OTHM Level 7 Healthcare: Continual Improvement in Service Delivery

This report focuses on continual improvement within healthcare service delivery. It begins by defining continual improvement as an ongoing process to enhance service performance, emphasizing the measurement and improvement of service delivery processes to improve health outcomes and achieve customer satisfaction through data collection and evaluation. The report then explores the key elements of continuous improvement, including observation, data collection, analysis, planning, and evaluation, highlighting their role in improving service quality and efficacy. It argues for the necessity of continual improvement in healthcare due to the dynamic nature of health issues and the need for service quality enhancement. The report also discusses how to measure continual improvement through observation and data collection via audits and customer interviews. In conclusion, the report underscores the importance of continual improvement, patient-focused outcomes, and customer satisfaction, advocating for regular measurement and data-driven planning within health care service delivery.

CONTINUAL IMPROVEMENT:
HEALTH CARE SERVICE
DELIVERY

INTRODUCTION
• Ongoing process to improve the measurable performance of a service.
• Continual improvement is the measurement and also the improvement of
the process of the service delivery.
• Health care services would be focused on the effective improvement of the
quality and the efficacy of the service in then health outcome improvement
for the customers.
• Customer satisfaction achievement through the data collection and
evaluation (Brandrud et al. 2017).

ELEMENTS AND
APPLICATION: CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
• Continuous improvement is focused on the improvement of the service quality.
• Regular development and improvement are the primary focus.
• Process of the continuous improvement is dependent on regular monitoring.
• The monitoring process will effectively develop data regarding the service
quality and efficacy.
• Data analysis and planning of quality improvement can improve the service
(Headrick et al. 2016).

CONTINUED..
• Observation, data collection, data analysis and planning and the evaluation
are the primary elements of the continuous improvement process.
• Observation and the data collection play the most crucial role in the process
of the improvement.
• The improvement is also based on the data analysis process.
• Continuous improvement and developing the customer satisfaction can be
achieved effectively through these processes (Duffy, Peiffer and Story 2019).

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT:
NEED
• Health care sector is dynamic and need change with time.
• The changing nature of the health issues require the advancement or
improvement.
• Continuous improvement of the health care service is also required as
the quality and other factors of the healthcare services should improve.
• Continual improvement is required for better health outcome of
patients (Davies, James and Griffiths 2020).

MEASUREMENT OF CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
• Observation of the service quality and the efficacy should be considered
for the basic measurement of the continual improvement.
• Data collection through the audit process and also the interview of the
customers can help in the measurement of the service delivery quality
and efficacy.
• Improvement or the continual improvement of the health care service
can be achieved through regular observation, audit or interview as
these can effectively improve the quality of the care service (Costa and
Godinho Filho 2016).

CONCLUSION
• Health care service should be focused on the health care outcome
improvement for the patients. Hence, the customer satisfaction
development the continual improvement should be considered.
• The factor of the continual improvement should be considered with the
regular measurement and also the planning on the basis of the data
analysis.
• In this context, it can be stated that the process of the continual
improvement should be considered with proper and effective care
delivery.

REFERENCES
• Brandrud, A.S., Nyen, B., Hjortdahl, P., Sandvik, L., Haldorsen, G.S.H., Bergli, M., Nelson,
E.C. and Bretthauer, M., 2017. Domains associated with successful quality improvement
in healthcare–a nationwide case study. BMC health services research, 17(1), p.648.
• Costa, L.B.M. and Godinho Filho, M., 2016. Lean healthcare: review, classification and
analysis of literature. Production Planning & Control, 27(10), pp.823-836.
• Davies, A., James, W. and Griffiths, L., 2020. Implementing a quality improvement
programme in a locality mental health service. Nursing Management, 27(1).
• Duffy, G.L., Peiffer, S. and Story, P., 2019. How Well is Your Healthcare Quality
Management System Performing?. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 42(1), pp.12-
18.
• Headrick, L.A., Ogrinc, G., Hoffman, K.G., Stevenson, K.M., Shalaby, M., Beard, A.S.,
Thörne, K.E., Coleman, M.T. and Baum, K.D., 2016. Exemplary care and learning sites: a
model for achieving continual improvement in care and learning in the clinical setting.
Academic Medicine, 91(3), p.354.