Quality Healthcare Improvement Plan - Essay Sample

Introduction

The need for quality improvement has been a major concern for various health care service providers across the world (Graban, 2018). Many scholars define quality health care in different ways with the majority of them highlighting that quality healthcare relates to the extent to which the health services offered to an individual are consistent with the existing professional knowledge (Singh & Sittig, 2016). The aim of this paper is to provide a thoughtful improvement plan for the systems and technologies responsible for the enhancement of the quality of health care service delivery. The plan strategically takes into cognizance the concerns and challenges raised by one of the geriatric patients called Mabel.

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To begin with, most errors in the health care sectors are caused by the system and process failures. As such, there needs to be the adoption of various techniques that are intentionally aimed at improving the effectiveness and the efficiency of healthcare service delivery (Graban, 2018). The various techniques adopted in improving the quality of service delivery ought to be assessed and the findings should be used to inform the various changes that occur within the sector.

For instance, the various initiatives aimed at improving the health care quality should demonstrate whether such interventions result in changing the primary endpoint in the desired direction. The intervention should also be able to demonstrate that they are capable of contributing to the unintended results within the various sectors of the system (Singh & Sittig, 2016). The most fundamental rationale for measuring the improvement in health care quality is the famous belief that quality improvement is anchored on the good-quality practices within a various healthcare organization (Waring, Allen, Braithwaite & Sandall, 2016). However, measurement of quality of healthcare within the organization is always compromised by the unpredictable nature of health care service providers as well as the interdependence that exists within the health care system. External benchmarks could be used to track the signs of progress that are witnessed within the quality improvement initiatives.

Innovative Technologies to Improve the Clients' Experience

There are some important technologies that are essential in improving the experiences of clients such as Mabel's case. Some of these technologies include;

Chabot

The Chabot is a virtual assistant that helps in boosting customer service functions. They are technological innovations that are easy to deploy and are able to provide instant support to the clients via voice and instant messaging services (Gupte et al., 2016). This service could be adopted to improve the customer's experience and satisfaction within health care provision services.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is essential in meeting the needs of various clients within the health care sector. This technological innovation is linked to the improved efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in terms of the provision of actionable and timely responses to various clients within the health care sector (Graban, 2018). Just like in the case of Mabel, artificial intelligence could result in the improvement in the service delivery thus improving her satisfaction with regards to the health care requirements within the organization (Singh & Sittig, 2016).

Health Care Quality Improvement plan

The Purpose

The main purpose of this quality improvement plan is to ensure that the various procedures for policy improvement are established within the healthcare organization. The organization is interested in conducting a systematic evaluation and improvement of quality in terms of improved customer satisfaction, efficiency, and effectiveness (Singh & Sittig, 2016). The organization aims at attaining this through deliberate quality improvement initiatives across various departments in the healthcare organization.

The Definition of Terms

Continuous quality Improvement- as used in this Health improvement plan, continuous quality improvement refers to the ongoing attempts and efforts to increase the organizational approach to the management of performance and encouragement of improvement (Gupte et al., 2016).

Quality improvement- this term as used in the plan relates to the integrative process that acts as a linkage between structures, knowledge, and processes that result in the improvement of the quality of all sectors within the health care organization.

Quality improvement plan- the quality improvement plan relates to the plan that identifies the operational performance within the organization that requires improvements.

Overview of the Quality in the Healthcare Organization

The current quality situation in the organization is that some departments have adopted various tools and techniques within the organization thus resulting in the improvement in terms of efficiency and effectiveness when it comes to service delivery within the health care organization (Singh & Sittig, 2016). The organization expects to train all the staff in quality improvement in techniques and tools. Again, various technological innovations will also be enhanced in the organization to boost the quality of healthcare provision in terms of efficiency and effectiveness in service delivery (Singh & Sittig, 2016).

The Governance Structure

Position Roles and Responsibilities

The Quality Council The quality council shall oversee the development of the quality improvement plans as well as the training of various team members within the organization. The Quality Council shall comprise four members all of which are drawn from the top management of the organization.

The senior management leadership team The senior management leadership team also helps in spearheading various quality improvement initiatives ranging from the training of team members as well as encouraging various technological innovations within the organization.

The health care staff The healthcare staff within the organization shall comprise of 11 members that shall conduct various responsibilities including the following:

• Development of a comprehensive quality improvement plan aimed at meeting the standards of the local health care organization.
• Participate in the development and evaluation of quality improvement tests.
• The team shall also engage in various activities such as planning and participating in the quality improvement pieces of training to boost the overall performance of the organization.

Training

The quality improvement initiative shall comprise of a series engagements beginning with the presentation at the new employee orientation meeting, introductory online course for all the members of the healthcare staff (Groves, Kayyali, Knott & Kuiken, 2016). Again, there shall be an appointment of five quality improvement coordinators who shall have comprehensive and detailed quality improvement information thus being a resource to the other health care team. Upon the establishment of the coordinators, there shall be an ongoing staff training to boost their knowledge and understanding regarding health care quality within the organization.

The Quality Goals

The short term goal of the quality improvement will be to ensure that all the health care staff members shall have received the one-hour introduction to quality improvement within the first three months of the entire process (Gupte et al., 2016). Moreover, the long term goal of the training process is to ensure that the organization shall have moved to a highly competitive health care organization with improved customer satisfaction.

The measurements for a quality program and improvement shall be conducted in various distinct ways. For instance, the capacity measure indicates the ratio of the trained members who will be able to lead quality improvement initiatives within the organization. The training shall be deemed successful if more than 50% of team members would have the ability to initiate quality improvement innovations within the organization (Groves, Kayyali, Knott & Kuiken, 2016). Furthermore, the outcome measure shall also be adopted. For instance, if more than 90% of the team members shall have successfully completed the training process and are able to have positive impacts on the strategic objectives of improving the quality of the healthcare services then the process shall have passed the test of reliability and effectiveness.

Communication

The plan also proposes the establishment of regular communication channels for quality improvement within the healthcare sector. The regular updates should be done with regard to how the improvement plan is being implemented within the organization. The overall outcomes of the entire training process should be the improvement of quality health care standards within the organization. There shall also be department-specific pieces of training between the schedule to pay close attention to the more sensitive components of the healthcare organization such as epidemiology, pediatrics et cetera.

References

Graban, M. (2018). Lean hospitals: improving quality, patient safety, and employee engagement. Productivity Press.

Groves, P., Kayyali, B., Knott, D., & Kuiken, S. V. (2016). The'big data'revolution in healthcare: Accelerating value and innovation. Retrieved from. http://hdl.handle.net/11146/465

Gupte, G., Vimalananda, V., Simon, S. R., DeVito, K., Clark, J., & Orlander, J. D. (2016). Disruptive innovation: implementation of electronic consultations in a Veterans Affairs health care system. JMIR medical informatics, 4(1), e6. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.2196/medinform.4801

Singh, H., & Sittig, D. F. (2016). Measuring and improving patient safety through health information technology: The Health IT Safety Framework. BMJ Qual Saf, 25(4), 226-232. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2015-004486

Waring, J., Allen, D., Braithwaite, J., & Sandall, J. (2016). Healthcare quality and safety: a review of policy, practice, and research. Sociology of Health & Illness, 38(2), 198-215.Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.12391