Quality Improvement

Introduction

Quality improvement is a basic goal that the management has to take into consideration during decision making. First, quality improvement methods outlined in this proposal intend to demonstrate hospital’s obligation to improve the quality of healthcare services that the institution offers. For a medical institution, poor quality of services would be disastrous to the organization since it would lower the output and reputation of the hospital. In this regard, the management has to prioritize quality improvement measures to improve healthcare services that the facility offers. Therefore, this proposal highlights the problems, which the hospital faces. It also proposes and discusses quality improvement measures that the hospital should implement to increase its growth, overcome numerous challenges it faces, and enhance patient’s safety.

The proposed quality improvement plan intends to fulfill several objectives. First, it aims to create a suitable setup, where allied healthcare professionals, physicians, and subordinate staff work in harmony to provide the much needed medical support at personalized level (Archbold, 2009). Second, the plan aims to advocate for advanced health services schedules and improve available healthcare and human resources to meet basic Medicare needs of patients in the area of coverage. Third, proposed plans will help the hospital to carry out its duties in a financially feasible and ethical manner without ignoring patients’ rights and needs. The proposal examines problems, which the hospital is experiencing to be able to propose better means of improving service delivery. This section focuses on specific areas, which create challenges to the health facility such as optimal care and patients’ satisfaction. As a result, this proposal considers growth of the hospital and patients’ safety.        

Growth of the Hospital

Growth of the hospital is one of the challenges that the administration faces in providing healthcare services. As a result of growth, the hospital will experience various structural and administrative challenges that can jeopardize the provision of healthcare services to patients if not dealt with adequately (Sollecito & Johnson, 2011). The number of patients visiting the hospital will steadily grow, thus making administrating changes necessary. Moreover, this trend is coupled with continuous and systematic quality improvement initiatives that promote growth. In this case, quality improvement initiatives should focus on particular patient to facilitate service delivery. Moreover, support that healthcare service providers offer to patients should promote optimum outcome for patients. This practice will also ensure that the process adheres to norms of business practices in terms of effectiveness.

Challenges that the hospital faces due to its growth and development can be effectively dealt with through a number of initiatives. For example, the hospital will have to carry out clinical outcomes review, performance appraisal, peer-review, and variance analysis because these are the best techniques of quality improvement.         

Patient Safety

The hospital has experienced a lot of issues with patient safety. In this case, most of these problems concern patients’ safety. This hospital has approximately five patients fall sick per week, medication errors occur frequently, and there is 25% rise in hospital-acquired infections. Therefore, patients’ safety should be given priority if the hospital aims to serve interests of the sick during service delivery. The improvement plan should focus on patients’ safety to increase their confidence in the hospital.     

Proposed Quality Improvement Plan

Hospital’s quality improvement plan is dependant on mission and goals, which the medical facility intends to achieve. Therefore, healthcare programs should be executed in a way that meets several important conditions. They have to be effective, safe, patient centered, timely, efficient, and equitable.

Effective

Service provision in the hospital should be conducted in line with scientific knowledge and research findings. This means that services should be different, depending on the disease or patient and must be carried out in a safe way to prevent hospital-acquired infections.

Safe

Service provision should be carried out in a way that assures patients of their safety. In this situation, patients should not incur injuries during medical procedures, because the exercise is targeted at helping them. Safety of the patient must remain a priority as service providers implement their plans.

Patient Centered

Healthcare service that the hospital provides should have the patient at heart, meaning that it ought to be delivered in a responsible and respectful way that would as well guarantee patients’ safety. This would make individual patient feel valued and assured that physicians attend to his or her needs.

Timely

The quality improvement plan for the hospital should ensure that services are provided in a timely manner to prevent time wasting. This will ensure that the hospital reduces the number of delays, which can lead to death of a patient. 

Efficient

Provision of medical care in the hospital should be done in a way that eliminates the excess wastes of available materials and human resources such as supplies, equipment, energy, and ideas. This is intended to improve the quality of life of patients and ensure efficient use of resources.

Equitable

This is a very important aspect of quality improvement in the hospital. Healthcare providers should carry out their work in a non-discriminatory way without considering patient’s gender, geographic location, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and race (Archbold, 2009).    

On the other hand, the program aimed at improving quality of Medicare will comprise of several activities. First, every direct and indirect service that touches on patient’s health and satisfaction must be given priority (Kenney, 2010). This is important since it guarantees patient’s wellbeing and preference of medical facility for his or her future healthcare needs. Finally, services must be provided in close consultation with affected people. Second, medication therapy should be provided in accordance with the recommended standard. This will improve hospital’s public image and reverse the trend of low patient turnover. Therefore, therapy should be provided in a professional way that upholds integrity of the patient. Third, risk assessment and management should be considered during implementation of strategy of quality improvement. The growth of the hospital increases the rate of risk it might experience, thus making it susceptible to challenges (Shaw, 2009). In this case, risk assessment measures that will detect risks and application of the necessary techniques to manage them will help the health facility to minimize challenges.        

Effects of Implementing the Proposal

Effects that implementation of the proposal will have on at least three different stakeholders may vary depending on the ways these stakeholders will perceive the proposal. The main stakeholders include physicians, Medicare providers, and patients. These people differ significantly in their contribution and utilization of quality healthcare services.

Effects on the Physicians

Physicians are the experts, who diagnose various diseases and prescribe medication to patients. Improving the quality of healthcare means that physicians have to be effective and efficient in handling their patients. They also must possess impeccable knowledge and experience in medical practice (Besterfield, 2012). Therefore, adopting quality improvement measures such as efficiency, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, safety, and focus on patients means that non-competent physicians will not have the opportunity to work in the hospital. The reason for this exercise is that it requires competency, good faith, and due diligence in delivering services.

Effects on Medicare Providers

The success of healthcare services relies heavily on the commitment and activities of clinical officers, nurses, and support staff, who are in close contact with patients most of the time. In this regard, improvement of the quality of healthcare in the hospital affects them because it requires more of their dedication, working for longer hours, and improving their relationships with patients (Besterfield, 2012). Proposed measures such as efficiency, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, safety, and focus on patients mean that Medicare providers have to devote more time, ideas, and interest to achievement of hospital’s goals. This means that medical health practitioners cannot have more idle time, but they have to increase their attempts to innovate on ways of improving patients’ welfare.

Effects on Patients

Implementing the proposed quality improvement measures such as efficiency, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, safety, and focus on patients, the latter will be required to cooperate with healthcare providers and physicians (Besterfield, 2012). Here, they would be expected to disclose all relevant information on their condition to facilitate the work of service providers. They will also be required to adhere to medication proposed by physicians.  

Conclusion

In summary, quality improvement of healthcare services is necessary for the hospital because it increases the chances and pace of recovery for patients. The proposal indicated that improved quality of services will boost growth, reliability, and improve the image of the medical facility. Regardless of the problems that the hospital faces, quality improvement measures that the medical center should practice to increase its growth, include efficiency, effectiveness, equity, timeliness, safety, and focus on patients. In addition, these measures have to be implemented in a way that guarantees patients’ safety.