Quality Management and Accountability
Quality Improvement is an ongoing process that is systematic in nature and aims at ensuring that the healthcare levels are consistently high, and that a targeted group of patients have an improved health status.
According to the Institute of Medicine, the primary organization that checks on the healthcare levels in the country, quality in healthcare has a direct relationship between the expected health outcomes of a patient and the general population, and the level at which the services are being improved.
Considering quality in the healthcare industry is looking at how processes are being run at that particular moment, while at the same time ensuring that the health outcomes are the best in order to ensure satisfaction from the patients. It is has a direct link to how the organization approaches delivery of service or the systems that are in place for care provision.
Each organization may have a unique Quality Improvement program but they all rely on four key principles. They include working as processes and systems; focus on being part of a team, focus on how data is used, and focus on the patient (Weeks et al. 68).
