Quality improvement strategy through effective patient education implementation

Healthcare Organization Quality Improvement Plan

The purpose of the QI (Quality Improvement Plan) is a formal process by which organizations use the objective measures to evaluate and monitor the QoS (quality of service) both operational and clinical being provided to patients. Typically, the QI plan addresses behavioral health, general medical as well as oral healthcare and services. The QI plan also uses the systematic approach to identify as well as pursing opportunities to improve healthcare services and resolves problems within an healthcare organization. (Kelly, 2011).

In other words, the QI is an overarching organization plan that healthcare organizations employ to achieve service and clinical quality improvements. The board of directors and leaders within the organization are responsible in developing the QI plan to achieve organizational objective.

Objective of this project is develop the strategy to achieve the quality improvement plan through effective patient education.

Organization, Structure and Authority

Organizational structure refers to a formal and guided process used to integrate information, people and technology that allow an organization to maximize value in order to achieve quality improvement. Leadership plays a critical role in the QI development and implementation. Effective organization structures is a connection of senior leaders within the organization and board of directors. Thus, the authority and structure responsible to implement the QI are as follows:

Executive leadership such as senior leaders and chief medical officers play a critical role in defining the competency to achieve organizational success. Typically, senior leaders set a direction that an organization should follow in achieving quality improvement. (Waldman, Lituchy, Gopalakrishnan et al.998). The executive leaders also collect information to stay within the legal parameter in order not to violate the law guiding the quality improvement implementation. Board of directors are also responsible to approve funds and set target that executive leaders should achieve. Additionally, the board of director sets a mission statement that guides the application of QI implementation. Moreover, the board of directors oversee the implementation of the organizational quality improvement. The board of directors also monitor the overall staff to make them achieve the quality target.

Quality improvement committee is also part of the structures involved in the implementation of healthcare quality improvement. The committee is made up of leaders selected from different departments and the task of the committee is to identify the activities of the QI plan. Moreover, the committee assists in developing evaluation report as well as sharing information among the executive leaders. The committee also identifies problems, set priorities and solve problems that might be associated to quality improvement.

The task of medical staff is to interact with caregivers, patients and their families in order to collect their feedbacks that can be useful to enhance quality improvement. The middle management is responsible to implement the order of the senior management and supervise the junior staff. Typically, the overall quality improvement implementation rest on the middle management because they receive directions from the top management and implement the direction using the junior staff.

Department staff is composed of the staff of each department within the organization. For example, the staff in the human resources are to manage the entire employee of the organization. The staff of the accounting department overseas the financial aspect of the QI implementation plan. The accounting staff also oversees that the funds disbursed for the plan are judiciously used.

Communication

The QIC (quality improvement committee) is responsible for the overall communication process of the QI plan. The committee oversees the data collection process to be diffused the information to appropriate stakeholders. The committee use web as well other social media to diffuse information. The committee also tracks the data received, create the over reports as well as communicating the findings to the board. The governing boards then communicate the findings to the appropriate staff members.

Additionally, the middle management and the clerical staff assist in overseeing data collection as well preparing report to make people understand the quality improvement strategy of the organization. The hospital is required to schedule regular training for the staff to assist them carrying out an effective record keeping.

Annual Evaluation

The QI plan will be evaluated annual to achieve organizational goals and ensure that the best quality of care is delivered to patients. The evaluation will also assist in making necessary changes needed to enhance continuous quality improvement. Data collection process is very critical to enhance quality improvement, and the evaluation team will set performance standard and compare the data collected about the quality scores of the healthcare delivery to enhance a greater understanding whether the organization reaches its quality standards. The feedback from patients, and survey from other stakeholders will also be used evaluate the performances of the organization with regards to the quality of healthcare delivery. (Moyers,, New, Shaw,2004).

Additionally, the organization will monitor the progress of the QI program monthly using the department managers. The managers will use the written report to inform the progress to Board of Directors and Executive Leaders, which will assist in advising the department manages on the areas that require improvements.

Regulatory & Accreditation

The organization will use external evaluators such as accredited agencies, governmental organizations, and professional interest groups for the evaluation of the organizational quality standards.

Conclusion

The quality improvement is an effective tool to assist organization to achieve competitive market advantages. In the competitive business environment, healthcare organizations are required to improve the quality of healthcare delivered to patients to increase the number of patients patronizing their organizations. Thus, a quality improvement plan assists organizations to achieve competitive market advantages. The project designs the quality improve plan for our organization. The board of directors, the executive leaders, medical staff, middle management and quality improvement committee are the stakeholders responsible for the QI plan implementation. The plan also identifies patient education as an effective tool to enhance quality of care improvement. Through effective patients education, organizations will achieve effective QI plan, which will assist in enhancing competitive market advantages.

Reference

Kelly, D. L. (2011). Understanding System Behavior: System Structure Applying Quality Management in Health Care: A Systems Approach, 3e Chapter 3.

Moyers, H., New, W., Shaw, J.G (2004). Choosing a Quality/Performance Improvement Methodology. Shaw Resources.

Waldman DA, Lituchy T, Gopalakrishnan M et al. (1998). A qualitative analysis of leadership and quality improvement. Leadership Quarterly. 9:177-202.