WHAT IS QUALITY MANAGEMENT?.

Everyone claim to cook very well but who is actually the best cook?. What are the systems in place to measure and monitor the best cook?. According to various findings and documentation quality management in Healthcare is ” the administration of systems,policies ,design, and process that will eliminate harm while improving the quality of care that patient is receiving with goals of the best outcomes “.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov.

Quality management is very important, it is the Central priority of the organization and this can be seen with great emphasis on continuous efforts in performance improvement. The leaders of every Company/Organization must be committed to providing continuous quality improvement using reliable methods to measure outcomes and performance. All the employees of an organization must be part of performance improvement in moving the organization forward. It is important to note that quality is mainly a departmental function with each department manager in charge of quality management.

Most patients and families with access to online, social media, Facebook, have become increasingly smarter and sophisticated about the choices they make when it comes to their health and because of shared costs with insurance companies. When patients are satisfied with care that they received they will attract more new patients, doctors, nurses and third- party payers to a particular organization that has record of evidence based practice.Executive administration of every Institution have realize that they must be highly competitive in providing quality patient care with other organization for them to survive. With performance improvement everyone is involve from the unit secretary, the house keepers to the CEO of the organization.

Quality Assurance program is one of the mechanism for identifying and accomplishing these goals. The origin of quality improvement started in the 19th century. The importance of hand washing was introduced by Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis( Saviour of mothers)a Hungarian Physician and Scientist ,who was an early pioneer of antiseptic Procedures.Then doctor Ernest Codman pioneered quality improvement and Hospital Standard of Care. But before all of these there was Florence Nightingale who identified that “poor living conditions led to high death rate among the soldiers during the war so she introduced sanitation of hospitals, clear air and clean environment.There were other epic historical figures such as Dorothea Dix 1802 to 1887,Clara Barton etc.

There are comprehensive quality review programs in place since 19th century and they are in four categories. These elements are associated with successful healthcare quality Assurance and are as follows.

A. The Clinical and Administrative assessment.

B.Physician leadership, Credentialing, keeping the Organization compliance, infrastructure support,

prioritizing quality of Healthcare within the establishment.

C.Utilization review and management.

D.Environmental risk management.

It identified the importance of quality in Healthcare and gradually developed to surround and prioritize quality improvement as top most important and created a system in place to monitor quality improvement in the delivery of health care services in the organization. As long as there is a reliable evidence based that is continuously monitored and improved upon with accurate measurement and proper data collection.If you see something say something, if you are dissatisfied on patient care take action. If the standard set are not met by the care providers, that is not meeting up with accurate health providers attributes,action should be taken, risk should be adjusted through a mechanism of reporting.

Medical staff monitoring activities should include all areas such as Medical records, Surgery cases,drug utilization review ,infection control review, blood and blood products, utilization review, quality of care review and risk management review.

Many hospitals have a surveillance system in place to identify unexpected patients outcomes,analyze the risk of potential loss. Surveillance remains ongoing with systemic data collection ,analysis, interpretation as this help with planning ,implementation, evaluation and outcomes. For example Sepsis survelliance is critically monitored, data collected,measured ,implemented and outcome evaluated and adjustments made if needed .And due to the interest of third-party payers,professional desire for self improvement and the serious competition in the Healthcare industry has made keeping quality improvement to be on the spotlight and remained the highest priority. Most America businesses constantly demand quality in Healthcare.