Quality Improvement Proposal of Medicine - Essay Example

The purpose of this document is to detail a quality improvement proposal to be implemented by the new Quality Improvement Department at Mission Hospital. It is centered on efforts to enhance consumer participation, use of evidence-based practice, implementation of both electronic medical records (EMR) and multidisciplinary approach to patient care and setting up of an infection control team. This will be followed by an analysis of the impacts that the recommendations herein will have on the hospital from a stakeholder’s perspective.

Consumer participation is defined as involvement of patients in formal and informal planning, delivery, implementation, delivery and appraisal of healthcare services (NMHCCF, 2010). There is sufficient and strong evidence indicating that consumer participation leads to better health care, with Crawford et al. (2002) undertaking a qualitative research that led them to conclude that it improved healthcare. Consumer participation plays a key role in making healthcare patient-centered, recognizing the contribution of patients themselves in improving healthcare as results from the mental health and chronically ill patients show (Davis, 2006; CFC, 2001).

Enhancing consumer participation will improve healthcare at Mission Hospital and is aimed at directly reducing the patient falls from five per week to the minimum possible. Fowler (2001) defines EBP as an integration of the best available evidence with experiential knowledge in the treatment of patients by healthcare practitioners. There is a general consensus that when correctly practiced, EBP is a sure way to improve the quality of care provided for patients as it overcomes the challenges and limitations of relying solely on the practitioner’s experience (Thyer, 2004).

For instance, EBP has had a lot of use and wide success in mental healthcare particularly in the treatment of schizophrenia with antidepressants.