Theoretical Approaches to Quality Improvement in Health and Social Care

Essay - Discuss and
critically analyse
theoretical approaches
to quality and quality
improvement in health
and social care

Contents
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................................3
Conclusion............................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
One of the biggest and most important leadership challenges in healthcare is
improving quality. There is sometimes a failure to involve professionals on the front lines of
initial changes to clinical and patient-directed improvements in health care. Moreover, health
and social care organizations face many issues that threaten people's lives, increase health
care costs, and make patient care unpredictable.(Brandrud et al, 2017). Health-care quality
improvement generally aims to ensure low costs and increased satisfaction among patients,
and maintain a good sustainable change in the health-care services(The King's Fund, 2019).
The purpose of this essay is to explore and critically analyze the concept of quality and
quality improvement within healthcare. The essay will begin by defining quality and quality
improvement within healthcare. The organizations that strive to provide safe and cost-
effective care for their clients, highlighting their importance at local, national,
and international levels. And then
different approaches to quality improvement in health care will be
discussed and critically analysed in this essay. The next step is to identify and describe the
key drivers, barriers, and facilitators of quality improvement in health care.Then, lean and
sixsigma quality improvement techniques are described and a comparison is madeamong the
m by referring to a case study on the lean six sigma approachUsing a critical evaluation
of lean six sigma as a quality improvement tool. Finally, before writing the summary the
essay will briefly discuss the policy and strategy of NHS in quality and quality improvement
in health care in the United Kingdom.
QUALITY AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT
In various industries, quality and quality improvement have become critical components of
service continuity. It is widely assumed that defining quality and quality improvement is
difficult due to their varying meanings in different contexts and among different people's
perspectives (Boaden, 2011; Mosadeghrad, 2013). The importance of quality improvement
approaches is typically to maintain a good, sustainable change in health-care services at a low
cost while increasing patient satisfaction (The King's Fund, 2017).Health care providers
define quality by referring to Lord Darzi's quality definition in "highquality care for all"
published in 2008. This definition identifies three aspects of health care quality: clinical
efficacy, patient safety, and patient experience. Clinical effectiveness, patient safety, and
patient experience are three dimensions of quality in health care (The King’s Fund, 2014). In

the field of health, the generally accepted definition of "Quality". However, the following
definition Frequently used US Institute of Medicine: which quality is the extent to which
medical services are available
individuals and groups increase their potential.
Agree with desirable healthy resultscurrent expertise.The institute has diagnosed six
dimensions of quality of health care. All of these must be safe, effective, equitable, timely,
efficient, and patient-centered (The Health Foundation, 2013). Today, many people in the
medical field are interested in defining the concept of 'quality'.improvement ''. We propose to
define it as cumulative and continuous.The efforts of all medical staff, patients, and
familiesResearchers, Payers, Facilitators and Educators -Improve patient outcomes (health),
improve system (care) performance, and Professional Development(Batalden& Davidoff,
2007). According to (The Health Foundation, 2021) All healthcare systems are built on
complex foundations.A network of processes and methods that provide support.The qualityof
the services provided by the system is how well the network is performing, and how well are
the people providing and managing the care?to work together. Several definitions define it as
a systematic approach to quality improvement that employs specific techniques. The quality
improvement defined as the concept of optimization finally arrived atas a result of the review,
the improvement was identified as followsAchieving the best patient experience and
resultsby changing the behaviour of the provider andOrganizing through the use of systemic
change methods and strategies.In order to achieve better results, the key elements in this
definition are the combination of a 'change' (improvement) and a method (an approach with
appropriate tools) while paying attention to the context(The Health Foundation, 2013). A
report published by HQIP (2015) detailed a list of quality improvement methods found in the
literature. These quality improvement methods include clinical auditing, lean six sigma,
process mapping, decision trees, and a model for improvement, among others. Quality
improvement methods such as clinical audit are used to determine whether clinical care meets
specified quality standards, whereas lean six sigma methods are used to eliminate waste
before redirecting resources to efficiency and improving quality (HQIP, 2015). According to
The King's Fund (2017), quality improvement approaches and tools are extremely beneficial
in terms of lowering costs and increasing the value of healthcare services.Therefore, as the
World Health Organization (2006) points out, between quality development strategies,
understanding the needs of healthcare providers to achieve the best results and the
involvement of service users in the methods of these services. Has an important relationship.