Answer the questions in Bold - Essay Example

Hospitals: Quality and Patient Safety Here Here Here Here Hospitals: Quality and Patient Safety Hospitals are one of the most important parts of the United States health care provision system. In many areas, local hospitals are the main source of primary, secondary and other specialized types of health care (although hospital-specific services are commonly part of the second category). Given the clearly key position that hospitals have in the health care system, it is not difficult to grasp the importance of quality care and patient safety in this setting.

Quality and safety not only optimize the experience of the patient (Isaac et al., 2010), but also contribute to maximizing the efficiency of health care delivery, thus reducing costs and stress on the system. Some of the major barriers to maintaining quality care and patient safety in hospitals include the difficulty of coordinating multiple services for a single patient, sociocultural challenges related to accessing services, and limited insurance coverage. Any of these factors can reduce the likelihood of providing the right care at the right time for the right person, and therefore damage the quality and safety of patient experiences.

A variety of strategies can be developed to address these, and other, barriers (De Vos, 2009). The integration of services must be streamlined, and specialized information technology systems could provide the flexibility that professionals need to remain connected as a clinical team, rather than individual providers. Sociocultural issues need to be addressed at a higher level of consideration, such as during the development of health care policies and public awareness strategies. Economic barriers like insurance availability are highly contingent on influences above the health care system, and may require government reform procedures to be eliminated.

In the United States, hospital accreditation is conducted by independent associations like The Joint Commission. The process is based largely on patient safety, with significant attention given to quality care delivery. Other factors including financial and insurance considerations should be addressed as well. However, the relationship between accreditation and patient experience has been challenged (Heuer, 2011). ReferencesDe Vos, M., Graafmans, W., Kooistra, M., Meijboom, B., Van Der Voort, P.

, & Westert, G. (2009). Using quality indicators to improve hospital care: a review of the literature. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 21(2), 119-129.Heuer, A. J. (2011). Hospital accreditation and patient satisfaction: testing the relationship. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 26(1), 46-51.Isaac, T., Zaslavsky, A. M., Cleary, P. D., & Landon, B. E. (2010). The relationship between patients perception of care and measures of hospital quality and safety. Health Services Research, 45(4), 1024-1040.