Quality1a - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... W. Edwards Deming is an authority of the quality management movement. He came up with the cycle of improvement known as the ‘Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA). Edwards created this cycle to assist organizations to plan protocols through which they can develop quality services in health care. Through PDSA, healthcare organizations will first identify areas that require improvements, and then form plans to better develop these areas. In the ‘do’ phase, the plans are then tested; after which they analyze and interpret performance statistics in the ‘study’ phase. If the changes being enacted lead to improvement, they will then be implemented in the ‘act’ stage. There are other additional foundational frameworks that are addressed in the implementation of QI in different sectors. Each of them function as quantitative parameters for evaluating progress in health related matters such as the decrease in maternal deaths in childbirth, immunization rates, and the number of physicians that are available to serve given numbers of patients. According to Leischow & Milstein (2006) FOCUS PDCA, API, ISO 9000, Baldrige Criteria, Lean, and Six Sigma, are additional frameworks that are employed in the improvement of healthcare quality. Why do various health care stakeholders define the quality of care differently? Quality is defined in different ways by various healthcare stakeholders. This is due to the fact that health care quality deals with intricate aspects of care from several perspectives. Quality can be measured through the character of the results that are gotten after implementing new outcomes or may be determined through process, in how health care is delivered to patients. Essentially, the definition of quality relies on the person that is describing the quality. Healthcare providers, such as nurses, will have a different definition from healthcare researchers, for instance. On the other hand, government officials working in the healthcare sector will define quality in a different way from patients who receive the end product of treatment. What are the roles of various clinicians and patients in QI? Stakeholders in the healthcare sector who stand to benefit in different ways from the implementation of quality improvement include medical practitioners, patients, contractors, government official who work in the healthcare sector, and various healthcare organizations. These stakeholders have significant roles in contributing towards the implementation of quality improvement (Lee, 2007). For patients, quality improvement is important because it affects their chances of getting the best treatment. Medical care providers, on the other hand, care for quality improvement because their tasks and responsibilities will be simplified if processes of improvement are implemented in their facilities. For instance, the implementation of quality processes will allow them to be able to easily monitor the spread of diseases in the public. The payers like Medicaid and Medicare, on the other hand, make it possible for the medical provider to develop quality by means of incentives that support quality improvement. Healthcare organizations can contribute towards the development of performance measures and standards that update the processes involved in quality improvemen ...Download file to see next pagesRead More