Managing Quality in Health and Social Care

This report discusses the importance of maintaining quality in health and social care services. It explores the perspective of stakeholders and the role of external agencies in setting standards. It also examines the impact of poor services on stakeholders and discusses different approaches for implementing quality systems. Additionally, it highlights barriers in health and social care and methods for evaluating quality.

Unit 27 Managing Quality in
Health in Health and Social
Care
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INTRODUCTION
It is essential to maintain quality of health care services so that effective and proper care
facilities are provided to people. There are different standards set through which quality is
maintained. However, it is necessary to work as per policies so that care services are offered in
effective way (Andrews, WILKINS and Lampe, 2019). In health care setting, stakeholder plays
vital role in developing policies and procedure. Furthermore, a systematic procedure is followed
to deliver services.
This report will describe about perspective of stakeholder and role of external agencies in
setting standards. Also, impact of poor services on stakeholder will be explained. Besides that,
standards and different approaches of implementing quality systems will be discussed.
Moreover, barriers in health and social care will be explained. Further, effectiveness of system
and policies will be mentioned along with factors impacting quality. Besides that, methods for
evaluating quality and impact of service user will be described.
LO 1
1.1
Stakeholders are those who are directly or indirectly related to organisation and they highly
impact on business. In health care perspective of stakeholder is to be taken into consideration so
that quality is maintained. Thus, there are many types of stakeholders in hospital. They are
service user, companies, suppliers, authority, etc. These all are having different perspective in
regard to quality of service in care home (Patient perspectives on quality. 2014). In case study,
Royal united hospital case stakeholder are :
Patient- the service user are those stakeholder how access services. so, as per their perspective
quality of service has to be according to their set standards. The patient expects that doctor and
staff behave with them properly. Also, they want that doctors must possess in depth knowledge
about disease and he or she must communicate with them and family members in efficient way.
Along with it, staff must show empathy towards them and provide care services in timely.
However,
Health authorities –they are those stakeholders of hospital that develop strategies related to
improving health care services, quality of facilities, etc. Also, the authority set policy and
standards to offer services. thus, their perspective is that hospital must implement strategies in
effective way. Moreover, they must evaluate strategies to measure outcomes so that new
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strategies are reformed. Besides that, they focus on quality assurance and finding root cause of
problem.
Staff – they are the stakeholders who want must provide and effective care services. their
perspective is that there must be proper standards and rules set to provide services. Also, hospital
environment must be clean. There should be proper health and safety services. Alongside,
training practices should be proper (Bsoul-Kopowska, 2019).
1.2
It has identified that external agencies play significant role in setting of standards in health
care sector. they also control and regulate sector which allow in providing effective facilities.
apart from it, the agencies also monitor sector and evaluate their performance. It enables in
setting goals and objectives on basis of performance. Generally, there are three agencies that
regulate health care sector. they are local, state and national level. hence, in Royal united hospital
agency role is :-
Health care inspectorate – the inspectorate is responsible for monitoring and regulating
different health care activities in hospital. Also, the person has to ensure that people are able to
access care services. the inspectorate develop report by measuring outcomes.
Care quality commission – The CQC is an organisational that regulate overall health and social
care sector of UK. they set standards and policies which are to be followed by hospitals, care
centres, etc. also, CQC ensure that health care services provided are up to the set standards.
Furthermore, they do inspection of hospital and care homes to ensure that proper health and
safety measures are implemented or not. Apart from it, CQC develop strategies to promote health
awareness programs and campaigns (Checkland, McDermott and Peckham, 2018). In this way,
they inspect and regulate entire operations of health care sector by ensuring that facilities are
offered as per complying standards or not.
National institute of clinical excellence – The NICE is a trust whose role in health care sector is
to offer suggestion and advise to hospitals, care centres, NHS trust, etc. other than this, they are
responsible for measuring outcomes of services that are been used by people. the trust also set
guidelines and procedure to be followed while practicing public health services.
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1.3
It is analysed that there is a great impact of poor services on stakeholder in health and social
care. First is due to poor quality of services, Royal United hospital stakeholder that is patient
will not come to hospital for accessing services. Also, it will highly impact on their physical and
mental health if services are not of set standards. Poor quality service in Royal United hospital
would make negative impact on patient, social worker, staff, social insurance chief or any other
external agency. So, as a patient, searching for a care home is essential in finding out set
standards and quality of care facilities (Guest, Ayoub and Vowden, 2017). As a hospital Royal
United hospital should ensure customer's needs with recent and advance standards. The high
quality framework is a way which allow staff to work in effective and systematic way in
improving their training. A poor service quality will bring about less qualified staff which leads
in low efficiency levels. In the event that the consumer loyalty from the Royal United hospital
quality standards of the consideration laborers is low then it directly impact on patient
satisfaction. Furthermore, a few agencies work in professional way and will in general change
the activity if there is rise in money. They must be given perfect degree for practising the proper
philosophies in completing their work. Proper and sufficient preparing and staff government
assistance standards are useful in fulfilling different customer needs by sustaining a streamlined
process of delivery care facilities.
It also effects on entire society as well because hospital may not be able to fulfil their needs
and improve social life of people. So, care workers may not work up to set standards. Here, an
example is taken that an old age person is suffering from heart disease, so if he is provided poor
quality service than it may result in severe condition of patient. Thus, it will directly effect on
other members of society as well (Hackett, Ziegler, and Bennett, 2018). Likewise, it will also
impact on government as stakeholder as well. they will not provide sufficient funds to hospital in
health and social care. Besides that, external agencies working with hospital may not assist them
or support in providing care facilities.
LO 2
2.1
In health care there are many ethics which are followed. this provide a framework on how
to provide care services, what procedure is to be followed, etc. furthermore, the standards
incorporate effective type of services to measure quality. thus, the standards are mentioned as :-
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Equality act 2010
It is a standard in which health facilities are offered to all people in equal and fair way.
the act state that high quality services has to be provided to all patients. Also, act protect those
people who receive care facilities in unfair means. The act provides right to people to safeguard
their health services (Hussain and Royan, 2019). So, Royal United hospital needs to follow and
comply with this act in order to provide care services to all people irrespective of their caste,
background, colour, age, gender, etc.
NHS performance framework –
This standard allows in measuring quality level and standards in health care. The quality
is evaluated on basis of certain criteria which enable in finding out overall performance.
Moreover, the standards are usually set by local and state authorities who regulate and monitor
trust and other organisation. Apart from it. standards are applied in Royal United hospital as
well as they have to adhere it while providing health care facilities to people.
National occupational standards
The NOS is an organisation that set effective practices and procedures of nursing staff
that in what way they have to deal with patient. Also, in this skills and knowledge is described. It
is stated that NOS standards are applicable to all social care centres within UK. it sets framework
for nursing staff about what activities are to be undertaken in their occupation. Here, training
standards are set in which staff has to be trained. Similarly, Royal United hospital has to follow
NOS to provide effective training and to enhance quality of facilities. This will be useful in
improving staff performance as well (Jacobs, Johnson and Hassell, 2018)
2.2
It is essential for hospital to measure quality so that loopholes are identified and new
systems are implemented. there are various approaches of this. It depends on type of system that
what approach is suitable. they are mentioned below :
Personal
Skills audit
It is an approach in which skills gap is identified and then various measures are taken to
improve it. Basically, it is useful in staff. Royal United hospital can conduct skill audit to find
out what specific skills are required and what present skill staff possess. This will also helpful in
enhancing those skills through proper training. For instance- if it is found that there is no
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systematic communication followed then a specific framework can be developed. through this,
quality system is implemented.
Social
Mentoring
In this approach professionals or health care leaders can guide or direct staff to deliver
effective care facilities. However, they can set some criteria through which services are offered.
Also, with help of this, staff will be able to understand in depth about process and patient
condition (Katzman, Kinsella and Polzer, 2019). Moreover, they will follow particular way
according to patient needs. Hence, it will result in enhancing quality.
Professional
Training
This is most common used approach where staff can be trained about different practices.
this will enable them to provide care services to people. Alongside, training can be provided with
help of advance tools and techniques. It will allow staff to learn and gain knowledge about how
to maintain quality of services. here, both off and on the job training can be provided. Also, they
can be educated about several policies, practices, etc. in delivering health care services.
2.3
In an organisation there are several barriers which impact on quality of health facilities.
these barriers can occurs at any level and must be overcome so that quality is maintained. they
are explained as :
Lack of resources- it is a barrier in which there are not enough resources available to maintain
quality of services. there may be lack of skilled and qualified staff to provide care services. along
with it, there may be absence of technological tools and equipment’s due to which quality is not
maintained. furthermore, hospital may not have sufficient funds to work as per procedure set.
Thus, these all results in providing services of low quality and not fulfilling needs of patients
(Lerum, Solbrække and Frich, 2017).
Ineffective communication- This is a barrier in which there is no proper and ineffective
communication between staff and patient. It results in improper sharing of data and info with
staff and patient and creates misunderstanding. Similarly, in Royal United hospital staff may not
interact with patient, hence needs are not identified. so, accordingly treatment is not given
properly.
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Staff motivation – it is a barrier as in health and social care staff has to perform different task.
Also, their role is work schedule is hectic. this leads to rise in frustration and stress among staff.
Thus, they are not able to provide high quality services. They feel demotivated and are not able
to handle and manage their work in efficient way.
LO 3
3.1
The adequacy of contexts, policies and systems that are used in maintaining quality in the
RUH is offered in such a way that that procedures and methods are adhered in maintaining
quality. the policies and systems that are set and actualized are applied by understanding (Liebler
and McConnell, 2020). Such practices and methods are taken from the outcomes after effects of
other organisation where it has been successfully applied. thus, it is a basic and primary
consideration for other organisation to show specific methods and procedures that ensure
improvement in services and training of staff. They are default practices of offering compelling
and quality types of assistance to the patients. The methods and policies that are to be applied or
followed in the Royal United hospital should concentrate on such factors.
Methods for limiting deviation
These are some ways through which patient feedback is taken and other stakeholders are to
be considered in order to achieve goals of hospital and maintain quality. it is required for
management to apply new practices so that quality is enhanced. So, one of the ways can be is to
overview with external agencies to their needs and to specify their proposals in context to the
regions that need improvement. For this reason and for capable implementation of methods, time
and undertaking quality maintenance is fundamental which will bring about accomplishing
quality in offering care facilities (Surr, Gates and Dennison, 2017).
3.2
There are a certain strategy to analyse measuring of value in Royal United hospital. These
techniques are the job of external agencies, the quality frameworks to be set up, and management
staff to offer better quality types of assistance. the external agencies undertake an authoritative
job in the attaining of value norms by helping the consideration experts. They do the
benchmarking for Royal United hospital to be followed. By educational training and seminars
they help the management experts by sharping them with providing relevant information about
how to provide better quality types of services (Tierney, Rousseau and Khurshid, 2018). They
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test the Royal United hospital in specific time period to ensure that whether the hospital is
adhering to the proper standards and guidelines and strategies in maintaining quality. Quality
standards likewise assume a job in the attaining value in hospital. The quality standards consist
of method, procedure, etc. which are to be followed by staff of care homes while providing
facilities. Along with method, standards also include strategies and practices to attain goals in
regions of progress maintaining quality. The workforce or state directors are additionally the
impacting factors for applying the quality standards. They ought to give proper actions and in
giving right social care services to the patients to fulfil the requirements.
3.3
The management of Royal United hospital has to take several measures and actions to
enhance quality of care services. this can be done by following policies, methods, etc. It must
continuously to make changes by identifying areas where it requires so that service quality is
maintained. Moreover, hospital can take feedback from patient as well as external stakeholders
such as government, investors, community, etc. (Wichit, Mnatzaganian and Johnson, 2018).
They are checked and tested by evaluating past data and info. Also, information collected from
previous examinations is likewise useful to improve quality services offered to patient.
Standard
Having the knowledge of all the standards as well as practices while treating the patient
or while maintaining the proper environment in hospital is highly crucial. If the professionals as
well as care workers are unaware of the different standards and legislation, then this would not
only impact the health of patients but will also reduce their level of quality. Thus, in order to
improve its quality RUH should make its workers and professionals well aware of different
health standards by providing an effective training to team. Besides this, the practitioner should
be provided thorough education as well as practical demonstration on various aspects of the
health (Wallerstein, Duran and Minkler, 2017).
LO 4
4.1
There are different techniques for measuring health care quality, for instance, centre
gatherings are conducted to develop and form objections strategies. First is Marketing in which
promoting depends on the requirements of the patients at that stage when in context of quality
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measures that allows in identifying what type of service has to be provided. The third are models
of service quality that are used in maintaining standards in health care.
Likewise, there can be several methods like survey, research, etc. to find out needs of
people and taking their feedback about service quality in Royal United hospital. For managing
and maintaining care service quality hospital staff and nurses shows interests in various
observations if there is any issue related to cost. (Feather, 2018). These elements are within the
hospital structure and moreover incorporate the necessary assistance model which includes tasks,
service and advertising standards.
The external needs of assessment offices for survey reason and health care quality offered
and consumer loyalty. The local agency and government set the base principles to be followed
and they help legitimate survey meetings for checking the usage of norms inside the association.
Patients satisfaction is the first priority in maintaining quality of health care services. The
connection between health care quality and patient loyalty is most important to assess the various
points of view decisively.
Inspection report
It is an effective method which Royal United hospital can use within its internal setting
for evaluating the level of quality as well as their standards. Inspection report is basically the
document which helps the organization to ensure that each and every department are complying
to the quality standards and hence are performing as required (McCormick, 2019). Hospital can
make use of this which will help them to examine the performance of each and every aspect of
their department that whether the professionals are providing proper treatment or not, whether
the management is monitoring the needs of patients effectively or not.
Service user feedback
In this method the hospital can use to know whether they are meeting the required quality
standard or not. By taking the feedback from all the people who are using their services or have
used their services, Royal United hospital will come to know the various attributes of quality
like cleanliness, service, hygiene, proper monitoring etc. Service user feedback is one of the most
reliable method which will help hospital to have genuine response as these are the people who
have actually experienced the health and social care services and thus will give their feedback. It
is a highly reliable as well as remarkable method which hospital can use for improving the
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quality of their services (Thomas, 2017). The service user feedback provides the actual response
to the hospital and thus helps to make improvement in the level of their quality.
4.2
Services user are those who avail health facilities from hospital. There is a great impact of
evaluation process on service quality. it is mentioned below :-
Cost effectiveness
There is high impact on cost effectiveness. In order to take feedback, there are many tools
and techniques used. Also, marketing is to be done to provide report to stakeholders. Alongside,
it is easy to communicate and engage with stakeholder. Thus, the cost incurred is less. However,
services users have already availed services so it saves in reducing cost in following similar
process. Also, they are aware about what procedure is to be followed in Royal United hospital
thus strategies are adopted to improve service quality. this will help hospital to take necessary
measures to maintain quality standards as well.
Client centred care
The client centred services impact on evaluation process (Checkland, McDermott and
Peckham, 2018). in Royal United hospital when services are offered to patients and then
feedback is taken. so, it is useful for hospital to found out that in which area improvement is
required. For example- if patient family member complaint about hygiene and cleanliness than
management will take effective measures to maintain clean and neat environment. Moreover, if
patient identify that there are no proper safety measures than in similar way Royal United
hospital will take proper action. In this way entire quality and standards can be followed and
maintained in health and social care.
CONCLUSION
It can be summarised that there are many stakeholders whose perspective is considered in
quality such as patient, government, staff. Also, CQC, NHS, play vital role in setting standards
of health services. Besides, there are certain standards like NOS, NHS, which are to be adhered
in maintaining quality. Moreover, there are several approaches of implementing quality system
like professional and social. It is concluded that the barriers in deliver health facilities are lack of
resources, ineffective communication, etc. in Royal United hospital the methods, policies and
procedures applied in health care. The factors that impact on service are patient needs, staff job,
etc. Furthermore, evaluation method impact on service user and quality measures.
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Online
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