Quality Improvement

Quality improvement program for a case study of st Mary’s hospital

Quality refer to extent to which a service or product accelerate in demand over time. Quality improvement program is structured so that favorable outcome of a service being provided can be accrued, and also correcting those areas which lower down the quality of services (Evans, James and William Lindsay 2001). The program explores various ways which identifies the method which are used by professionals in the organizations to contribute to better outcomes. These ways are then communicated to implementer’s of program so that the necessary actions can be taken. The program must be evaluated and if the benefits outweigh the cost then it is implemented.

The purpose of this program is to improve the quality of service and outcomes that are provided in st Mary’s hospital. To achieve this we need to focus on strategies that the program proposes to be improved so that we can promote maximum patient satisfaction. St mary’s hospital is one of the known hospital which provides better services if not the best to its customers (Hartman, Melissa 2002). Although they deliver quality services there is still room for quality improvement, the program seeks to outline some of quality improvement activities which if implemented can enhance the quality of outcome and attract more customer.

Every department in our organization is responsible for its services delivery but they are all geared towards achieving one wider organization goal. Quality of health care delivered is determined by a combination of many factors like organization of services, monitoring and evaluation, performance appraisal, leadership, availability of resources, staff motivation etc. all of these factors in combination bring about a strong system which ensures quality services. Quality improvement involves identifying the areas that need to be improved. The initial activity that involves the quality improvement program is to identify the areas which need to be improved. St mary’s despite offering quality services there are great areas which if well woked on can bring about better outcomes. The areas may include:

Automation status

The organization despite of its internet connection its maximum utilization is not yet realized. The whole hospital has been connected with internet enabled cables. In addition it has acquired the newly developed health management information system for effective sharing and access of health data with other organization. The main problem is that the staff who are supposed to utilize the services are old, untrained one who lack the knowledge of even operating a computer. There is great need for training need assessment so that the need for retraining of staff can be identified. The hospital also lack information technology specialized who can diagnose minor hiccups experience in process of network access, hence there has been a lot of delays to patients when computer hangs. The hospital need to employ a permanent ICT staff to cater for all issues arising with technology.

Performance appraisal

The process of appraising staff in this hospital is poor and to be specific is not there. Those staffs who perfects their areas of duties are never appreciated hence this lower their morale resulting to poor services. There is great need of staff to be appreciated towards their performances. Procurement process is also very poor because the staffs are never even taken out for holidays so that they can break boredom of working area or even the hospital can provide them with meals at least to motivate them to work hard. These factors influences highly the quality of services rendered in this organization.

Lack of appropriate tools for service delivery

The facility lacks some of important machines and tools necessary for quality of service delivery. For example in the organization there is no CT scan machine and this mean if a patient come requiring a CT scan will be referred to other facility which make patients to have negative attitude toward the facility and they may in future fail to come there.

Cost of services

To some extent some of the services offered are overcharged as compared to its quality and this may send away all the potential customer. To maintain patient relation there is great need to consider the welfare of the patients to ensure services being offered are cost effective.

Poor policy formulation

Some of the policies that run the hospital play a big role towards poor service delivery. There is need to consult widely to all members of staff before settling down to certain policies. This is important because some of these people who are always ignored know what goes on in ground level and have great ideas on the best policies to improve quality of services.

Purpose of quality improvement program

Quality improvement program seeks to provide a strategy that monitors the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services to the patients.
The program improves the quality of services rendered to patients by ensuring that it focuses on weak points and generate the way they can be improved.
The program aims to increase the level of quality outcome from earlier figures to far much better figures which will help to improve general health care to the communities.
The program ensures it improves the access of available services to clients at affordable fee and within the shortest time by addressing the issue hindering the access. The program also promotes the health seeking behavior of patients by increasing awareness of the services available and their benefits.
The program tries to reduce the level of corruption by bringing into open all the unclear moves and actions which that disadvantage the unfortunate groups leading to unfair treatment and luck of justice in service the delivery.
Program also provides strategies for regular evaluation of the program to ensure there are continuous quality improvement activities across the organization.
The program also explains the role played by other partners and the need to continue collaborating with them to ensure continuous quality improvement.

Program evaluation

This is a process that seeks to know whether program produces the required outcome. There is great need to evaluate the program before it is implement to be sure the suggest changes will be beneficial to organization as far as quality improvement is in concern. It helps to determine whether the outcome can be attributed to program proposed and not any other factor. Evaluation also gives a room to make changes to a program for better results (Smith, Gerald F.,2009). The program will be evaluated on following basis. Process, impact and outcome evaluation.

The process evaluation assesses all activities leading to service delivery like all materials used, staff and their performance, policies etc. impact evaluation assesses the result of program for a short term like increase staff morale, increase number of patient using certain service, behavior change or improvement that may be attributed to program. Outcome evaluation assesses the result of a program after longer-term. This measures generally contribution of the program towards quality improvement. Example reduced mortality morbidity. This evaluation is carried on long after a program was drafted (Smith, Gerald F.2009). It aims to justify that the changes are actually due to program.

Program target population

The program targets all patient who utilize the services offered by the organization to try to know to which extent are their satisfied by the services they receive. It also targets all the staff offering health services to their client by evaluating the quality of services offered and giving an option or alternative on how well the services can be improved.

References

Evans, James R., and William M. Lindsay (2001) The Management and Control of Quality,5^th ed., Cincinnati, OH: South-Western College Publishing

Hartman, Melissa G., ed (2002), Fundamental Concepts of Quality Improvement, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: ASQ Quality Press

Smith, Gerald F.,(2009) Quality Problem Solving, Milwaukee, Wisconsin