Health Care Quality Today, we live in a world where health care is forever changing. As technology and health care improve people’s expectations regarding the quality of their health care increase as well. Quality health care is defined as “the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (Huber, 2014, p. 293). The Institute of Medicine (IOS) defines quality of care as a set of characteristics that include patient-centered care that is safe and effective (Johnson, 2010). This also includes the unnecessary delays in health care, the efficient use of resources, as well as the need to provide care that does not vary
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The Six Sigma strategy involves a four stage process: identification, characterization, optimization, and institutionalization (Huber, 2014). Each stage within the process includes steps that begin by recognizing and defining the issue followed by working through a set of objectives in order to standardize and integrate a new process to improve the issue (Huber, 2014). Within my facility, whenever an issue or medical error occurs, we write a Riskmaster, which is a documented account of the occurrence. With these occurrences come assessments by a risk team, that work on improvements based on how we currently do something and what needs to be changed in order to avoid the problem in the future. The risk team uses these occurrences to make new policies and procedures that can be integrated throughout the hospital and improve the quality of …show more content…
According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics (2001), nurses are to promote, advocate, and protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient which are all necessary for health care quality. The ANA Code of Ethics (2001) also states that nurses should be active in the development of policies and procedures to promote patient safety to reduce the likelihood of errors. The development of the time out initiative in operating rooms prevents surgical errors from happening which also helps to improve the quality of care given. Nurses are also expected to follow institutional guidelines when errors occur (ANA, 2001). To promote quality care within hospitals, nurses are responsible for reporting errors in order to avoid those occurrences in the future. Nurses have a commitment to the health, well-being and safety of the patient which is needed to maintain quality care within health care facilities (ANA, 2001). Quality care initiatives are not going away, but are increasing in all institutions. This is a topic that is important not only to health care providers, but to patients as well. Quality care should outweigh quantity in order for patients to achieve the best possible health care
The Six Sigma strategy involves a four stage process: identification, characterization, optimization, and institutionalization (Huber, 2014). Each stage within the process includes steps that begin by recognizing and defining the issue followed by working through a set of objectives in order to standardize and integrate a new process to improve the issue (Huber, 2014). Within my facility, whenever an issue or medical error occurs, we write a Riskmaster, which is a documented account of the occurrence. With these occurrences come assessments by a risk team, that work on improvements based on how we currently do something and what needs to be changed in order to avoid the problem in the future. The risk team uses these occurrences to make new policies and procedures that can be integrated throughout the hospital and improve the quality of …show more content…
According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) Code of Ethics (2001), nurses are to promote, advocate, and protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient which are all necessary for health care quality. The ANA Code of Ethics (2001) also states that nurses should be active in the development of policies and procedures to promote patient safety to reduce the likelihood of errors. The development of the time out initiative in operating rooms prevents surgical errors from happening which also helps to improve the quality of care given. Nurses are also expected to follow institutional guidelines when errors occur (ANA, 2001). To promote quality care within hospitals, nurses are responsible for reporting errors in order to avoid those occurrences in the future. Nurses have a commitment to the health, well-being and safety of the patient which is needed to maintain quality care within health care facilities (ANA, 2001). Quality care initiatives are not going away, but are increasing in all institutions. This is a topic that is important not only to health care providers, but to patients as well. Quality care should outweigh quantity in order for patients to achieve the best possible health care