Health Care Standards

Introduction
In the whole world, healthcare systems are putting in a lot of effort to upgrade the standard of healthcare in any atmosphere on Evidence Based Healthcare as well as Evidence Based Medicine. The world is changing at a very high speed hence healthcare is also growing to aid in the strain of the developing world. As a result of the alterations made in healthcare, the perception of quality, the way in which it is insured and pursued goes on improving. The main concept in healthcare is quality management. For the top-class services, the key is better performance which calls for a better focus on performance systems. For quality improvement, probity, patient safety and quality assurance to be the center components of all activities, routines and processes, working practices should be put in place. The major influence to quality of life as well as economic performance is standards of health (Teleki, Damberg & Reville, 2006).
Setting of standards in healthcare is done through voluntary initiatives, public and regulatory initiatives and private. Standards are applied in three main categories: the first one is health care organizations like hospitals and health plans. In this case, setting of standards is set through accreditation, licensure and in some cases larger purchasers like Medicare and Fortune 50 companies are imposed with requirements. The other category is health care professionals where setting of standards is done through accrediting, state licensure, board certification and credentialing programs. The last category is drugs and devices where the FDA is used.
Standards monitored by by an organization to rule its activities is the ultimate measure of its quality system. Depending on the results of health care for different groups of patients and analysis of delivery of healthcare to individuals, the ultimate quality of health care delivery is determined (Tabish, 2009).
Importance of standards of delivery of health care
The availability and development of standards geared towards safeguarding a patient serves many purposes: They establish uniformity, consistency and minimum levels of performance to different organizations and individuals. They also set expectations by publishing and disseminating standards to purchasers and consumers (Tabish, 2009).
The importance of standards in health care delivery is that they assist in clinical practice guidance. They also aid in evaluating employees and facilities to ensure safety and clinical proficiency. These standards also help in providing a platform for developing clinical competency checklists and evaluation of skills for a certain employer or clinical unit. They may be utilized as a tool to evaluate a nurse in a case where the employer suspects that the nurse is not meeting up the set standards and abiding by federal and state laws (Reid et al, 2005).
The standards aid healthcare organizations and management teams to create policies for upcoming technologies like social media, give duties to both unlicensed and licensed personnel, develop staffing practices which are safe, and ensure there is enough documentation. In a scenario where a nurse exposes on social media that he or she is taking care of a certain patient, the nurse together with healthcare organization are put at a risk of losing licensure according to the WHO confidentiality standard (Reid et al, 2005).
The standards in health care delivery give an assurance that the professionals in a healthcare facility are responsible for any clinical actions or decisions. They help promote the best expected result to a patient and reduce the patient’s risk to harm. The standards motivate them to continuously improve their knowledge base through continuing education and experience. Professional standards can be used by professionals to point out areas which need improvement in their working areas and clinical practices as well as improve the safety of their workplace and their patients. They must continually ensure that the clinical practices meets the set professional standards in order to gain and maintain trust and respects from patients as well as the community (Reid et al, 2005).
Need for Standards in the U.S. Health Care System
In healthcare, quality management is important in the following ways: creating transparency, trust, establishing communication, ensuring safety of customers, maximum utilization of resources, professional care excellence, ISO certification with legal compliance, benchmarking and meeting the customer’s needs. Accrediting and regulating health care is important and it entails audit, feasibility, review planning, orientation, reviewing documents, continuous quality improvement and the focus of the user as related to access and cost (Tabish, 2009).
One of the great cornerstones in healthcare together with access to services and cost is quality. All members of an organization put in continuous effort in quality development with an aim of meeting and exceeding the expectations and needs of customers and patients. The drawback is coming up with ways to improve on the current situation in the health sector. A potential for development exists in sectors which include quality of care, financial equity and the costs of care. A sustained improvement in the mentioned areas would aid in advancing the primary goal of health policies, which is health itself (Tabish, 2009).
Making patients a priority is the key to an improved health quality. Managers, planners and providers can come up with services which meet medical standards as well as treat clients as they wish. A change in attitude is required in order to adopt a client-centred approach . The managers and clinical leaders together with the culture of the organization , working practices and systems ensure quality assurance and improvement, probity and patient safety are the centre of all activities in a health care organization. They ensure that patients receive services as quickly as possible, have a choice in access to treatments and services, and so do not go through unnecessary delays during service delivery (Tabish, 2009).
Standards also help in achieving the health related Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) which entail reduction of maternal mortality, child mortality, malaria, Tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS burden. When you input health workforce, financing and procurement, the ultimate output is service delivery or provision. Increasing the inputs will then lead to better service provision. The main functions of a health system are: ensuring that health services are available and that they meet the minimum standards (Van Lerberghe, (2008).
Lifeline® Silver Plus Quality Achievement Award was earned by Bay Medical Sacred Heart for meeting certain quality achievement measures for diagnosing and treating patients with stroke at a certain level for a certain duration. These measures entailed good use of stroke treatments which are up-to-date, and guidelines aiming at speeding recovery and reducing deaths and disability cases for stroke patients. Before being discharged, the patients should receive training on how to manage their health, have a scheduled follow-up visit including other interventions on health care. Bay Medical Sacred Heart’s main dedication is towards improving their quality in terms of caring for their stroke patients by putting into practice American Heart Association’s Get with-The Guidelines-Stroke initiative. The available resources and tools will assist in meeting guidelines which have been put in place to improve the outcome of the patient (Panama City Living Magazine, 2018).
In both high and low income countries young people face challenges which prevent them from using health services. Generally, services require a good improvement. A report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that there is a huge need for improving health coverage universally and all sectors of health need to come up with ways on how to improve and respond to the health needs of adolescents. It suggests that national quality standards should be set to monitor this move. The WHO went through an elaborate process by collaborating with various departments in an organization, partnering organizations and other stakeholders in various countries in the world, to come up with eight Global Standards to transform the quality of health care services for young adults (Nair et al, 2015).

















References
Nair, M., Baltag, V., Bose, K., Boschi-Pinto, C., Lambrechts, T., & Mathai, M. (2015). Improving the Quality of Health Care Services for Adolescents, Globally: A Standards-Driven Approach. The Journal of adolescent health : official publication of the Society for Adolescent Medicine, 57(3), 288-98.
Panama City Living Magazine. (2018, July 5). Bay Medical Sacred Heart Hospital. Retrieved November 27, 2018, from http://panamacityliving.com/bay-medical-sacred-heart-hospital/
Reid, P. P., Compton, W. D., Grossman, J. H., & Fanjiang, G. (2005). Building a better delivery system: a new engineering/health care partnership (Vol. 15). Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Tabish, S. A. (2009). Standards for better health. International journal of health sciences, 3(1), V-VIII.
Teleki, S. S., Damberg, C., & Reville, R. T. (2006). Quality of Health Care: What Is It, Why Is It Important, and How Can It Be Improved in California’s Workers’ Compensation Programs? Support RAND, 1.
Van Lerberghe, W. (2008). The world health report 2008: primary health care: now more than ever. World Health Organization.