Healthcare Quality Management and Reform

This assignment delves into the multifaceted landscape of healthcare quality management and reform. It examines various approaches to improving quality within the healthcare system, particularly emphasizing the influence of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The analysis encompasses transitional care, hospital readmissions, financial incentives, patient involvement, social media's role in healthcare, and the application of big data. Additionally, the assignment explores emerging trends and future directions for enhancing healthcare quality.

MANAGING
QUALITY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Perspectives of external stakeholders concerning quality in Royal United Hospital ......1
1.2 Role of external agencies in setting standards in health care...........................................2
1.3 Adverse impact of poor service quality on health and social care stakeholders..............2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Covered in PPT.......................................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
3.1 Policies and procedures used for attaining good quality of services................................4
3.2 Factors that influence the achievement of quality in health and social care service........4
3.3 Ways for improving quality..............................................................................................5
4.1 Methods for evaluating service quality with regard to internal and external perspectives6
4.2 Impact of users on service quality in the evaluation process...........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Quality is an important concept which is defined by different people in various ways. It is
assumed to be good when it meets with the expectations of users and provides satisfaction to
them. To maintain effective quality of services in an organisation is a prime responsibility of
service provider that is crucial for the users as well as for external stakeholders (Hutchison and
et.al., 2011). This project is based on Royal United Hospital which is established in England and
provides secondary health and social care (HSC) services to the public. This report aims to
explain different perspectives of stakeholders related to quality, role of external agencies and
impact of poor service quality on people. Also, this project will state about the standards and
approaches that are helpful in measuring and improving quality of services. Along with that,
barriers that come in delivery of the best services will also be explained. Apart from that, there
are many policies and procedures that support in achieving the best quality of services.
TASK 1
1.1 Perspectives of external stakeholders concerning quality in Royal United Hospital
Stakeholders are those individuals who are related to an organisation and their activities
affect the business operations. In hospital, there are three types of stakeholders which are staff,
care quality commission and heath care users. Their perspectives are as follows-
 Care Quality Commission- It is very conscious regarding service quality. According to
them, if there is high demand for the services in hospital then organisation should have
enough capacity that it can meet those demand easily and effectively. For delivery of the
best quality of work, it sets standards and regulations and takes actions within their
boundaries (Care Quality Commission, 2012).
 Staff- For delivering the best quality, providers should have trained employees so that
they can provide treatment to the users according to the specified standards. Motivated
staff or trained employees can provide services effectively and accurately to the users.
For providing the best care to users, there should be less stress on workers so that they
can focus on the quality of services and will meet the expectations of patients.
 Service users- Every person wants the best services if they are paying to hospital. So it is
necessary that hospital should provide services according to patient’s expectations and if
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there is an emergency then they should deliver extra care him/her (Munn-Giddings and
Winter, 2013).
1.2 Role of external agencies in setting standards in health care
These agencies help in setting standards of services and monitor the health care facilities.
Apart from this, it regulates Royal hospital and evaluates whether it is providing services
according to the specified standards or not (Reeves and et.al., 2011). In short, it can be said that
it works as a protector of stakeholder’s interests. There are many external agencies which are
given as below-
 National Institute for Care Excellence [NICE] - Its main role is to develop the rules
and regulations that will support in getting the best results. It takes part in creating
proposal based system and information for health care provider. Just because of it,
Royal hospital has become standardised and is able to provide the best possible services
to patients.
 Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency- It is a government agency
that ensures that equipment or medicines which are being used by an organisation for
providing treatment are safe or not for the patient. In short, it is liable for improving the
quality and safety in care setting.
 Care Quality Commission- It is an independent agency which ensures that professional
is providing services or facilities to the users effectively as it is helpful in improving the
quality of services.
 Healthcare Inspectorate- This agency inspects or evaluates the activities that are being
carried out by Royal hospital.
 Social Care Institute For Excellence- It is responsible for improving the lives of
individuals who use health care services that is done by sharing the knowledge or any
new information. It also assists those people who want to put this information into
practice.
1.3 Adverse impact of poor service quality on health and social care stakeholders
If health and social care providers of Royal hospital will render poor quality of services
to their users then it will affect the patient in a negative manner (Parekh and et. al., 2011). This
poor quality in services occur in hospital when there is huge demand of services and it is not
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capable to provide services to its users. In this situation, patients have to stay in queue for many
hours and so, there is delay in the treatment. In that situation, it is possible that patient' situation
would become serious that will lead to dissatisfaction among patients. All these situations show
that standards that are set by hospital were not implemented properly (Singer and et. al., 2011).
Royal hospital will provide poor quality of services to its users just because of the
following reasons-
 Lack of proper training and working environment
 When there is less involvement of employees while providing the services.
All these influence the service quality of Royal Hospital. So, for removing this negative
impact, organisation should monitor their activities on a regular basis so that it can deliver the
best quality of facilities and identify the needs of patients or users.
M1 Influence of stakeholders' perspective on quality
It is right that these stakeholder like employees, external agencies etc. affects the quality
of services such as if hospital will have skilled and knowledgeable man power then they will
provide facilities as per the defined standards or customer's requirement. And here some agencies
have specified some standards so that service provider can maintain the quality of facilities and
will provide best services to its users.
D2. Recommendations for improving quality services for stakeholders in HSC
For improving the quality of services, there are some recommendations for Royal hospital:
 Providing proper training to its staff
 Identifying the needs of users
 Setting standards according to the requirement of patients (Millar and Hall, 2013)
 Evaluating the activities of employees against specified rules and regulations
TASK 2
Covered in PPT
TASK 3
3.1 Policies and procedures used for attaining good quality of services
Policies and procedures refer to the set of rules and regulations that help in providing the
best level of services. These are vital elements that support in improving the standards of quality.
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In nursing home, there are various types of policies and procedures that support in providing
superior services to its users which are given below-
 Incident Reporting System- According to this framework, a report is prepared that will
include all incidents or events that arise in the hospital which is known as accident report.
This report is used by Stanford Residential Care' staff that helps in improving the safety
of patients and reduces risks that may be faced by the users.
 Hydration Bundle Policy- This framework aids in knowing the amount of liquid that is
drunk by the patients. (Mechanic, 2012).
 Monitoring tools- These tools are used by employees of Stanford Residential Care for
evaluating the progress of patient. It is an important tool that supports in improving the
patient's health quickly. It has also a negative impact such as if nurse will go to monitor
the progress of each and every patient then it will consume a lot of time. It creates more
problems when hospital has less number of staff.
 Total Quality Management- It is a tactic or strategy that assists in providing facilities as
per patient's requirement. It makes a better environment at workplace in which staff can
easily serve the patients.
3.2 Factors that influence the achievement of quality in health and social care service
There are many factors that affect the level of services which are given as below-
 Satisfaction of patient- It is the most important factor that affects the quality of services.
When hospital will provide better services to its users then it will increase the satisfaction
level of patient. In this case, when any critical situation will arise then patient will prefer
to this organisation because they know, here, they will get treatment as soon as possible.
In Stanford Residential Care, level of facilities totally depends on the experience of users.
 Funding- It is another vital element that supports in the growth and success of
organisation. If organisation will not have proper funds then it will not be able to provide
better level of facilities to its patients. If organisation will receive funds then it can use it
in providing training to its staff and can work according to the standards that are set by
external agencies. Along with that, firm can use modern technology that will help in
increasing the quality of services (Tolson and et.al., 2011).
 Education of staff- If Stanford Residential Care wants to provide accurate facilities to its
patient then it should hire manpower which will have knowledge and skills to deal with
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any kind of critical situation. It should provide training to its existing staff so that they
can deliver the services as per customers' requirements.
 Modern equipment- If hospital will not use modern technology then it will affect the
standard of facilities. With the help of modern technology, it can deliver services as per
the requirement of patients.
3.3 Ways for improving quality
There are various ways that will aid in improving the level of services at Stanford
Residential Care. It should do following things that are given as below-
 Proper training- For providing the best facilities to its customers, it should provide
training to the staff so that it can identify problems of patients and can render services as
per their requirement (Kocher and Adashi, 2011).
 Involvement of manpower- For improving the performance, workers should take active
interest in the users' problems and should try to sort out their problems as soon as
possible so that patient will get satisfaction.
 Proper funding- It is a crucial component for improving the performance. It is required
to generate more facilities and contributes in the development of manpower in Stanford
Residential Care. Along with that, through this, modern equipment can be purchased that
will help in providing high quality services.
 Proper communication- There should be proper communication between health and
social care provider and users as through this, care taker can know about the exact
problem of patient that will assist in improving the performance of hospital.
 Team work- If every member of hospital will co-ordinate with each other while
performing the job then it will support in providing the best services to its users. It is an
important element that is required at every workplace.
 Supervision- Activities that are carried out by hospital should be evaluated on a regular
basis that will assist in knowing the deficiency of performance which can be removed
quickly by taking corrective actions (Naylor and et. al., 2011). It also evaluates that
whether members of hospital are following the rules and regulations fixed by external
agencies as well as HSC settings or not.
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4.1 Methods for evaluating service quality with regard to internal and external perspectives
There are many tools and techniques that can be used by Stanford Residential Care for
evaluating the standards of service which are given below-
 Questionnaire- It is one of the best method for evaluating the level of facilities. It is an
objective approach by which information can be collected easily. It contains some
questions that are related to rendered service (Three Different Approaches in Total
Quality Management, 2016). This questionnaire is filled by patient that are taking
services from the hospital and employees who are working. It has many benefits such as
if workers are not clear about the policies then administration can explain to them in an
easy manner so that they can perform effectively (Antheunis, Tates, and Nieboer, 2013).
 Survey- It is very helpful in understanding the needs or wants of target market. It is used
to identify the attitude of patient, satisfaction level of customers, for getting ideas related
to certain issues etc.
 Interview- It is another method that can be used for evaluating performance. In heath
care sector, it is not good way for evaluating the quality of service. Basically in this, a
face to face meeting is conducted in which some questions are asked from the employees
as well from the patients.
For Stanford Residential Care, questionnaire is best method for analysing the
performance of hospital because it is economical techniques and provides accurate information.
4.2 Impact of users on service quality in the evaluation process
At present time, patient have also right to take that decision which is related to them. It is
better for the organisation to involve patients in the evaluation process because they are the only
one that will provide accurate information related to the performance of employee as they are in
direct contact with the respective person. Any negative feedback received from users serve as a
key element for improving or developing the system that will assist in providing excellent
facilities to its users (Scott and et.al., 2011). This involvement has many benefits which are given
as below-
 It increases the loyalty of users because if they are involved in the evaluation process, it
will create a feeling in them to be a valuable part of hospital.
 It will enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of entire organisation.
 Also, it will help in identifying the requirements of patients (Murdoch and Detsky, 2013).
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 Further, it will enhance the revenue or sales of hospital and build a strong brand image in
the market.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that in health care sector, there are many
stakeholders and external agencies who have different point of views related to quality. These
agencies play an important role in this sector by formulating standards that assist in protecting
the rights of members of organisation and provides them safety. Further, this report stated about
the different approaches like Total Quality Management, Benchmarking, etc. that are used by
health care organisation for implementing the quality standards. While providing facilities to the
users, there may come many barriers like lack of resources, communication, etc. that should be
kept in mind by hospital for providing better level of services. It has been assessed from the
report that for achieving efficiency and effectiveness, hospitals should implement certain policies
and procedure that will aid in achieving the desired results or outcomes.
REFERENCES
Books and journals
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Munn-Giddings, C. and Winter, R., 2013. A handbook for action research in health and social
care. Routledge.
Reeves, S. and et.al., 2011. Interprofessional teamwork for health and social care (Vol. 8). John
Wiley & Sons.
Parekh, A.K. And et.al., 2011. Managing multiple chronic conditions: a strategic framework for
improving health outcomes and quality of life. Public health reports. 126(4). pp.460-
471.
Singer, S.J. And et.al., 2011. Defining and measuring integrated patient care: promoting the next
frontier in health care delivery. Medical Care Research and Review. 68(1). pp.112-127.
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Millar, R. and Hall, K., 2013. Social return on investment (SROI) and performance
measurement: The opportunities and barriers for social enterprises in health and social
care. Public Management Review. 15(6). pp.923-941.
Hutchison, B. and et.al., 2011. Primary health care in Canada: systems in motion. Milbank
quarterly. 89(2). pp.256-288.
Mechanic, D., 2012. Seizing opportunities under the Affordable Care Act for transforming the
mental and behavioral health system. Health Affairs. 31(2). pp.376-382.
Tolson, D. and et.al., 2011. International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics: A global
agenda for clinical research and quality of care in nursing homes. Journal of the
American Medical Directors Association. 12(3). pp.184-189.
Kocher, R.P. and Adashi, E.Y., 2011. Hospital readmissions and the Affordable Care Act: paying
for coordinated quality care. Jama. 306(16). pp.1794-1795.
Naylor, M.D. And et.al., 2011. The importance of transitional care in achieving health reform.
Health affairs. 30(4). pp.746-754.
Antheunis, M.L., Tates, K. and Nieboer, T.E., 2013. Patients’ and health professionals’ use of
social media in health care: Motives, barriers and expectations. Patient education and
counseling. 92(3). pp.426-431.
Scott, A. and et.al., 2011. The effect of financial incentives on the quality of health care provided
by primary care physicians. The Cochrane Library.
Mockford, C. and et.al., 2011. The impact of patient and public involvement on UK NHS health
care: a systematic review. International journal for quality in health care. 24(1). pp.28-
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Dahlgaard, J.J., Pettersen, J. and Dahlgaard-Park, S.M., 2011. Quality and lean health care: A
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Murdoch, T.B. and Detsky, A.S., 2013. The inevitable application of big data to health care.
Jama. 309(13). pp.1351-1352.
Tinetti, M.E., Fried, T.R. and Boyd, C.M., 2012. Designing health care for the most common
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Online
Three Different Approaches in Total Quality Management. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<http://www.brighthubpm.com/monitoring-projects/73621-three-different-approaches-
in-total-quality-management/>. [Accessed on 17th June 2017].
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