Discussion: NURS 4455 Management Programs
Discussion: NURS 4455 Management Programs
DQ2 For Maximum Score – must respond to all 3 questions.
1. How do you define quality of care?
2. What factors can you control, as a manager, for your staff to provide high-quality care (which factors are internal and which are external)?
3. If an organization is deciding between several quality management programs which would you recommend and why?
What are the Quality Management Programs?
Health care is very complex sector and delivery of service is the fragmented care. Quality can be a common paradigm to address the need of all groups in health care. Quality improvement is the process approach to the organization’s operational challenges. The initiative to address the quality in health care has become a global phenomenon. A quality revolution for delivery of service with patient at the center and services around it is the demand of the time. This article comprehensively reviews the quality management in health care service and aims to sensitize the health care professionals towards achieving total quality.
Keywords: Continuous quality improvement, Health care organization, Quality, Total quality management
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1. Introduction
A Health Care Organization (HCO) is a complex organization by nature owing to the intangible outcome of service and a blend of diverse professional personnel. Quality management in healthcare is a critical requirement in health sector. The principles of quality have been implicit in health care. However, quality is not a physical attribute service. Use of the term ‘Health Care Service’ in place of ‘Medical Care’ further defines the field and puts it as an entity that can be assessed, monitored and improved. A quality healthcare system can be defined as “one that is accessible, appropriate, available, affordable, effective, efficient, integrated, safe, and patient related”.1 Health care is delivered by practitioners in allied health services, dentistry, midwifery, obstetrics, medicine, nursing, optometry, pharmacy, psychology and other care providers.
Quality management in health care is a wide term. Initially it was perceived as directing the healthcare personnel to what to do. However, its current interpretation is to manage the process of care.2 It refers to observing the organizational functions as an interaction of procedures and processes that can be addressed individually and collectively. Although various models have been put forth, however, the concept of triad of structure, process and outcome proposed by Donabedian remains the foundation of quality assessment today.3
Quality management has emerged as the dire need more fiercely than ever in light of the new definition of the quality with patient satisfaction as the outcome of service. The quality of services being provided to patients is highly crucial. The traditional view of quality control aimed at defect detection while the current concept aims at the defect prevention, continuous process improvement, and outcome driven system guided by patients’ needs. Hence there is a crying need to bring about a paradigm shift in quality of health care delivery.4 The authorities need to step forward to get involved in quality.5 Currently, the quality has been addressed more in medical field than in the allied fields such as dentistry and nursing and also more in the developing country context.
