The Impact of Governance Processes on the Quality of Care and the Management of Risks - Essay Example

Assess critically the impact of governance processes on the quality of care and the management of risks. XXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXInstitution: XXXXXXXXXXXX Course: XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Date: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Governance ensures the quality of care to patients is adhered. In addition, caregivers also enhanced to provide the needed service. Caregivers required providing the best quality to patients and avoiding negligence. Strategies need to be established to ensure governance adhered. Through proper governance in healthcare, patients assured of quality care and proper treatment for their diverse problems. The paper puts into consideration the procedure of establishing clinical governance in primary care and its effect on quality improvement. The National Health Service (NHS) is responsible for the establishment of governance in healthcare. Prior to its establishment, a number of complains hade been received from patients one being a breach of proper care to patients. The healthcare practitioners were negligent and did not take accountability of their actions (Campbell & Sweeney, 2002, 12). The necessity to establish governance emerged so that quality care can be provided to patients. Therefore, governance established to ensure a culture that respects quality care is established, and the healthcare environment functions to ensure Excellency achieved. NPSA recognized “one patient needlessly being harmed by a safety incident is one patient too many” (2010). Through this statement, clinical governance in healthcare established to ensure proper care provided to patients. It is crucial for clinical governance to be established so that reasonable improvements in healthcare, that includes dedication of the healthcare staff and surfacing clinical leadership. For governance to be established and improvement to be made a number of factors ought to be considered; the environment into which governance will be established should be conducive and the people involved must accept the change implemented. The leaders to establish the governance concept need to be well informed of the factors that affect patient when it comes to care to give. The people who are involved in care giving should be well informed of the new concept of governance so that proper care can be provided to patients (Campbell & Sweeney, 2002, 13). Clinical governance wishes to cultivate an environment in which excellence achieved. The standards set to achieve clinical governance ought to be realistic; this will assist caregivers in providing the required care to patients. Quality of care is necessary so that patients can be assured they will be well health wise. Therefore, poor care should be banished and the staffs that cannot handle the requirements of the governance need to be removed from healthcare. Through clinical governance, patients will benefit from the advancement in quality of care and practitioners will work with the motive of providing quality care. The practitioners will thus benefit positive feedback and trust from patients (Peak et al. 2005, 2). Governance in healthcare is driven by three pillars; accountability, assurance and innovation. Accountability involves the assessment of the person responsible for a particular action. When it comes to healthcare givers accountability involves a number of people. For instance, the care providers are accountable for proper care to patients and negligence and malicious behavior should highly be avoided. In addition, the healthcare givers are also accountable to their colleges and registration board (Tingle, 2003, 19). The boards and executives have the responsibility of ensuring proper care is delivers to patients by establishing rules and guidance to be adhered by the staff. Nonetheless, the boards and the executives ought to ensure the caregivers not put under too much pressure that may force them to quit their service. Assurance is another pillar in ensuring governance adhered. Patients need assurance of their health, and through quality improvement, assurance can be achieved. Therefore, healthcare organizations and the staff need to ensure assurance in the provision of healthcare is made on a continuous basis. Approaches need to be established with which assurance of healthcare will be established. Assurance also ensures healthcare ethics and norms are adhered. Patients will; therefore, have trust to caregivers since assurance of improvement in healthcare is established. Innovation is also another pillar to be considered when governance is established, through innovation new ways of improving care giving will be established (Braithwaite & Travaglia, 2008, 10). Changes need to be made often to ensure proper care is adhered. Therefore, to ensure quality care is provided overtime accountability and innovation need to work together. Accountability in healthcare involves the liability for the provision of a safe and effective care. Assurance; on the other hand, involves guaranteeing the trust board, public and the NHS of standard of care by respecting clinical governance norms (Balding, 2008, 383). Lastly, innovation will involve the establishment of new methods in approaching work and ensuring quality of care keeps on improving. Governance in healthcare recommends that performance of the caregivers should be managed on a continuous basis. The performance of the care gives staff should be in line with the mission of the healthcare institution. Therefore, healthcare organization goals should be in line with the performance of the medical practitioners. The management of performance should be done in a proper manner so that the medical practitioners do not feel intimidated by the rules of management. The boards and the executive will, therefore have the role of ensuring proper systems are established. They provide the right leadership guidance as an example to the entire healthcare institution. Their leadership should be participatory in ensuring governance is practiced and followed (Kuhlmann, 2008, 35). Healthcare institutions are normally faced with a number of risks. The risks range from financial, to clinical to plant and equipment. The boards and the executive need to establish means by which risk management is implemented. The medical staff needs work in a safe environment and the patients need protection while at the healthcare premises. In times, of any mistake the healthcare institution is accountable for the staff’s mistakes. It is thus crucial to ensure strategies into which risks are managed should be adhered (Mcsherry & Pearce, 2011, 7). Clinical governance is; therefore, crucial in healthcare institutions. Proper governance gives patients assurance of proper care of their health. Standards should; therefore, be applied in all sectors of the healthcare institutions. Effective quality care should be provided, to patients and the healthcare practitioners can achieve this through proper governance (Swage, 2010, 25). Governance in healthcare has improved the quality of care of patients. In the past, the medical practitioners thought governance was established to control their lives. Nonetheless, with time this has proved to be different because patients have developed a trust in the kind of care provided by the medical staff. Governance was established to ensure harm imposed on patients is avoided, and quality care is provided (Swage, 2010, 26). Negligent and malicious acts are avoided by care givers since each one has to be responsible for their action. Clinical governance has assisted in ensuring quality of care adhered, and that carelessness has been curbed. The medical practitioners and the whole healthcare institution ought to respect the standards imposed by the NHS so that governance can be practiced. Overall, clinical governance was established to ensure quality care is adhered and respected. In addition, patients need assurance of their health and life, from its establishment governance has brought with it many improvements in the world of healthcare. The impact of governance is seen through improvements in the quality of care and the standards provided by the caregivers. Patients and medical practitioners both benefit from the clinical governance establishment. Referencing Balding, C. 2008. From quality assurance to clinical governance. Australian health review. 32 (3), 383. Braithwaite, J & Travaglia, J. 2008. An overview of clinical governance policies, practices and initiatives. Australian health review, 32 (1), 10. Campbell, S & Sweeney, G. 2002. The role of clinical governance as a strategy for quality improvement in primary care. British journal of general practice. 52, 12-18. Kuhlmann, E. 2008. Rethinking professional governance: international directions in healthcare. Bristol, Policy. Mcsherry, R., & Pearce, P. 2011. Clinical Governance a Guide to Implementation for Healthcare Professionals. Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons. Peak, M., Burke, R., Ryan, S., Wratten, K., Turnock, R & Vellenoweth, C. 2005. Viewpoint: clinical governance-the turn of continuous improvement? Clinical governance. 10, 2. Swage, T. 2010. Clinical governance in health care practice. Oxford, Butterworth-Heinemann. Tingle, J. 2003. Clinical governance: trusts failing to meet the challenge. British journal of nursing. 12, 19. Read More