Topic Questions
Are Safety and Quality One in the same or is there a Difference?
Patient quality and safety are closely related terms. Six elements of patients’ quality health care were defined in 2001 in Institute of Medicine in a reported named as “Crossing the Quality Chasm (Carayon et al., 2014).” Based on the report, patient quality is termed as a vital element in health care organizations since it leads to effective disbursement of health care services. Sadeghi et al. (2013) opine that quality health care should be patient centered. Quality health care should be responsive to preferences and needs of patients while ensuring that all clinical guide lines are adhered to. On the other hand, patient safety is considered to be a vital element for an effective healthcare system. Patient safety entails avoiding harm and giving patients effective and purposeful care at an ideal cost (Sadeghi et al., 2013). Unlike quality, which aims at all clinical processes conducted in the right way, safety aims at avoiding any negative repercussions in the course of clinical processes.
References
Carayon, P., Wetterneck, T. B., Rivera-Rodriguez, A. J., Hundt, A. S., Hoonakker, P., Holden, R., & Gurses, A. P. (2014). Human factors systems approach to healthcare quality and patient safety. Applied ergonomics, 45(1), 14-25.
Sadeghi, S., Barzi, A., Mikhail, O., &Shabot, M. M. (2013). Integrating Quality and Strategy in health Care Organizations: CHAPTER 2. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett.
Are the Quality Efforts that are Underway, in our Health Care Facilities Sufficient? Why or Why Not?
No. Quality improvement efforts are defined by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as continuous and systematic actions which are aimed at leading to measurable improvement in health care services (Burwell, 2015). As such, quality efforts are continuous changing with the evolving needs in of managing clinical processes effectively. Quality in health care is a degree to which the care increased to achieve desired health outcomes (Sadeghi et al., 2013). Therefore, the quality efforts present are not sufficient because there is a need for more research on coming up with better quality efforts. Burwell (2015) posits that clinicians, consumers, and payers continuously pay more attention to health care quality. This leads to a need for escalating the level of present quality efforts to meet the expectations of these parties. With escalating health care costs, the public heightens the need for better quality hence depicting insufficient quality efforts. At present, patient outcome, care coordination, cost cutting, efficiency, and safety are not improved as per the normal best clinical health care levels. This shows that there is a need of improving quality efforts to meet best health care expectations.
References
Burwell, S. M. (2015). Setting value-based payment goals—HHS efforts to improve US health care. N Engl J Med, 372(10), 897-899.
Sadeghi, S., Barzi, A., Mikhail, O., &Shabot, M. M. (2013). Integrating Quality and Strategy in health Care Organizations. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett. CHAPTER 7
How are Hospitals Trying to Give Health Care Consumers More Value for their Money?
Hospitals try to give health care consumers more value for their money by maintaining transparency. They ensure that consumers understand the cost of health care and quality offered (Value Driven Healthcare, 2014). Through transparency, consumers possess necessary information which enlightens them on why they have to pay a particular amount of money for some services (Folland, Goodman & Stano, 2016). This gives consumers more value for their money. Moreover, transparency in health care offers an incentive to choose health care service providers based on values portrayed. A hospital that portrays more value on consumers’ money attracts more clients. Hospitals also provide quality information and reliable cost, which empowers consumers’ choice, hence, giving consumers more value for their money. By maintaining consumers’ choice, incentives are created at all levels of health care system which in turn motivates the health care system to offer better services at a low cost (Folland, Goodman & Stano, 2016). With an increase in a number of health care consumers, health care prices may be spurred since consumers will be required to pay a higher amount of medical bills. In this concern, hospitals adopt other strategies for maintaining more value for consumers’ money through not only transparency but also other methods such as engagement approaches and using comparative pricing information.
References
Folland, S., Goodman, A. C., & Stano, M. (2016). The Economics of Health and Health Care: Pearson International Edition. New York: Routledge.
Value Driven Healthcare (01.38) (2014). Media Library.
Summarize above Article in Medscape Then Relate it to How Nurses are the Team Players in Situations
The article asserts that quality health care provision is a team effort and not as perceived to be a role only played by nurses. With evolvement in health care service provision, providers have to prescribe, interpret, treat and diagnose by consulting patients (Miller, 2015). As such, health care service providers have to create a partnership with patients to provide improved health care. Through this system, nurses serve as team players in situations and put the role of taking care back to patients. Miller (2015) states that some physicians are involved in making house calls as a way of giving patients home based health care. Healthcare is a complex unit which needs coordination from several individuals to provide effective care. Nurses who form the majority of health care service provision team need to not only support patients but also support each other in dire situations. Nurses serve as team players by working in unity with patients while giving services. When nurses work as a team as portrayed in the article, errors are prevented from occurring, and optimal health care is achieved (Day-Calder, 2016).
References
Day-Calder, M. (2016). Finding your voice in a multidisciplinary team: Nurses need to be flexible, confident team players–working effectively with both colleagues and external organizations. Nursing Standard, 30(46), 38-39.
Miller, K. (2015). Healthcare Is a Team Sport; Nurses Are Key Players. Medscape. Retrieved from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/842088
Summarize the Above Article Then Relate it to Healthcare Using below Reference with Need for One (1) More Reference
The article explores on a survey by a group of nurses on an inpatient gynecology surgical unit. The nurses agreed that teamwork between physicians and nurses was necessary for maintaining improved services within the surgical unit (Wickman et al., 2013). Since teamwork was seen to be a vital element in health care system, a multidisciplinary committee of physicians and nurses was created. Health care entails improvement of health by offering services such as treatment, diagnosis among others to alleviate discomfort and loss of function from either injury or illness. Health care is offered by several parties hence it is a process that needs team work as mentioned in the article. As such, all health professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, psychologist, physicians and optometrists need to work in association with information from each other to offer effective services (O’leary et al., 2012). Through team work, secondary care, primary care, and tertiary care are effectively offered. Moreover, it reduces the work burden imposed on a particular health care group such as nurses.
References
O’leary, K. J., Sehgal, N. L., Terrell, G., & Williams, M. V. (2012). Interdisciplinary teamwork in hospitals: a review and practical recommendations for improvement. Journal of hospital medicine, 7(1), 48-54.
Wickman, M., Drake, D., Heilmann, H., Rojas, R., & Jarvis, C. (2013). QI: Nursing’s evolving responsibility. Nursing Management, 44(10), 30-37.
