Role of quality and risk management in healthcare outcomes
Risk management is the limitation of mistakes. It seeks to reduce costly negative results towards an individual or organization. For an organization, this may be in form of reduction of gloomy financial performance. In an individual, management tackles bodily harm, anxiety, anguish or incapacity. This is achieved by determining, recording and revising any problems that may bring about loss. In healthcare, to manage risk, one has to go beyond the care provided in the clinic (Wilson, & Goldschmidt, 1995).
Quality is the level at which health service produces excellent results. It includes tactical care that allows patients the pleasure of choice and results in the best solution to a problem. This type of care equally important does deal with the ease of health care access without discrimination. Quality is arrived at through structuring, processing and finally evaluating health care. The structure encompasses the clinic staff, clinic facilities and their standards concerning quality health care. The process is about the methodologies that are undertaken from diagnosis; check-up, prescription among many others. Positive change in the patients brought about by the quality medical care makes up the outcome (Youngberg, 2011).
Challenges in data collection and analysis
Among the methods used to collect data is through conducting a survey. In the clinics and among patients, it is quite tricky to collect data through this method. Some surveys are left unfinished due to the state of the sick person. Some are not answered correctly due to the patient’s fear of going against the caregivers (Wilson, & Goldschmidt, 1995). Data collection in the countryside is laced with various barriers, including environmental ones. This means the long distances the research team has to go through to get the data. Locating participants is a major challenge. One might be researching cancer patients. Getting the various patients and following them up is a major challenge. Some clinical data is not up to standard. One may have documentation that is not filled correctly or completely. The different systems and machines may form a major challenge in the collection and eventual analysis of data. Distinctive standardized policies used for analysis and gathering of information, affect the result and cause discrepancies. Some of the health care centres may be slow to implement any new regulation and this may affect data gathering and interpretation (Youngberg, 2011).
Quality components
There are six components, namely safety, accessibility, equity, patient-centred, effectiveness and finally efficiency. Safety means the reduction of risks to patients and hospitals. Accessibility reflects on the ease of obtaining health services. Effectiveness is the evaluation of the health system while efficiency is about finding how smooth it runs (Youngberg, 2011).
Quality and risk management tools and strategies
A strategy is any scheme that is involved in cutting out or minimizing quality differences. Some techniques include flow charts, check sheets, cause and effect diagrams. Fault tree analysis, preliminary hazard analysis, risk ranking and filtering are some of the tools that are applied in data manipulation (Wilson & Goldschmidt, 1995).
FMEA and RCA
Failure mode and effect analysis are about the provision of systems that can determine modes that are likely to fail and the most probable results. By obtaining the modes that are susceptible to fail risk, a reduction can be applied to minimize their effect or even strike them off. It analyzes and dissects the whole process involved. Root cause analysis is more of a reactionary than a preventive process (Youngberg, 2011). They seek the factors which have caused the alterations and identify their potential.
One scheme of providing proactive risk management is through introducing education for the caregivers. This can be done through workshops, seminars and other intensive training procedures. For long-term care, it is valuable to train the patients who have a particular disease, how best to seek treatment as well as remain healthy. It can also include national outreach programs that tend to sensitize the public on the various health care provisions (Wilson, & Goldschmidt, 1995). Facilitation of the delivery of medical data should be organized to reach the caregiver. This helps with clarity and provides for the effective running of ambulatory services.
References
- Wilson, L., & Goldschmidt, P. (1995). Quality management in health care. Sydney: Mcgraw-Hill.
- Youngberg, B. J. (2011). Principles of risk management and patient safety. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.