Analysis: Providing Quality Care in Healthcare - HSA 405 Strayer

This report analyzes the decline in patient care quality within a healthcare organization, addressing patient complaints and proposing quality improvement initiatives. It emphasizes patient-centeredness, timeliness, and safety as key areas for enhancement. The report explores cost reduction strategies without compromising quality, focusing on technology adoption, administrative task streamlining, and in-home care support. It contrasts quality in free-market versus single-payer healthcare systems and highlights common law quality initiatives. The importance of healthcare quality, patient information protection under HIPAA, and various payer systems are also discussed, providing a comprehensive overview of factors influencing healthcare quality and organizational strategies for improvement. Desklib offers similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running head: QUALITY CARE IN A HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATION
Providing Quality Care in a Healthcare Organization
Student Jane Doe
Strayer University
HSA 405 Healthcare Policy and Law
Dr. Renita Ellis

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Providing Quality Care in a Healthcare Organization
The healthcare organization has experienced a decrease in the quality of patient care over
the past few months. The Chief Executive Officer has requested an internal analysis based on an
increased number of patient complaints. The quality of patient care provided by healthcare
organizations and providers is the cornerstone of any successful healthcare organizations.
It has been assumed that the patient complaints are the feedbacks from tee patients and it
has been recognized as a vital tool towards the improvement of the service within the sector of
health. It is important to mention that the patients often complain when they are dissatisfied with
the services that they have received. The complaints generally relate to the costs of healthcare,
waiting for care, lac of skills of the care provider, malpractice, medical errors, care and treatment
of the patients, patient and provider communication, professional conduct (Hultman et al., 2015).
While it is a vital fact that the complaints vary in the severity, resulting to death due to poor care,
some kind of loss, most common complaints, and he concerns of the patients are listened to. It
has also been assumed that the patient complaints provide a vital insight into the monitoring the
quality of care rendered to the patients. Whereas, it is also important to highlight that to
effectively utilize the patient complaints, there needs to be a systematic channel of analysing the
information and the collection of the same. Analysis of the patient information provides a
valuable source of information on the improvement of the patient safety, medical errors (Reader,
Gillespie & Roberts, 2014).
Delivering the right care at the right time in the right setting is the core mission of this
healthcare organization. Accomplishing this mission can be difficult for organizations that lack
quality controls, therefore it is important to have compliance and oversight are needed (1). This
healthcare organization is committed to working with federal lawmakers, regulators, and
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research agencies to create policies and procedures to establish an environment on which patient
quality of care can increase.
Quality Initiatives
The Quality Improvement Committee provides oversight of the organization’s quality,
and performance improvement activities. Teitelbaum and Wilensky (2013) states having such a
committee is important in maintaining the quality of the care provided to patients.
Three quality initiatives implemented within the organization geared towards increasing the
quality of care for patients are safety, patient-centeredness and timeliness: The patient centred
care can be improved by contributing to the organizational learning, improving the health gain
and improving rights of the patients. Improving the rights of the patient takes into account of the
various arguments of democratization, that are operationalized in the hospital setting so as to
ensure the care issues related to the patient and professional interaction, information on
treatment, informed consent, policies that conform to the confidentiality. For some of the
patients, rights are an integral part of the quality improvements efforts, and the quality of care so
as to strengthen the rights. Improving the health gain is a perspective that addresses the concerns
pertaining to the several implication of patient centred care like the outcomes, recovery and
patient behaviour (Levesque, Harris & Russell, 2013). Studies have indicated that the patient
centeredness is linked with the seeking of the follow up plan, reduced readmission rates,
tolerance towards the pain and stress levels, better health and recovery outcomes, patient
satisfaction, and better compliance. There are evidences that to increase the effectiveness of the
health status and the health behaviour, there is a need to inform about the effectiveness, involve
and educate the patients and their care plays a substantial role in patient wellness. Organizational
learning is another aspect and research suggests that the patients have the capability to positively
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contribute towards the healthcare improvements and also through the non-clinical aspects of the
care and the care environment. Quality improvement efforts play a major role in overcoming the
barriers towards including the contribution of the patient and also in the process of organizational
learning (Kitson et al., 2013). This will be measured at the patient level and the usually assessed
through the standardized questionnaires, and in-depth interviews conducted within the focus
groups so as to explore the views of the patients.
Proper management of scheduling of the appointments play a major role towards the
achievement of accessibility and timelines in the healthcare system. However, it is important to
note that the majority of the scheduling systems are defective and the unattended appointments
actually represent the less utilization of the precious resources of healthcare. There are many
factors that affect the performance of the appointment scheduling and it includes the experience
level of the scheduling staff, available information technology, preferences of the provider and
the patients, variability of the service time and also the arrival time, performance of the
appointment scheduling. Thus, it is essential to manage the vital and important bottlenecks in the
business and industrial domains. The hospital need to develop the dynamic procedures and
policies pertaining to the patient appointment (Cubillas et al., 2014).
The five patient centred strategy that will improve safety of the patient include the
provisions of allowing the patients to access the patient data pertaining to clinical notes and EHR
data; care for the environment existing within the hospital; creation of a safe patient experience;
creation of a timely and a simple appointment scheduling; encouraging the caregiver and family
engagement (Pulvirenti, McMillan & Lawn, 2014).
Healthcare Cost Reduction Factors
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According to Teitelbaum and Wilensky (2013) controlling or reducing healthcare
spending does not necessarily mean that quality should be minimized. Therefore, it is important
if organizations can reach a balance between spending and quality. The following would be
recommended as a way to reduce cost while maintain quality care: The three approaches that can
be used to reduce the cost of healthcare without sacrificing the quality of the patient care are:
reduction in the expensive turnover and burnout by adoption of selective technology; focusing on
the quality of the patient care by the administrative tasks that are repetitive; supporting for the in-
home care through the remote monitoring technology. It is important to mention that the when
the burden of the patients increases, then the caregivers burned out and caregiver leave a specific
healthcare organization so that they have a better working conditions. Training new staffs is
always an expensive procedure and it is hard to find the replacement of the caregivers due to the
shortage of the nurses. The hospital must help their nurses to not to work harder instead to work
smarter. This will impact not only their salary but also their benefit packages. The technologies
like the wearable biosensors, predictive analysis tools, and the staff scheduling software can
increase the nurse efficiency (Oshima Lee & Emanuel, 2013). Administrative tasks take up as
much as 57 percent of the time and this can be reduced by the streamlines usage of the new
technologies that will improve the efficiency and the care. The automated vital signs will include
the systems that will detect the administering of medications, fall prevention, documentation and
monitoring. The automated health record systems will take into account of the vital health signs
and the electronic health records of the patients so as to detect the declining health status of a
patient. Implementation of the new technologies will incorporate the new workflows into the
care delivery procedures and it will reduce the burden from over the caregiver and the patient.
The new admit to the home programs can be implemented so as to allow the patient of
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emergency room to be sent to their homes rather than keeping them in the hospital for recovery.
The care team can actively monitor the status of the patients through the vital signs (McGinnis et
al., 2013).
Quality in a Free-market versus Single payer system
Quality is dependent upon having knowledgeable, caring providers who have a thorough
understanding of preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies and the link amongst their
application and improved health outcomes. For this to be accomplished, providers as well as the
organization must understand the various payer systems, free market versus single payer
systems.
Quality in a free market healthcare system and a single payer government system has
distinct differences. The single payer system has some benefits and they are listed as under.
 One of the benefits of the single payer healthcare system is that the middle class people
and the poor people and also the sick people are able to receive the healthcare, this does
not pose as financial burden on the people. Of course, this does not mean that it is free,
however it is being paid by the wealthy people (Filc et al., 2014).
 Another major benefit stems from the single payer system and it comes from the large
economy of sale. The prices will tend to move towards the middle where everyone uses.
A specific that will be used by many people will have a more realistic average and people
are more likely to spend. Prices will fluctuate less and the large group of people will
receive more healthcare benefits (Bengoa, 2013).
 The single payer model actually hinders the quality of improved healthcare and the
reason is that the patients here control the flow of money and the amount that is actually
being spent on the healthcare (Bengoa, 2013).
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In the free market healthcare, the prices of the healthcare decreases over time due to the
increasing presence of competition. The second example is that the free market system to a large
extent out produces the other countries that the socialized medicines. This takes place in terms of
the medical technology and development of new drugs. Thirdly, availability of the healthcare-
this means that the supply of the healthcare providers, hospitals and the doctors will always be in
ample number and the demand will not fluctuate (Godman & Gustafsson, 2013).
Common Law Quality Initiatives in the 21st Century
Teitelbaum and Wilensky (2013) states common law is premised on the traditions and
customs of society. These common laws are important in ensuring quality in healthcare. Three
common law quality initiatives that are still found in 21st century healthcare organizations are:
The three common laws: Laws that govern the safety of the staff, public and patient in the
hospital premises (AERB safety code on Radiation pollution); the laws that govern the research
(ethical guidelines for biomedical research); laws that govern the environment safety
(Environment protection Act) (Martin & Sutton, 2015).
Importance of healthcare quality
The importance of healthcare quality for the healthcare organization is paramount. The
Institute of Medicine (IOM) defined healthcare quality as the degree to which health services for
individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent
with current professional knowledge. Quality of healthcare rendered to the patient is always
important because the patient safety of the patients is always the first priority of the healthcare
organizations, considering the life and death situations. Secondly, it is important to mention that
the healthcare must be rendered in a patient centred care approach so that the preferences of the
individuals are taken into account and the clinical decisions are taken depending on the situation.
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Thirdly, the quality of healthcare must be improved so as to improve the delay in healthcare. The
reason is that delay in healthcare can have fatal outcomes (Carayon et al., 2014).
Protect patient information
Protecting patient information is mandatory for all healthcare organizations. The Health
Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) of 1996 is a federal act that established
standards of privacy and protection of patient information. Every healthcare organization must
have a plan in place to protect patient information that complies with all legal requirements.
Health care workers have a responsibility to protect patient records from unauthorized access.
The following plan outlines the process to protect patient information at Memorial Healthcare
System: The plan is to protect the health information of the patients and the HIPPA states that
the health professionals that work with the vital health insurance information of the patients must
handle the same ethically. The reason is that without seeking permission from the patient it is
unethical to share information to another healthcare organization or for any other commercial
purpose. The plan is to follow the HIPPA guidelines when dealing with the sophisticated
healthcare insurance information of the patients (McGraw, 2013).
Conclusion
From the above discussion it can be concluded that for some of the patients, rights are an
integral part of the quality improvements efforts, and the quality of care so as to strengthen the
rights. Quality improvement efforts play a major role in overcoming the barriers towards
including the contribution of the patient and also in the process of organizational learning. There
are many factors that affect the performance of the appointment scheduling and it includes the
experience level of the scheduling staff, available information technology, preferences of the
provider and the patients, variability of the service time and also the arrival time, performance of
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the appointment scheduling. Training new staffs is always an expensive procedure and it is hard
to find the replacement of the caregivers due to the shortage of the nurses. The hospital must help
their nurses to not to work harder instead to work smarter.
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