Quality Management Assessment Executive Summary - Essay Example

Quality Management Assessment Executive Summary Finding a way to achieve greater value in health care delivery, the healthcare organizations are striving hard to create efficient, affordable and transparent system by reducing unnecessary costs and waste while improving patient satisfaction and outcomes. The challenges are even more daunting due to increased costs, regulatory requirements, technological innovations, burgeoning aging population, consumerism and above all society’s expectations of better clinical outcomes.

The importance of quality service and quality management would not be overstating in this complex working environment with huge responsibility, wherein any failure can directly affect the life of a patient. Several principles guide quality improvement efforts: client-focused care, teamwork, leadership, systems, and data. Finding a way to achieve greater value in health care delivery, the healthcare organizations are striving hard to create efficient, affordable and transparent system by reducing unnecessary costs and waste while improving patient satisfaction and outcomes.

The challenges are even more daunting due to increased costs, regulatory requirements, technological innovations, burgeoning aging population, consumerism and above all society’s expectations of better clinical outcomes. The importance of quality service and quality management would not be overstating in this complex working environment with huge responsibility, wherein any failure can directly affect the life of a patient (Salman 2005). Even though, health care organizations have been lacking behind in adopting the principles of quality improvement such as total quality management employed in other sectors and industries.

Many healthcare quality improvement agencies for example Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in the US, Modernization Agency in the UK National Health Service (NHS), the Dutch Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CBO) and the Australian Council for Safety and Quality in Healthcare have working over time to put in place mutually agreed protocols and procedures with the perspective of improving the health care system in United States, United kingdom and elsewhere. In principle, healthcare organizations have always aimed to serve patients, however, in practice, organizations interests take the preference over patient’s needs and aspirations.

It is nicely summarized in an editorial in the BMJ, “Healthcare systems fail to provide treatments that are known to work, persist in using treatments that don’t work, enforce delays, and tolerate high levels of error. Healthcare leaders are now recognizing . . . that the Healthcare system needs radically redesigning” (BMJ 2001p.1257). Several principles guide quality improvement efforts: client-focused care, teamwork, leadership, systems, and data. A wide variety of strategies, techniques, and tools have been tried with varying success by organizations to achieve the goals of standardizing clinical care processes, making clinical care decisions based on the scientific evidence, reducing risks, providing care effectively and efficiently using available resources for the best clinical outcomes.

This approach requires inter disciplinary team work to map the patient’s pathway. The healthcare quality umbrella framework is based on the basic principles utilizing Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy and a Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) approach, which employs three basic, closely interrelated activities: quality planning, quality control and quality improvement. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is an emerging philosophy that offers some distinct advantages, using constraints as tool.

The Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) process integrate a loop which recognizes internal and external variation, determines the reason of the variations, and then designs and implements strategies to improve organizational quality performance. Six Sigma and Kaizen methods are also used for process improvement projects by increasing efficiency and eliminating waste. Dimensions and concepts of quality management where by better performance include the following: patient perspective issues; safety of the care environment; and accessibility, appropriateness, continuity, effectiveness, efficacy, efficiency, and time.

Organization’s environment includes all the external and internal factors and conditions that can affect the outcome and quality. Some of the external and internal factors are globalization, technology, innovation, economy, ethnicity, diversity and working conditions. All these factors are extrinsic as well as intrinsic impact on the quality outcome. Risk management can be considered activities that organizations undertake to identify, evaluate, and reduce the risk of injury to patients, staff, and the organization itself.

Two primary principles of quality risk management are: the risk evaluation should be based on scientific knowledge and the protection of the patient is paramount; and the level of effort, of the quality risk management process should be commensurate with the level of risk. There are many names and terms to define quality management, but the best outcome is the goal. References Smith, J. (2001). Redesigning Health Care: Radical Redesign is a Way to Radically Improve. BMJ 322, 1257–8. Salman G.F. (2005).

Continuous quality improvement in rural health clinics. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 862-865.