The Quality in Healthcare - Essay Example

The Quality in HealthcareIntroductionThe case study talks about a local hospital with an Emergency department. The problem in this hospital lies in the administration, as it is not properly maintained. So in order to solve this issue, a restructuring needs to be done. A review committee was set up to discuss the problems and come up with suitable recommendations. The committee identifies several problems. The first issue was dissatisfaction among the patients in the emergency department, as they were not being diagnosed properly according to the doctor’s prescription.

Another issue, which cropped up was that of increase in patient waiting time.The next step that was taken in order to solve the issue was close monitoring of the emergency department. This was done with the intension of improving the quality of care given to the patients. Another thing was to be taken care of was the waiting time of the patients and satisfaction of the patients in relation to the service delivered to them. A benchmark was setup where the timeliness of the treatments and the proportion of return of the patients was to be reported within 72 hours.

Once the evaluation was complete, they came up with certain changes which are as follows:Additional staffs were hired for the emergency department so that the patients coming in could be treated properly and taken care of. Triages were moved out to the waiting area in order to identify and move the serious patients faster. This would in return decrease the waiting time for the emergency patients. The registration process was streamlined with help of modern technology such as the installation of wireless computers.

This process helped in giving the information of waiting time to the unregistered patients. The staffs were given proper training to take the accurate and timely decisions.The AnalysisThe quality of service plays a major role in any health care organization. The patients health and survival is the ultimate goal for all of them (Dixon-Woods, McNicol & Martin, 2012). The measures that were taken to improve the service were logical because the prime motive was to reduce the patient waiting time and to improve the quality of care.

In this respect hiring extra staffs and use of advanced technology helped in the decrease of patient waiting time. In addition, the placement of triages in the waiting area ensured that the serious patients were identified and moved in for treatment faster.Proposed Measures and ToolsQuality tools help individuals comprehend and enhance forms. There are numerous distinctive tools, and the aptitude of quality experts lies in their capability to take an application from one field or industry and apply it, or adjust it, to particular circumstances in different fields.

The following tools will help in improving the quality in the above hospital (La Follette, n.d.).1. Flowchart/methodology map—Graphical tools for procedure understanding. A flowchart makes a guide of the steps in a procedure, and reports the inputs and yields for each one stage. This will help in the training of the staffs to understand the various procedures application in healthcare. 2. Check sheet—A straightforward information recording gadget, hand-crafted by the client to consider simple information gathering and elucidation.

Once the patients are admitted, a check list should be provided to the attending staffs to ensure that all the necessary measures are taken to provide them with the best possible treatment and care.3. Cause-impact diagram—an instrument for breaking down a methodology by outlining the primary driver and sub-reasons prompting an impact (or manifestation). The diagram is also called an "Ishikawa diagram" after its designer, Kaoru Ishikawa, and the "fishbone diagram," in light of the fact that the complete diagram looks like a fish skeleton.

ReferencesDixon-Woods, M., McNicol, S., & Martin, G. (2012). Ten challenges in improving quality in healthcare: lessons from the Health Foundation's programme evaluations and relevant literature. BMJ Quality \& Safety, --2011.La Follette, W. (n.d.). Quality in Healthcare - Quality Tools. Asq.org. Retrieved 25 July 2014, from http://asq.org/healthcare-use/why-quality/quality-tools.html