Quality Management Assessment essay
Present paper is meant to describe the quality management approach concerning the nursing home facilities. I am going to describe three concepts of quality management, five factors that influence quality outcomes in nursing home facilities and three basic quality-management policies they influence health outcomes.
Main concepts of quality management
Quality management in healthcare and in nursing home facilities in particular identifies any needs for improvement. Quality management is the field that guarantees that patients obtain the perfect provision of care. By employing quality management concepts in nursing home facilities, stuff may benefit from identifying ways to enhance internal processes, which will ream more “quality” outcomes for the people. The main function of quality care management is being capable of providing quality care that the average individual may afford. Where there is a lack of quality inexpensive healthcare there is a void in quality management.
There are several key concepts of quality management. I will enumerate three of them. The first concept presupposes zero defects. It means that there is no acceptance for the mistakes when it concerns nursing home facilities and healthcare. The aim of every process is to avoid mistakes. The second concept presupposes the patient satisfaction. Nursing home facilities have come to realize that their major concern must be to satisfy their patients. Satisfying the clients involves providing what is needed when it’s needed. The third concept presupposes continuous improvement process. It is a continued modification to enhance the situation and focuses on constancy of purpose, teamwork, commitment to quality, process orientation, investment in knowledge, total involvement.
Most scholars in the quality management sphere tend to concentrate on quality definitions and terms. It is important to qualify definitions relevant to the sphere with which people are dealing. Also, scholars in this field stress that there are a number of different groups with something to say about how the services in nursing home facilities should be defined.
Factors that influence quality outcomes
Recent statistical analysis showed that there are many factors that influence quality outcomes. These include overtime hours, staffing patterns, patient perception, and work of contracted workers.
Increased overtime by the personnel of nursing home facilities may negatively affect quality outcomes. It may be associated with the lower quality of work, drug overdose and increased mortality (Collins Sharp, Clancy, 2008).
The human error component of medical mistakes can also be influenced by staffing patterns. Although several researches have been conducted with hospital stuff, studies outside the field of health care show a tie between fatigue and degradation in work.
Patient acuity was used to manage nursing personnel resources, quality and costs. Nevertheless, in the 1990s, the matter of patient acuity became very important. Patients were said to be worse and leaving the facilities faster. Concerns about rising patient acuity proceed now due to the persistent change that is now common in health care and in nursing home facilities. Furthermore, acuity is the component that comprises the often utilized but not well specified notion of workload.
According to the recent report, the majority of nursing homes have workers with some criminal records. The system of background checks does not prevent individuals with criminal convictions from working in these facilities, and it leaves helpless nursing-home inhabitants at risk of harm. So, the work of contracted workers naturally affects the quality outcomes as well.
But the engagement level of the nursing specialists has the most important and deep impact on quality outcomes. Recent research has demonstrated many factors that have a vital impact on patient safety and quality. But there’s one key factor that many nursing home facilities may be overlooking: how engaged their employees are at work. Without a doubt, the study found that hospitals with better nurse engagement have reduced mortality and complication index. There is a considerable proof that high quality predicts improved financial work. Patients who enjoy care free of unnecessary complications are more likely to talk positively about their stay in nursing home. They are also more likely to come back for more services, enlarging a nursing home’s revenues (McGillis Hall, 2004).
Quality-management policies
According to the recent research of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, ninety percent of nursing homes in the USA were charged with changeable degrees of violations. No surprise here: practically all violations result from differences in established federal or state regulations that should be added to facility policies and procedures. The usage of policies reducing early death and increase quality of life of patents identify quality health care management. Quality management is cost effective and may generate earnings. Policies provide the framework within which actions are to be carried out in the nursing home facility. The policies are applied on an establishment-wide basis covering items like patient rights, ethics, health and safety. There are certain procedures for each service as well. These policies provide obvious directives as to the range of service, the duties and activities of personnel.
There are several policies that a nursing home has to assess. These are analysis and knowledge management, customer focus, workforce focus, strategic planning, leadership, measurement, process management and results. I will discuss three quality-management policies, which should be implemented in nursing home facilities.
The first policy is the skillful leadership. Leaders today are asked to evolve a work environment that supports innovation and creativity in order to meet clients’ requirements and to prevent possible problems. Leaders concentrate on facility processes, customer services and enjoy the opportunity to receive positive feedback. The second policy presupposes listening to the clients. Though this task seems to be quite simple, customers may not always know what they need, or they can not describe their needs clearly. Skilled nursing facilities that concentrate on customer satisfaction feel the feedback from their residents and their families. The third policy is measuring the quality. Employee training is vital to guarantee that everyone involved in the process possesses the same features in the same way. The efficiency of the quality process is straightforwardly related to the quality of the data analysis.
By adding data to the basis of a risk management notion, facilities increase the capability to benchmark, track and continually monitor work. So, the risk management program is treated as every worker’s duty. Every personnel member should remember that risk management is the key to vital advantages like: fewer review deficiencies, improved compensation, fewer negative events, lower expenses for professional responsibility and better public relations. Besides these benefits, managing risk means more resources accessible for providing better quality of care.
