Quality Management in Healthcare Industry - Research Paper Example

 Quality Management Assessment Summary Introduction The patients care has become complex as their expectations rise each day, yet the resources keep getting scarce. This makes it hard for hospitals to use traditional approaches in the definition, organizing and employing qualified healthcare providers since such traditional quality assurance functions are not in any way adequate (Aiken, Clarke, & Sloane, 2002). This scenario has seen it necessary for the management of these health facilities to employ quality management concepts in order to mitigate on the numerous health issues on the ground as will be discussed. About Barnet General Hospital This hospital was rebuilt in 1999 and 2002 through the PFI Project. The hospital is in Barnet found on North of London and is run by the Barnet and Chase Farm NHS Hospitals Trust and is part of the English Health Service. This hospital has approximately 445 beds making it one of the largest hospitals in the region that could accommodate more patients. This hospital is known to provide and operate on a wide range of acute medical services which include surgery, internal medicine, gynecology, anesthetics, stroke, hematology, and genital-urinary medicine, among other severe cases. It contains a 24 hour accident and emergency section which is normally busy throughout the day. The various units of this hospital were forced to go under renovation leading to even the relocation of some of its units to Edgware Community Hospital such as the psychiatric unit. The hospital has been credited for carrying out some of the major improvements in its quality management system, going as far as setting up a special department which deals with this issue (Barnet General Hospital, nd). Purpose of quality management in health care organizations in general and in Barnet General Hospital Quality management for the delivery of health care gives the required framework which helps in the organizing, communicating, monitoring, and on a continuous basis, improve on the factors that do affect the delivery of healthcare to patients by the given institutions. The driving force behind the employment of quality by a healthcare organization is the need to cut down on costs (Levesque, et al., 2001). Barnet General Hospital employs quality management system in its organization and provision of healthcare services for the reasons mentioned below: This hospital has the intention of increasing its levels of efficiency through reduction of health related wastes such as poor use of drugs, wrong storage, and time wastage when handling patients, paperwork, and procurement issues when it comes to acquiring medicines. This approach has seen it achieve a high level of productivity and profits since the costs of operation have been cut. It has come to value both the clinical outcome and delivery of better services to customers which improves its quality. This hospital also employs quality management, especially total quality management, to ensure that it creates system synergy so as to bring together the internal needs and external ones to avoid conflicting goals’ pursuit thereby having a comprehensive approach to healthcare provision. This also has to do with amassing efforts so as to increase internal energy and on the other hand reduce disagreements. The hospital employs both quality assurance model and this is directed toward the continuous quality improvement model which has seen it rise to where it is now. Key concepts of quality management These key concepts include: The customer focused organization whereby the hospital considers the current and future needs of customers, meet their requirements and work towards exceeding their expectations in the provision of healthcare. The concept of leadership, where unity of direction and purpose is established: that people become involved in the achievement of the goals of the healthcare organization. The issue of process approach to service delivery such that resources and activities relating to them are well managed in the process. People involvement is another key concept whereby the contributions of all people become essential where the organization utilizes their combined energy and abilities for the benefit of all. Continual improvement is made part and parcel of the organization’s objective. System approach to management whereby the management identifies, understands, and manages some sort of interrelated process forming a system so as to achieve the objective of improving and promoting efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery in the healthcare organization (Institute of Medicine, 2001). Many names that try to identify quality management exist due to the fact that different people and different organizations view quality management in varied perspectives. This might be because of the complexity of quality management concept when it comes to its application to real life. Barnet General Hospital refers to its quality management system as total quality management since it believes that its all-inclusive approach to quality management is more comprehensively defined by the total quality management concept. Healthcare professionals, subordinates, management, resources, leadership, technology, suppliers and other factors that affect its service delivery and productivity are all addressed by this approach. Barnet General Hospital’s typical long-term goals and short-term goals Barnet General Hospital has three major long-term goals which are: To be the best healthcare provider in the United Kingdom in the next 10 years: This will be done through expansion, better provision of services, supplier development, satisfied health professionals and strategic alignments; To provide low cost medical services to patients so as to ease the burden on both the patients and the organization hence continued mutual benefits; To compete effectively in the market and outstand in service provisions so as to achieve and maintain competitive advantage and gain over 50% market share in the next 15 years. The short term goals of this hospital are: To cut on current cost levels by 20% in the next 6 months; To increase the patient holding capacity from the current 445 beds to 600 beds within 1 year; and To increase the number of health professions to 1 to 2 patients in the next 1 year. Internal and External Factors That Influence Quality Outcomes Poor treatment to patients- this would reduce the number of patients who visit the hospital Exclusion of staff from decision making process- this leads to non-alignment of goals and reduces the morale of workers. Poor working conditions- these leads to complaints from the staff and patients Laws that restrict certain medical practices- this renders the healthcare providers ineffective in giving their services Competition- this ensures that the hospital is on toes to providing better services to gain competitive edge in the market. Fundamental Quality-Management Policies Customers should be attendant to in good time and given the best treatment. This will avoid the risk of unnecessary deaths and legal suits which negatively affect hospitals; Good leadership at all times should be maintained. This would ensure that the total quality management concept is well organized and implemented thus mitigating the risk of failure; Good customer and public relations. This would ensure that the customers’ grievances are addressed and the public image of the hospital is always improved hence averting the risk of loss of customers and poor public image; Teamwork approach to healthcare provision: This would ensure that the hospital works as a system and averts the risk of working as fragmented pieces; and Firefighting practices being upheld and taken seriously to avert the risk of possible loss of property and life in case such emergencies do occur. Relationship between Risk Management and Quality Management The risk management concept is related to quality management in that if risks are not dealt with appropriately, then the organization has chances of incurring unnecessary costs which will impact negatively towards its achievement of high quality levels since it will not be in a position to effectively and efficiently manage its operations. Besides, some losses that come with high level risks are immense to a point whereby if incurred, they lead to total collapse of such organizations. It is therefore the duty of Barnet General Hospital to ensuring that risks which face the healthcare organization are handled well and in cases where such things occur, the exposure levels are reduced and huge losses are averted (Bryant & Darwin, 2003). The best example is the risk of exposure to fire explosions. If such things occur, patients would lose lives, property will be destroyed and law suits will be the order of the day. This will bring down all the total quality management practices being implemented by the organization hence rendering it useless. Proper handling of these risks is hence very necessary if long-term gains are to be realized in any way. Quality management thus, looks at ways of improving conditions of the firm so as to avert such risks which could be avoided when handled in the proper manner. References Aiken, L.H., Clarke, S.P., & Sloane, D.M. (2002), Hospital staffing, organization, and quality of care: Cross-national findings. Nursing Outlook, Barnet General Hospital (nd), Welcome to Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS Trust, retrieved on 16th August 2011 Bryant, J.W., & Darwin, J. (2003), Exploring inter-organizational relationships in the health service: An immersive drama approach. European Journal of Operational Research Institute of Medicine (2001), Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. Washington DC: National Academy of Sciences. Levesque, D., Prochaska, J., Prochaska, J., Dewart, S., Hamby, L., & Weeks, W. (2001). Organizational stages and processes of change for continuous quality improvement in health care. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research Read More