care Managment Review, 34(3), 262-272. DOI: 10.1097/HMR.0b013e3181a16bce
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2012), the average time patients spend in the U.S. emergency department (ER) before they can see a doctor has increased to 25% between 2003-2009. The main cause of longer wait times (WT) in the ER is overcrowding. Overcrowding has been found to be closely related to both subjective and objective patient satisfaction (Miro’ et al, 2003). Longer wait times in the ED is such an important issue because its consequences are detrimental not only to the ER patients, but also to providers. As a health care provider, decreasing patients’ WT in the ED is essential, although challenging, to improve patient’s health outcomes and increase patients’ satisfaction. Although it is a very challenging issue to tackle, hospitals that have initiated some quality improvement (QI) strategies are experiencing some positive outcomes in that area of care. The outcomes are measured by decreased waiting times, improved patients’ clinical outcomes and increased patients’ satisfaction.
Kohn, L., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. (1999). To err is human: building a safer health system. Committee on Quality of Health Care in America Institute of Medicine National Academy Press Washington, D.C.
The purpose of this paper is to identify a quality safety issue. I will summarize the impact that this issue has on health care delivery. In addition, I will identify quality improvement strategies. Finally, I will share a plan to effectively implement this quality improvement strategy.
It is essential to conduct continuous evaluation of the health care systems with regards to the quality of care. Health care is a very sensitive sector as it is mandated to provide quality care as well as ensuring patient safety. For these reasons, it is essential to have an organized body that will ensure the standards of quality are the same throughout all health care facilities. This crucial service is provided by the Joint Commission (JCAHO). The body provides standards that are then used to accredit health care facilities.
Each year this panel of experts put a microscope on patient safety across the board. They decide where upmost attention needs to be paid. Sometimes items leave the list because there are been strides take to improve in that area and sometimes it continues to stay on the list because they believe the relevance and importance is growing. Healthcare is evolving b...
Wu, A. W. (2011). The value of close calls in improving patient safety: Learning how to avoid
Thus, it is imperative that evidence-based practice is conducted to provide the best current, valid and reliable evidence in an aim to close the gap between non-conformity and coincide with the professional obligation of providing the patient with the best possible care (Liamputtong, 2013).... ... middle of paper ... ... Patient safety and quality of care. Rockville, MD: Agency For Healthcare Research And Quality, U.S. Dept. of Health.
... is an abstract model that proposes an exploratory plan for health services and evaluating quality of health care. In accordance with the model, information about quality of care can be obtained from three categories: structure, process, and outcomes. In addition, not long ago The Joint Commission include outcomes in its accreditation valuations (Sultz, & Young, 2011, p. 378).
In the healthcare system, quality is a major driving compartment for patient outcomes. The quality of care reflects the outcomes in a patient’s care. According to Feeley, Fly, Walters and Burke (2010), “quality equ...
Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
In today’s health care system, “quality” and “safety” are one in the same when it comes to patient care. As Florence Nightingale described our profession long ago, it takes work and vigilance to ensure we are doing the best we can to care for our patients. (Mitchell, 2008)
Understanding quality measurement is essential in improving quality. Teams need to be able to understand whether the changes being made are actually leading to improved care and improved outcomes. For data to have an impact on an improvement initiative, providers and staff must understand it, trust it, and use it. Health care organization must understand the measurement of quality provided by the Institute of Medicine (patient outcomes, patient satisfaction, compliance, efficiency, safe, timely, patient centered, and equitable. An organization cannot improve its performance if it does not know how it is performing. Measuring quality improvements is essential as it reflects the quality of care given by the providers and that by comparing performance
Over the last few decades, there has been plenty of research done on the quality of child care and early education programs in the United States which demonstrated the need for benchmarking quality and holding programs accountable at a systemwide level - especially those utilizing public funds. Various program types already had their own means of managing accountability in some way or another, such as licensing and accreditation for child care programs, and public school pre-kindergarten program standards. What was lacking, however, was a framework that provided common ground for these various forms of accountability to align with one another. Thus, the need for Quality Rating and Improvement Systems was born. (National Center on Early Childhood