Healthcare quality is a key element in any public or private medical practice and administration. Many organizations have been formed to monitor the quality of healthcare among its providers in the broad sphere of healthcare practice (Oster et al, 54). Among these organizations is the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the American Health Quality Association. As stated above, the organizations’ prime goal is to ensure that quality healthcare is practiced and that continuous improvement in the manner in which medical services are rendered is maintained.
Focusing on AHRQ, it is worth noting that the organization has taken several measures in attaining its objectives. Such initiatives include financing and conducting research which provides information on quality, costs, healthcare outcomes, access and use. Further, the organization facilitates training of healthcare officers by providing the necessary resources with an of enhancing their competence and relevance in the rapidly changing world of health. On top of these measures, the AHRQ has the potential of improving healthcare quality by not only focusing on research but also in integrating all stakeholders in the maintenance of quality healthcare.
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"Healthcare Quality Explained".
American Health Quality Association on its part participates in upholding quality health care by adopting various measures such as facilitating training and educational programs among local community members, as well as conducting evaluations on the prevailing healthcare practices. These measures are primarily targeted at improving the quality of healthcare by incorporating both the community members and healthcare providers. Besides training and evaluation of prevailing health care practices, the American Health Quality Association has the potential of adopting the strategy of empowering local members of the community so as to minimize the possibilities of indulging themselves into less quality healthcare practices as they carry out their normal daily routines. This empowerment will have the potential of minimizing cases of ill health resulting from low-quality healthcare practice.
In healthcare practice, several medical errors occur as a result of poor management and coordination of activities of in the organization. Some of the prevalent errors highly reported occurring include poor record-keeping and improper disease diagnoses. Considering these errors, and as a healthcare officer charged with minimizing their future happening, I would endeavor to ensure that digital record keeping is used with a manual backup. Digitization of keeping the records would reduce chances of possible loss of information as well as maintaining easy and fast track of the same information should it be required. In ensuring that patients are properly taken through diagnoses processes, I would recommend that better and scientific machines with minimized chances of errors be used.
Liability and Quality
From the research aiming at establishing compliance in error reporting, it was found that corporate liability measured high compared to vicarious liability. The high count in cases of corporate liability compared to the vicariously committed reporting errors are linked to the fact that the employees work on behalf of the organization and that any error they commit has the element of taking the whole organization into account(Fried et al, 49). Minimizing the occurrence of errors leading to both types of liabilities is essential. This can be achieved by creating awareness among employees and also heightening the consequences should an employee cause such error(s). Further, the organization should impose individual liability policy if such errors are committed. Available literature shows that adoption of these strategies has successfully helped minimize the occasion of such errors and so less liability on both ends.
Coupled with other means of reporting, public reporting highly contributes to the minimization of errors in healthcare practice. This is arrived at through holding individuals accountable should an incidence of misconduct happen. Furthermore, value-based purchasing ensure that equipment intended for medical practice are of high quality and ones which precisely address the problem at hand. The advantage with public reporting is that it ensures that health officers remain accountable for their deeds as well as adhering to the prescribed medical standards. On the other hand, value-based purchasing has the advantage of ensuring proper disease diagnoses is maintained and also the correct prescription of the intended medication. Adopting these measures improves healthcare quality in; 1) Chances of making errors are minimized, and 2) that proper and evidence-based treatment is maintained.
- Fried, Bruce, and Myron D. Fottler. Human Resources in Healthcare: Managing for Success. 2015.
- Oster, Cynthia, and Jane Braaten. High Reliability Organizations: A Healthcare Handbook for Patient Safety & Quality. 2016.
