Paper Example on Safety and Quality Outcome

Introduction

An institution is a body made up of various components that are supposed to work together for better delivery of services. A health facility is one of those organizations. Just like any other organization, a health facility is supposed to be managed effectively so that it can meet the best standards of practice. There are many incidents where health facilities have been held liable for mismanagement of the patients' health either through negligence or systematic failure. The purpose of this essay, therefore, this is a continuation of the first essay by analyzing the quality and the safety outcomes from the administrative wing and the systems wing. Secondly, we shall explain the key quality and safety outcomes. Thirdly, we shall analyze the relationships between a systemic problem in an organization and specific quality and safety outcomes and finally determine how a leadership team would support the implementation and adoption of proposed practice changes affecting specific outcomes.

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There are several quality and safety outcomes that we have identified after examination of the quality systems in place. The first quality and safety outcome was about mortality. The mortality rates in this health facility are relatively lower as compared to other health facilities with a similar rating to this facility. This can be attributed to the investment in modern medical equipment that has made it possible for the easier diagnosis of the patients' ailments thus making it possible for them to be treated in a better manner (Hannan & Freeman, 1984). However, this pleasant statistic is undermined by a lack of adequate personnel to effectively deal with the increasing number of patients in the facility. This has prompted the facility to turn away a huge number of patients because there are not enough medical staff to attend to them. The second quality and safety examination focused on readmission. This is the initiative that the hospital makes in the following up of the medical conditions of the patients that had been admitted and determine whether they are responding to the medication or they need readmission. It was discovered that the facility makes little effort in the follow up of patients that had been admitted before. This was attributed to the lack of enough staff to do that follow as it was claimed if the hospital allowed its existing staff to make a follow up then there will be a further shortage of staff in the facility.

Thirdly we concentrated on the patient experience. This involves having the patient narrate his own experience about the past medical conditions and how they were handled. The hospital scored well in this test as the patients are allowed in a friendly question and answer session to narrate their experience, and this helps in the treatment process. Another area that we focused on is the safety of care of a patient. It was established that patients do not receive the best safety of care as required by the international safety standards. The safety standards include the patient being handled in a manner that does not injure or compromise the safety of his injury or illness. Because of the shortage in the staff, the patients are handled hurriedly we pause a very great risk to the safety of their bodies. Another safety standard that we focused on is the timeline of care where we tried to determine whether patients are taken attended to at the earliest opportunity or how long it takes to attend to a patient. It was established that patients take a long time before they are attended to. These are some of the safety and quality standards that we examined (Argyris, 1993).

There is a close relationship between a systematic problem in an organization and the quality mentioned above and safety outcomes. First, it when the organization has a very weak human resources department, then the problems that are highlighted above are likely to occur. This is because the human resource department is tasked with the improvement of the personal conditions in any organization. Consequently, therefore, the department should be in a position to determine the effective number of employees that can perform their task effectively without cases of staff shortage cropping up. Secondly, the finance department must also provide the required funds to ensure that the employees' welfare is well catered for so that the service delivery is achieved. Whenever there is a systematic failure in those two departments, then there is a high likelihood that it will affect the safety and quality outcomes (Buchanan, Fitzgerald & Ketley, 2006).

Outcome measures promote quality and safety processes within an organization in some ways. First, they drive the treatment decisions of the organization as they are used as a yardstick for the organization to improve on its efficiency. This yardstick also helps the new staff to fit adequately into the organization's medical practices. The second way in which they promote the quality and safety processes is that they determine the efficient medical treatment of a patient. A patient must be treated in the established safety and quality standards, and this is what they provide for. Any deviation from the outcome measures should be investigated. In the cases where outcome measures established that some areas needed improvements then those areas must be worked on. Outcome measures also enhance communication between the patient and the medical staff. This helps a great way in the treatment process of a patient as communication is key in the diagnosis of a disease and proper management of the patient (Bazzoli, Dynan, Burns, & Yap, 2004).

Conclusion

Specific organizational functions, policies, processes, procedures, norms, and behaviors can be used to build reliability and high-performing organizations in some ways. First, the efficient performance of a health facility is determined by its policy regarding healthcare. The policy should be geared towards a reduction in mortality rates, observation of international standards of medical practices when handling a patient and improve the relations between the medical staff and the patients. This will help a great deal in realizing best performance regarding treatment of its patients. Organizational functions also play a critical role in the production of an institution. The tasks across various departments should be inter-connected for the flawless running of activities in the medical facility. The personal tasked with performing those functions must also be people with the right qualifications and the required experience to complement the work of the medical staff. The processes in any organization must be simple but sufficient so that work flows smoothly. Bureaucracy regarding systems and procedure will always lead to failure of the safety and quality outcomes in the organization.

A nurse has different roles to play in promoting, developing and sustaining the culture of quality and safety. First, she must regularly attend the workshops on safety and quality to keep herself up to date with the emerging safety and quality practices. Secondly, a nurse must ensure that she or he conducts himself or herself in a manner that provides the safety of the patient as required by the medical standards. The nurse must always remember that he or she is a professional and therefore must professionally conduct himself or herself.

The leadership can promote and effect changes in some ways. One is through communicating the rationale behind those changes to the staff. They should do so by developing a case vouching for those changes. Secondly, the changes should be implanted in phases so that they do not meet resistance. Finally, they should evaluate the changes and review where those changes are not being effective (Robbins & Galperin, 2010).

References

Argyris, C. (1993). Knowledge for action: A guide to overcoming barriers to organizational change. Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers, 350 Sansome Street, San Francisco, CA 94104.

Bazzoli, G. J., Dynan, L., Burns, L. R., & Yap, C. (2004). Two decades of organizational change in health care: what have we learned?. Medical Care Research and Review, 61(3), 247-331.

Buchanan, D. A., Fitzgerald, L., & Ketley, D. (Eds.). (2006). The sustainability and spread of organizational change: modernizing healthcare. Routledge.

Hannan, M. T., & Freeman, J. (1984). Structural inertia and organizational change. American sociological review, 149-164.

Robbins, D. L., & Galperin, B. L. (2010). Constructive deviance: striving toward organizational change in healthcare. Journal of Management and Marketing Research, 5, 1.