Quality Improvement in Healthcare
Instructions:-
Question (1)
Consider the online lectures on quality concepts which included: Benchmarking, Clinical Practice Guidelines, Evidence Based Medicine, Just in Time, Reengineering and Teams/ Quality Circles.
1. Select two of the concepts and discuss how they may or may not be used in a process improvement project and/ or Lean Six Sigma initiative..
2. Describe how each of these concepts are being implemented/ used within your facility. If they are not being used, why not?
Question (2)
Go to the Internet and find 2 different mission statements for ANY health care organization or company.
1) Describe how the mission statement DOES or DOES NOT have quality inherent in it. Give specific examples of why you think it does or doesn’t imply quality
2) Provide 2 measures for EACH of the mission statements that could be used to measure the organizations achievement towards its mission. (Note, you will have a total of 4 measures)
Solution
Quality Improvement in Healthcare
Question one
Introduction
Project management in healthcare is a central aspect of organizations when faced with completing projects within its management make-up to attain delivery of quality services to patients. As such, this section highlights two concepts; benchmarking and re-engineering. Additionally, it will cover the application of these two concepts in my organization.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking refers to as a continuous process that healthcare organizations use to compare themselves with the best practices in the healthcare industry by performance metrics and business process. As such, benchmarking entails a comparison of quality, time, and cost as well as policies of other companies within the healthcare industry. Benchmarking can be internal, external or functional. Regarding internal comparison, the facility can compare the units between the organizations for maximum quality attainment.
Regarding external comparison, the facility can measure performance metrics that coincide with other organizations within the same industry. On the other hand, functional comparison entails a focus on a single function by an organization to another organization for improving the particular function. A good example of benchmarking can be derived from the comprehensive survey that was stipulated by the Global Benchmarking Network in 2008 which represented 22 countries. It stipulates that Mission and Visions Statement, Customer surveys are the imperative measures in benchmarking. Also, SWOT analysis and Best Practice Benchmarking are one of the best examples of benchmarking.
Re-Engineering
As a method of project management, re-engineering is a current business organizational and management strategy that managers use to analyze the workflows and corporate processes of an organization internally. It is a method of re-thinking the business process to improve the delivery of service. As such, re-engineering is a critical element in healthcare as organizations focus on cutting cost, enhancing quality delivery, and shunning off competitors. Research suggests that in the mid-1990s, the Fortune 500 firms utilized this approach to improve quality delivery for their respective organizations. Re-engineering encompasses redesigning and restructuring of business processes (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica & Giacchetta, 2011).
Application to My Facility
These two methods have been widely utilized in most healthcare organizations without an exception of my organization. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare in the US stipulated Benchmarking as the measurement tool for screening the impact of clinical, logistical, governance, and management functions (Ettorchi-Tardy, Levif, & Michel, 2012). As such, benchmarking in my organization involved a survey of patient feedbacks from John Hopkins Hospital. Findings suggest that we needed to improve out outpatient services. This benchmarking strategy helped us to improve the sector hence delivering quality services to our patients.\
Also, our organization utilized re-engineering of our organizational process by enhancing the IT department and shifting fully to the use of Electronic Health Records. As such, we focused on the modernization of the diagnosis process. This method helped us deliver quality and feedbacks from patients indicated that our services were better as compared with the use of traditional health records.
Question Two
Mission Statements
- John Hopkins Hospital
Mission Statement
“The mission of Johns Hopkins Medicine is to improve the health of the community and the world by setting the standard of excellence in medical education, research, and clinical care. Diverse and inclusive, Johns Hopkins Medicine educates medical students, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts biomedical research; and provides patient-centered medicine to prevent, diagnose and treat human illness.” (Johns Hopkins Health System, 2016)
The mission statement for John Hopkins depicts quality inherence as they stipulate that they set standards of distinction in the fields of clinical care. At the end of the statement, they suggest that they focus on the provision of patient-centered care in the intervention process. Consequently, quality entails the focus on patient outcome as stipulated by (Mohammed, et al., 2016).
- Shalby Hospitals
Mission Statement
“To preserve and sustain quality human life by providing enduring wellness through best practices and following highest ethical values.” (Shalby Hospital )
The mission statement for the Shalby Hospitals based in India, but has branches in UAE, mention quality in their mission statement as such the hospital provides quality, hence, its rapid growth within the Middle-east.
Measures for achievement of Mission Statement
- John Hopkins Hospitals
The fist measure that indicates that John Hopkins Hospital fulfill their mission statement is the diversity factor. Notably, John Hopkins has some both affiliate and branch hospitals throughout the globe, their facility accept races all over the globe and as such, it ranked as the 4th best hospital in the US regarding quality delivery.
Secondly, the mission statement at John Hopkins Hospital utilizes the use of standards of excellence. The measure of excellence is a critical factor in the healthcare sector. As such, with the available equipment at the hospital and utilization of Evidence-Based Practice, the facility can provide quality services to its clients.
- Shalby Hospitals
In Shalby, the measure of quality improvement is a critical part of the organization, since the organization is based in the Middle-east; it strives to enhance the provision of care to all persons irrespective of their income of their status in the society.
Secondly, the institution applies measures of best practices in its
mission statements. As such, the Shalby Hospitals are well-known for providing
quality service to its clients. Notably, Shalby hospitals have collaboration
with other hospitals internationally so that they can utilize benchmarking
techniques in their service delivery.
References
Bertolini, M., Bevilacqua, M., Ciarapica, F. E., & Giacchetta, G. (2011). Business process re-engineering in healthcare management: a case study. Business Process Management Journal, 17(1), 42-66.
Ettorchi-Tardy, A., Levif, M., & Michel, P. (2012). Benchmarking: a method for continuous quality improvement in health. Healthcare policy , 7 (4), e101.
Johns Hopkins Health System. (2016). Mission. Retrieved Decemebr 16, 2016, from Hopkins Medicine: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/about/mission.html
Mohammed, K., Nolan, M. B., Rajjo, T., Shah, N. D., Prokop, L. J., Varkey, P., et al. (2016). Creating a Patient-Centered Health Care Delivery System A Systematic Review of Health Care Quality From the Patient Perspective. American Journal of Medicine Quality , 31 (1), 12-21.
Shalby Hospital . (n.d.). Mission and Vision. Retrieved Decemebr 16, 2016, from Shalby Hospital : http://shalby.org/Shalby_Hospital/Mission_And_Vision
