Quality Control in the Care Setting - Essay Example

?Task 3 3.1As a care worker in a specific care setting A) Explain what you understand by quality control in your care setting. I understand that quality control in my care setting refers to the process of ensuring excellence. I understand that it refers to processes, activities, and requisites imposed by government and authorized agencies in order to ensure the quality delivery of health services. I believe that this quality control also refers to guidelines in the care setting which all health workers must follow in order to promote the efficient delivery of health services. B) Explain how you use quality assurance procedures to guide your daily activities. I use quality assurance procedures to guide my daily activities by implementing the highest standard of care in my work. I use the procedures to guide my decision-making and to direct my actions including patient care, medication administration, management of symptoms as well as implementation of doctor’s orders. These quality assurance procedures are part of the standard requisites of the practice and are meant to manage the administration of interventions and the management of patient care. C) Explain your organizational policies and procedures in achieving quality care standards. My organizational policies and procedures in achieving quality care standards include weekly peer reviews, monthly self-assessment policies, regular trainings and updates on policies and procedures, continuing medical education, and supervisory checks. My organization carries out weekly peer reviews where the work staff per unit would meet and evaluate each other’s work and activities, providing constructive criticism of each other’s work and measuring them against the standards and policies of the organization. Each worker is also asked to fill up a questionnaire of self-assessment of his/her work for each month, evaluating how well he or she measures up against the standards of the organization. Updates on the practice are also carried out, with each staff member scheduled for training or seminars on these updates. These updates are meant to assess the current levels of information and skills of the staff; and they form part of the continuing medical education for health professionals. D) How do you assess your work performance in regards to your quality systems toward your service users? In relation to the quality systems towards my service users, I would assess my work performance to be very satisfactory. In assessing my work performance, I believe that I have been able to effectively perform based on the quality systems of my practice. I have been able to follow the standards of my practice and implement these standards based on my specific duties as a health professional. E) Comments on the effectiveness of the quality systems in operation in your care setting The effectiveness of the quality systems in operation in my care setting are more or less within the parameters of the standards of the health profession. The best feedback of efficacy is the patients themselves and in my care setting, the delivery of patient services has been exemplary; moreover, there have been minimal complaints from our patients regarding quality of care. The patients have received care on time and at exemplary standards. Based on these elements, I believe that the quality systems in my care setting are founded on effective standards of the health practice, including patient-centred care, leadership, multiprofessional care, and continued improvement of care. F) Comments on the advantages and disadvantages of the quality systems in your organization. Advantages of the quality systems in my organization refer to the multiprofessional control set-up which the organization is implementing. This set-up has helped us achieve coordinated care, avoid repetitive interventions, prevent medical errors, and ensure the efficient use of time and resources. Disadvantages of the quality systems in my organization refer to the often imposing quality the system can present. Quality systems can sometimes reduce the smooth relations between the managerial and the rank-and-file staff. G) Give examples on how to improve the current quality systems and procedures with your own personal recommendation for the future in your care setting. In order to improve the current quality systems and procedures in my care setting, I would suggest regular monitoring of the staff, including the equipment and procedures implemented within the care setting. This would be carried out by the supervisor. Monitoring would also include equipment check and maintenance in order to ensure their quality performance with each use. 3.2 As a care worker A) Give examples of how you have achieved good quality control in the health and social care service. I have achieved good quality control in the health and social care service by attending regular trainings and seminars, especially trainings which are updates for my practice and those which seek to introduce new and more effective interventions and health practices. I have also achieved good quality by continuing to gain as much experience as I can about my practices, especially those which are not usually assigned to me. B) Give two examples of what influence your good practice in maintaining quality standards in the health and social care service. My good practice was influenced by my observations of more experienced health professionals where I noted how they carried out interventions expertly, efficiently, and calmly. I wanted to gain such level of practice as well. I was also influenced in my good practice by the fact that I already experienced being a patient in the hospital and I saw firsthand the importance of receiving quality care and the impact of low quality of care on my health condition. 3.3 From your own personal experience A) Suggest ways in which the health and social service could improve its quality. The health and social service can improve its quality by supporting research studies which seek to evaluate the impact of interventions on the recovery and well-being of patients. Improvements in quality can also be secured by allowing the health professionals to participate in trainings and seminars on a semi-annual or annual basis. B) Give examples of these benefits to the service users in particular. Benefits to the service users would likely be seen on the delivery of quality services, mostly on patients treated by designated health professionals who are fully adept in the practice and who do not commit medical errors. Quality services also imply that the service users would suffer less in the health setting: they would have a shorter recovery time and would not be burdened by lower costs of hospitalization. Task 4 4.1 As a care worker in a specific care setting A) Give examples of at least two service quality methods that you could use to evaluate health and social service with regard to external perspectives. I can use the principle of TQM, or Total Quality Management, in order to evaluate service quality of the health and social service. TQM would evaluate customer focus, leadership, process approaches, people involvement, system approach in management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision-making, and mutually beneficial supplier relationship (Patel, 2010). Another quality service method may include assessments and quality checks by government agencies involved in the monitoring of quality services. B) Give examples of at least two service quality methods to evaluate internal perspectives in your care setting. One quality method to evaluate the internal perspectives in my care setting would be for the supervisor to establish scoring systems of performance for each employee. Another method would be to implement peer-review scoring systems where employees would grade the performance of their peers based on specific hospital and quality parameters. C) Recommend how to improve your chosen service quality on internal and external perspectives in the future. In order to improve my chosen service quality in internal and external perspectives, I would make a strong and effective effort towards complying with the health quality standards of my institution. 4.2 From your day to day working practices A) Explain methods that can be used to evaluate health and social care service quality. In order to evaluate health and social care service quality, a daily monitoring process can be implemented by the supervisor. The vigilance of the managers can help promote care quality and can prevent any medical errors. B) Explain the impact of service users on the quality of services which they are receiving. Service users impact the quality of services they are receiving by providing feedback on the services, indicating when these services may not be meeting the quality of patient care they are legally entitled to. C) Explain how the service users might feel when empowered to contribute toward the process of quality of their care services. Service users might feel more cooperative and more compliant with their medical care when they are empowered to contribute toward the process of quality care. They would feel that their choices and their preferences are being considered and respected. D) Discuss any impact that might already involve service users to evaluate the process of quality of their care services and what is their reaction to that. Medication errors may impact service users, often reducing the quality of their care. This would likely prompt them to assess the quality of their care services. This may also cause them to file any legal complaints for negligence and non-maleficence against the health staff and the hospital. References Patel, G., 2010. Total quality management in healthcare. Manipal University. [Online] Available at: http://www.biomedicalprojects.com/files/TQM%20in%20Healthcare.pdf [Accessed 17 October 2012]. Read More