Continuous Quality Improvement and Quality Assurance In Health Care
The heath care organizations must be able to quickly improve on their performance measurement systems by following simple rules and strategies. Because of the ever changing nature of the health care system including the pressure to reduce the cost while improving the quality of care, it has forced many health care professionals to re-examine how they evaluate the performance of their people (Castaneda-Mendez). These rules and policies should be based on the current environment and issues concerning the health care system. To be able to understand how performance should be measured, it is important to know first the difference between quality assurance and quality improvement.
Quality assurance is often involved in determining the person at fault after something went wrong in the system. It therefore measures the compliance of the employee based on certain standards and policies. It focuses on which individuals follow the rules and the attitude required is defensive. On the other hand, quality improvement involves probable and reflective reviews to continuously meet the standards given inside the organization. Just like the name itself, it is aimed at improvement by measuring where the employees are now and figuring out ways on how they can work better. This method specifically endeavors to avoid accrediting blame on someone in the system when things go wrong and it also aims to prevent future errors from happening.
In order to effectively measure performance and to ensure the quality of the services provided by the health workers, Deming’s 14 point management method can be employed. The first on his 14 point plan, he recommended that in order to provide quality service, the organization must have a clear and consistent purpose for the improvement of the service. This should begin by planning on the methods for which the organization must intend to stay relevant in the growing environment of the health care system. This plan should include the consideration for supporting the health care workers and encouraging them through education and training (Walton 56).
The organization must also realize the importance of adopting a new philosophy if they want improvement and change in their system. According to Deming, all the decisions of the management should be based on their long tern goals and should be made with improving the quality of their service in mind. When the system provides reliable services, it will eventually reduce the costs (Walton 59). The management should also not look into performance measurement as mere numbers and look into quality assurance and improvement reports to assess how the health care workers are following the organization’s policy and rules. An effective measurement system must be established by using the principles of quality assurance and improvement.
Deming also emphasized the importance of the participation of every department of the system in order to attain constant improvement. Improvement needs to be built in every individual inside the organization from the management to its employees (Walton 66). With that, institute training is very important. It is essential that the organization conduct documented training and procedures so that they could produce health care workers that provide equal quality of services to the patients. With the use of quality improvement tools, the shortcomings of a health care provider cannot be solely blamed on him or her which is one of the limitations of measurement based on Quality assurance. It is the organization’s responsibility to provide adequate training for the employees in order for them to provide the proper service to the patients.
Works Cited
Castaneda-Mendez, Kicab. "Performance Measurement in Health Care." Home | Quality Digest. N.p., 1999. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Walton, Mary. The Deming Management Method. New York: Perigee, 1988. Print.
