University Healthcare Management: Quality Assurance Assignment

This assignment addresses key aspects of quality assurance within a hospital setting. It begins by outlining a comprehensive plan for maintaining food security, emphasizing adherence to FDA standards, staff training, regular quality reviews, and the maintenance of hygienic production facilities to prevent contamination. The assignment then explores early warning systems, advocating for the implementation of rapid response teams to monitor patients on general medical floors for potential cardiac arrest, and the use of smoke detection devices to mitigate fire risks. Finally, the assignment examines the brand equity of REI, highlighting the importance of their outdoor-oriented activities, strong customer relationships, diverse product offerings, omni-channel marketing, and cooperative business model in establishing a competitive advantage.

Running head: QUALITY ASSURANCE
Quality assurance
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Question: 3
Hospitals should have an effective plan for marinating the food security. Thus, being the
risk manager for the food security, it is my responsibility to ensure the security in managing the
food service in the hospital. The steps to be promoted will involve reviewing the food quality
standard according to the benchmark being set by the Food and Drug Administration (Platt &
Carnahan, 2012). It will help to maintain the desired quality standard. Moreover, the employees
responsible will be trained accordingly to maintain the food quality. Periodic review will be done
in order to check the quality being maintained in the process. It will aware the employees about
the quality control and they will feel more motivated to maintain the quality standard to pass the
periodic review.
The infrastructure and the premises of the food production facilities in the hospital will
also be maintained in order to prevent and contamination (Caswell, 2012). It is due to the reason
that, hygiene factor is also important in maintaining the food quality standard. Thus, the
production facilities will be designed in such a way that it will prevent contamination of any
diseases in the unit from outside. Accordingly, the dress code and the hygiene factor for the
staffs will also be maintained to ensure the zero contamination. Thus, it can be concluded that,
maintaining all these factors will ensure that the food quality can be effectively maintained in the
hospitals and it will effectively comply with the benchmark being set.
Question: 2
All types of organization, especially the health care organizations are more vulnerable to
different risks. Thus, early warning system should be initiated and implemented in the
organizations in order to effectively monitor the risk potential in the organization and identify the

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occurrence of risk at its early stage. It involves various technologies and approaches which helps
in mitigation of the risks involved. In a hospital, one of the promising early warning systems can
be the initiation of rapid response team. This team will operate in the general medical floors and
will monitor the probability of the cardiac arrest of the patients (McNeil & Bryden, 2013). They
will be equipped and trained to response in the initial stage. This will help in mitigating the risk
of life being involved with the patients in the general medical floors. This system is required due
to the reason that, general medical floors attract less attention than that of the intensive care
units.
Another early warning system will be the smoke detection device in the hospital
premises. The risk of loss in case of fire in the hospitals is of more probability due to the reason
that evacuation of the patients takes time. Thus, smoke detection device will help to detect any
smoke generating and will help to identify any potential threat of fire in the hospital. Responsible
team will be assigned and trained to detect the area of origin upon notified by the smoke
detection system. They will act as quick response team and will effectively identify and mitigate
the risk.
Question: 3
The key factor for the brand equity of REI is their outdoor oriented activities. Majority of
their products are being centered on the outdoor and adventurous activities. Moreover, according
to their information, they already have more than 3.5 million active members. Thus, positive
word of mouth is being generated by these members, which also helps in enhancing the brand
equity for the organization. Compared to its competitors, they are effectively maintaining their
members rather than having just customers. Thus, relationship marketing is being done more

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effectively by them than their competitors. Moreover, it should also be considered that the most
of its competitors are operating in the single product line, whereas, REI is catering to the diverse
customers by offering sporting goods, Travel equipment along with providing outdoor vacations.
Omni channel marketing is also helping them in gaining competitive advantage in the
market. Through the initiation of the online portal, they are catering to more number of
customers which are out of reach of their retail outlets, eventually leading to increased market
share (Wagner III & Hollenbeck, 2014). In addition, majority of the organizations in this sector
is operating as private organizations. On the other hand, they are operating as cooperatives which
make the members as the co owner in the organization. Thus, the rate of customer loyalty of REI
compared to their competitors is more effective. Though there are various substitutes in the
market but the customer approach of them is creating competitive advantage for them.

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Reference
Caswell, J. A. (2012). Economics of food safety. Springer Science & Business Media.
McNeill, G., & Bryden, D. (2013). Do either early warning systems or emergency response
teams improve hospital patient survival? A systematic review. Resuscitation, 84(12),
1652-1667.
Platt, R., & Carnahan, R. (2012). The US Food and Drug Administration's Mini‐Sentinel
Program. pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, 21(S1), 1-303.
Wagner III, J. A., & Hollenbeck, J. R. (2014). Organizational behavior: Securing competitive
advantage.