Quality Management, Risk Management in Health Care Organizations, Quest Diagnostics - Research Paper Example

? Quest Diagnostics Table of Contents I. of Chosen Organization 3 II. Purpose of Quality Management, Risk Management in Health Care Organizations, Quest Diagnostics 4 III. Quality. Risk Management Key Concepts in Quest Diagnostics 5 IV. Steps Quest Diagnostics May Take For Risk Identification and Management 6 V. Identification of Three Actual or Typical Risks in Quest Diagnostics. Description of the Way Risks Might Adversely Impact Quality 6 VI. Identification of at Least Three External and Internal Factors that Influence Quality Outcomes at Quest Diagnostics. How the Factors Might Negatively Affect Quality of Outcomes at the Company 7 VII. At Least Three Long Term and Three Short Term Goals for Quest Diagnostics 8 VIII. Identification of At Least Three Fundamental Risks Management and Quality Management Policies That Should Be Implemented at Quest Diagnostics, How They Will Influence Health Outcomes 8 IX. Relationship Between Risk Management and Quality Management at Quest Diagnostics, How the Two Disciplines Complement Each Other 8 References 10 I. Description of Chosen Organization Quest Diagnostics is in the diagnostic testing, services and information provision business within the healthcare industry. It operates in the United States and is a publicly traded firm with the ticker DGX at the New York Stock Exchange. It provides services through a country-wide network of diagnostics laboratories and service centers for patients that are owned by the firm. Making use of the medical staff as well as the scientific staff, the company is also in the business of the provision of consultation for interpreting the laboratory diagnostics. Services provided to the life insurance sector include risk assessment services and clinical testing services. Testing services for use in clinical trials as well as for drug dependence/abuse cases are also in the arsenal of provided services. Its most recent acquisitions include SED Medical Laboratories, and the laboratory concern of the UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester (Google Finance, 2013). The gist of the company’s business is reflected in the company’s vision of providing better health care empowerment through insights from diagnostics. Diagnostic data/information/insights are the core of the company’s business, provided to healthcare practitioners and related concerns so that they are able, with their patients, to make better decisions that impact their health lives. The insight into this is derived from what the company sees as the crucial role that testing and diagnostics play The company notes that through diagnostics testing and related services, the firm is able to offer risk management as well as wellness services, doing so for the life insurance industry as a core offering alongside healthcare IT, testing for clinical trials, products for diagnostics, and core services in diagnostic testing (Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b). II. Purpose of Quality Management, Risk Management in Health Care Organizations, Quest Diagnostics Quality management and risk management in healthcare concerns serve the purpose of ensuring that the products and services that are on offer in these concerns/organizations do not endanger human lives and work as intended to improve healthcare outcomes for patients. At the same time, in the way Quest Diagnostics defines and provides risk management services on offer to life insurance companies, risk management has to do with reducing the risk exposure of life insurance companies in taking on and insuring people with varying levels of physical fitness and with varying medical conditions and susceptibilities. Taking a step back, for the health care industry as a whole, quality management and risk management has to do with excellence in the provision of such healthcare services. In diagnostics, quality has to do with accuracy and reliability of the diagnostics products and services, and in the case of Quest Diagnostics, such quality aspects translates to the long-term viability of the business concern itself. There is really no room for error as far as diagnostics for critical diseases and conditions, because diagnostics lie at the heart of what the medical profession is able to accomplish, and that is saving lives and improving health outcomes. Risk management has to do with reducing the risks of misdiagnosis and diagnostics errors, of procedural errors, and the overall risks of being a business concern to which other healthcare organizations turn to for quality and very accurate diagnostics results. Taking a step back, the purposes of quality management and risk management have to do with making sure that Quest Diagnostics retains its reputation and its standing as a choice provider of diagnostics testing and related services (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009). III. Quality. Risk Management Key Concepts in Quest Diagnostics As partly discussed above, key concepts in risk management and quality management at Quest Diagnostics involves managing risks for itself, in its own operations and products and services, as well as managing the risks for other organizations, such as life insurance firms that rely on the prognoses and diagnostics services and related services provided by Quest Diagnostics to assess the health prospects of its own customers. For the life insurance companies, for instance, the customers are the potential and current life plan holders, whereas for Quest Diagnostics the concern with regard to the management of risks and the management of quality is in making sure that its own diagnostics are accurate and reliable. The management of quality at Quest Diagnostics is also about defining the parameters of quality in terms of reliability and accuracy, to considering all of the different aspects of the company’s business, from finance, to the management of the facilities, to the provision of the staff to do the diagnostics and to manage the organization, to business and diagnostics-related processes management. The literature notes too, that risk management and quality management are in practice complementary practices/disciplines, in that one, both risk management and quality management bolster organizational outcomes. Owing to the critical nature of the services and products that the company offers on behalf of other practitioners in the field, and in related businesses such as life insurance, quality and risk management take on critic al significance as well (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009). IV. Steps Quest Diagnostics May Take For Risk Identification and Management Quest Diagnostics may choose to undertake a mapping and analysis of all of its business, services and products processes with a view towards recognizing the flaws and inconsistencies in those processes, and the aspects of the processes that taken together may result in the generation of risks of failure or risks of externalities exploiting the vulnerabilities and the holes in the processes to compromise the integrity, efficacy, and the reliability of the products and services being offered by the firm. The identification of the risks can also take the form of polling employees for what employees perceiver as the risks that they face related to the conduct of their work, and factoring those into a plan to plug the holes and the address the inconsistencies and problems that heighten the risks associated with the delivery of products and services to Quest Diagnostic’s clients/ The company many also choose to engage suppliers and customers in reviewing and stress-testing common processes shared with those third parties to expose the risks and to craft appropriate interventions in order to manage the identified risks (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009) V. Identification of Three Actual or Typical Risks in Quest Diagnostics. Description of the Way Risks Might Adversely Impact Quality In the conduct of diagnostics tests, there are risks associated with mishandling customer samples for testing, which may lead to wrong diagnoses being made, or inadequate results being generated out of the samples. Products that are on offer in the firm may suffer from defects not detected at the time of manufacturing, which can compromise the integrity of the testing results. Integrity here is taken as an aspect of quality. Suppliers of critical components necessary to undertake diagnostics and testing may not be able to rigorously address all risks associated with their own business and technical processes, which then are fed into problems in quality for Quest Diagnostics for the input supplies in question (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009). VI. Identification of at Least Three External and Internal Factors that Influence Quality Outcomes at Quest Diagnostics. How the Factors Might Negatively Affect Quality of Outcomes at the Company Supplier factors that may produce mistakes and errors in diagnostics is an external factor that impact quality outcomes at Quest Diagnostics, anything from components to machines failing to work as intended. Other external factors that may impact quality of outcomes include the use of outdated methods and techniques prescribed by the literature, and patient-induced mistakes that compromise quality, such as wrongly prepared samples for testing. Internal factors that affect the quality of outcomes at the firm include errors in internal processes, employee lapses, and the use of faulty products and machines, alongside holes in various products and services processes. These factors impact the integrity and reliability of the testing outcomes, and ultimately the quality of the services on offer at the firm (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009). VII. At Least Three Long Term and Three Short Term Goals for Quest Diagnostics Long and short term goals tied to risk and quality management can be gleaned from the overall vision of the firm to improve health outcomes through excellence in diagnostics and insights from diagnostics and testing. From its recent business moves, three short-term goals tied to these are expanding its capabilities through acquisitions, expanding scale likewise through acquisitions, and doubling down on improving internal processes to improve quality and to reduce risks inherent in the processes. Long-term goals include leveraging short-term successes to build lasting shareholder value, excelling in diagnostics, and broadening its products and services offerings while maintaining or exceeding current quality levels (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009). VIII. Identification of At Least Three Fundamental Risks Management and Quality Management Policies That Should Be Implemented at Quest Diagnostics, How They Will Influence Health Outcomes Three quality and risk management policies include upgrading quality control at the products manufacturing facilities, embarking on a continuous quality improvement program within the firm with internal processes as the focus, and screening third party suppliers and partners for quality and for risk management prior to engaging those third parties (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009) IX. Relationship Between Risk Management and Quality Management at Quest Diagnostics, How the Two Disciplines Complement Each Other From one broad perspective, risk management is an aspect of quality management, and that both taken together enhance the delivery of products and services at Quest Diagnostics, while improving business outcomes in the process. Proper quality management involves also the management of the risks present in the various internal processes and the processes of its key partners and suppliers. The two cannot be taken apart from one another, but are both necessary in this respect (Google Finance, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013; Quest Diagnostics Incorporated, 2013b; Perkins, 2011; MMR, 2010; ECRI Institute, 2009). References ECRI Institute (2009). Risk Management, Quality Improvement, and Patient Safety. Healthcare Risk Control. Retrieved from https://www.ecri.org/Documents/Secure/Risk_Quality_Patient_Safety.pdf Google Finance (2013). Quest Diagnostics Inc. Google. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:DGX MMR (2010). Quality in Healthcare Risk Management. Health Technica. Retrieved from http://www.healthtechnica.com/blogsphere/2010/11/08/quality-in-healthcare-risk-management/ Perkins, Ed (2011). Linking Quality Management and Risk Management. Quality Digest. Retrieved from http://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/quality-insider-column/linking-quality-management-and-risk-management.html Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (2013). Our Vision. Quest Diagnostics. Retrieved from http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/about/vision.html Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (2013b). Our Products & Services. Quest Diagnostics. Retrieved from http://www.questdiagnostics.com/home/about/products-services.html Read More