Introduction
Quality improvement generally refers to a formal approach to analysis of the performance and the systematic efforts that are aimed to improve it. Thus, quality improvement involves both retrospective and prospective reviews. The aim of quality improvement is to advance or improve that is, measuring and figuring out the various ways to make anything better. Specifically it aims to shun attributing blame and to generate systems that prevent various errors from happening. In health, quality improvement is the unceasing and combined efforts of every stakeholder in the health sector to make or bring changes that lead to patient or health outcomes that are better, system performance or care that is enhanced and better professional development.
Albeit all the improvement involves modification or change, not all modifications are improvement. For instance, if the healthcare is to benefit fully from science of the disease biology, what is needed is to be sure that the modifications made systematically incorporate the generalisable scientific knowledge. For healthcare to guide its change design, what is needed is care settings characterization (Donaldson, 2000, p. 84) These settings are; mesosystems, Microsystems, and macrosystems. In addition, to know that improvement is produced by change made, powerful and accurate measurements of the things that are taking place are needed.
In the psychiatric unit specifically in mental healthcare, quality refers to a measure of if the services raise likelihood of the mental health outcomes that are desired and whether these services are consistent with the current evidence based practice. Therefore, for those suffering from mental disorders together with their families, quality emphasizes that the services offered should produce outcomes that are positive in nature. For the service planners, policy makers, and medical practitioners, quality emphasizes best use of technology and current knowledge. For that reason, in this unit, the quality improvement initiative is that the mental health services offered should accomplish five basic things. This accomplishment will be important in ensuring that the quality of the services offered in the unit are not only of standard quality but also are efficient and affordable. The initiative calls for reduction of intergroup problems among the stakeholders for the achievement of its five objectives. These things or initiative goals are as discussed below.
Preserving people suffering from mental disorders dignity is the first thing. It is important to realize that these are human beings who need to be shown love hence it is crucial to uphold their dignity. It is thus the duty of everyone in psychiatric unit to preserve their dignity. The other imperative thing involves providing relevant and accepted non clinical and clinical care whose objective is to reduce the disorder impact and improve quality of life of the people suffering from mental disorders. Using interventions that aide people with these disorders to cope with their mental disabilities is the other key objective in this unit (Tobin, 2000, p. 38). It is therefore the role of every participant in the unit to help these people to cope with their state of mind.
The other thing is to ensure that the scarce mental health resources are used more effectively and efficiently. This is fundamental because it will ensure that there is no wastage of these scarce resources in the unit. Finally, the initiative aims to make sure that the care quality is improved in all the areas including the mental health prevention, promotion, rehabilitation and treatment in primary healthcare, community, inpatient, and outpatient residential facilities. These five things will improve the quality of health care services that the unit is mandated to provide. To achieve these five objectives of the initiative, data is collected from the various health facilities using the methods of data collection such as interviews, questionnaires, and observations and the collected data analyzed through the use of graphical techniques and bivariate associations.
This initiative is of great importance in the health care practice of the entire unit. The quality will ensure that people with mental disorders will receive the care that they require hence their symptoms and the quality of life will improve altogether. From a family member perspective, the initiative will help to provide support and preserve the integrity of the family. The initiative will in addition ensure that efficiency and effectiveness is achieved in the entire unit.
The quality improvement initiative furthermore is the key to the improvement of the entire population mental health as it will ensure the value for the expended monies and their accountability. The importance of the initiative is in addition reflected in its reformation of the past neglect as observed in the historical abuses of the human rights in many psychiatric institutions hence will lead to development of efficient and effective care in times to come (Freeman, 2000, p. 58). Therefore, building the unit mental health care quality will provide a foundation that is strong for the future service development.
There are various evidenced based articles and a number of research articles that are related to this initiative in quality improvement. “Lean thinking in healthcare” by Hakan Aronsson, Johan Thor, Mats Brommels, Carl Savage, and Pamela Mozzaco is one of the research article that tries to understand how this type of thinking has actually been put into practice in the health care sector and its results and in fact it has worked. Lean thinking has in fact been useful in the development of this initiative in the unity as it provides mechanisms to understand the processes in mental health care and design for efficiency and effectiveness measures in mental healthcare.
“Intergroup relationships and quality improvement in healthcare,” by Dr Jean M Bartunek is the other research article that is closely related to this initiative. The article focuses on the intergroup problems among the administrators, nurses, and physicians in healthcare settings that retard the ability of health settings to enhance their quality improvement (McLaughlin, 2006, p. 79). Therefore, it argues that reduction of these problems is crucial for quality improvement to be possible.
One of the evidence based articles that is related to this quality improvement initiative is the article called “A new model for quality improvement in acute impatient psychiatry” The article focuses on the psychiatric care that is effective as it assesses the effectiveness of various models of inpatient care. Therefore, the assessment of these models provides the direction that this unit must follow to achieve its objectives. The other crucial article is the “Programs and tools to improve the quality of mental health services” by the Agency for Health care Research and Quality (AHRQ). The article has a wide portfolio of the mental health research. The article is important at it makes it possible for the unit to develop methods, programs, and tools for the improvement and evolution of the mental health care services quality. The analysis of this initiative is important as it provides a better understanding of the topic of quality improvement in the mental health care.
The unit thus needs to improve the use and access of psychotropic medicines to supplement the objectives of the initiative. In addition, it is important for the unit to ensure that the various resources present are effectively and efficiently utilized as they are scarce in nature. It is also important for everyone in the unit to participate fully in the implementation of this initiative to ensure that its goals are achieved in the long run.
References
Donaldson, M. S., Mohr, J. J., Institute of Medicine (U.S.)., & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2000). Exploring innovation and quality improvement in health care micro-systems: A cross-case analysis: a technical report for the Institute of Medicine Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America. Washington, D.C: Institute of Medicine.
Tobin M, Yeo F, Chen L. (2000) The beginning of a structural reform: reorganizing the front line of a mental health system. Australian Health Review 23:64-76
Freeman M. (2000) Using all opportunities for improving mental health-examples from South Africa. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 78:508-10
McLaughlin, C. P., & Kaluzny, A. D. (2006). Continuous quality improvement in health care. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett.
