Introduction
The John Hopkins hospital is a premier teaching and research-based institute base in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1889 by John Hopkins. It is one of the leading hospitals in the US known for its strong scientific and innovative background in multi-special therapeutic areas (Pronovost, et al. 2013). It specializes in neurosurgery, cardiology, endocrinology, and paediatrics. It is one of the only institutes in the US to have a full-fledge medical college that houses students from 30+ countries. The quality of care and management at John Hopkins is of the highest standards are recognised globally.
Quality Measures Affecting John Hopkins Hospital: The hospital is equipped with well-trained and highly experienced staff to assure the quality of care and management. Some of the key quality measures at the hospital include patient satisfaction, infection rate, patient readmission, and health outcomes. The hospital also provides in-house quality assurance and quality improvement programs (Pronovost, et al. 2013).
Types of care/services offered by John Hopkins Hospital: The hospital is equipped with the latest technology and staff. It houses a full-fledged clinical services hospital that caters to neonatal, paediatric, adult, geriatric, and specially disabled populations. It also provides services in education and research which is one of the best known institutes in the US.
Mission of John Hopkins Hospital
The mission of the Hospital and Medicine department is to improvise the quality of health in the community by uplifting the standard of care in medical education and research. It is envisioned to provide a standard of excellence in the field of medicine. The key focus is to provide patient-centric care and management services with the help of healthcare professionals, scientist, medical students, and the public. It believes in providing excellent services by providing global recognized diagnostic and treatment interventions.
QI goals of John Hopkins Hospital: The hospital ifs focused on long-term patient care and improvement with a primary focus on improved health outcomes (Pronovost, et al. 2013). The primary goals of the quality improvement process includes (a) Organizational quality (b) excellence in service provision (c) member safety and quality of care and (d) improvement in business process. The QI process is overlooked by Johns Hopkins Uniformed Services Family Health Plan (USFHP), Priority Partners Managed Care Organization (PPMCO) members and Employer Health Programs (EHP) (Hoyer, et al. 2016).
Consumer utilization of external quality indicators: Consumers can relate to the quality indicators at the hospital by assessing publically available reports that may include rate of hospital-associated infections, rate of readmission, patient communication strategies, hospital practices such as cleanliness, scanning protocols, and unnecessary interventions or protocols (Hoyer EH, et al. 2016). Consumers could also assess critical quality measures such as patient survival, absence of complications (post-surgery), recommended treatment/medications and optimal surgical techniques (Hoyer, et al. 2016).
Role of consumers in John Hopkins QI process: Consumer feedback is a critical factor that should be consider in a QI process (Pronovost, et al. 2013). At John Hopkins’ consumers are provide a survey, questionnaire, and feedback form for every visit or stay at the hospital in order to assess the standard and quality of care (Hoyer, et al. 2016).
External quality indicators available to consumers on John Hopkins Hospital: The hospital is focused in providing excellent standard quality of care. It believes in external quality assessment and hence releases an annual report that is available to consumers (Hoyer, et al. 2016). The hospital also intends to release a monthly report from each department on quality improvement strategies and scoring which would be accessible by consumers as external quality indicators (Hoyer, et al. 2016).
Three key indicators based on the QI process: Consumer Perspective: The QI process is a complex and efficient way to improve the standard of care in an organization. Based on current evidence and a patient or consumer-centric review, there are 3 key indicators wherein the QI process could be recognized. The first is the correct labelling process of lab-based specimens (Paine, Baker, Rosenstein, Pronovost. 2004). Consumers consider that labelling a patient specimen using latest electronic/tech based systems would reduce the number of errors. It would also ensure faster and efficient sample distribution and recognition. The second indicator is based on the rapid response team (RRT) available within the hospital, The RRT deals with emergency care and at times of epidemics. Emergency care is where major errors take place and it is the quality of care provided at this time would decide the standard and quality of care. The third indicator would include the rate of hospital-associated infections which should be reduced through effective measures (Hoyer, et al. 2016).
Consumer feedback from customers on quality improvement process: The hospital is equipped with a 24x7 control panel, call centre, and message centre that is trained to take feedback from consumers. All consumers based from the hospital are free to provide feedback in all means of communication (post, email, phone, or message) which would help the hospital in quality improvement (JHHC, 2016).
Stakeholder’s utilization of feedback from consumers on QI process: JHH takes complete responsibility of all feedbacks obtained from the consumer forum. The healthcare administrator would help in facilitating funds and infrastructure-based requirements. Nurse manager/heads are responsible to assess the quality of care provided within their department and also ensure healthcare delivery is based on international guidelines. In order to facilitate consumer feedback and appreciation, a monthly review on the quality management program, and an annual report that is available to the public for the overall quality management (department level) (JHHC, 2016).
References
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