Health Care Quality

ANSWERS

The degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes is referred to as quality of care. It is based on professional knowledge based on evidence and is critical for achieving universal health coverage. As countries commit to achieving Health for All, the quality of care and health services must be carefully considered. Quality health care can be defined in a variety of ways, but there is growing agreement that quality health services should include the following:

Effective – providing evidence-based healthcare to those in need;

Safe – avoiding harm to those who will receive care; and

People-centered care means providing care that is tailored to each individual’s preferences, needs, and values.

To reap the benefits of high-quality health-care delivery, health-care services must be:

Timely – minimizing waiting times and potentially harmful delays;

Equitable care is defined as not varying in quality based on gender, ethnicity, geographic location, or socioeconomic status.

Integrated care entails providing a comprehensive range of health services throughout a person’s life.

Efficient means making the most of available resources while minimizing waste.

QUESTION

Health Care Quality

The direction for this assignment will be:  Take an aspect of health care quality or risk management and expand on it.  In the past, students have submitted  on topics such as:  Nosocomial Infections and how to determine their causes and solutions (this student worked in a clinical setting); balanced scorecards, a deeper dive into the use of one of the measurements we studied (Six Sigma and Lean have entire books written about them), Google Medical errors and discuss the issues around that and what tools could be used to decrease or eliminate the errors (the last time I taught this class there had just been an article about a surgeon who removed the incorrect limb from a patient).  You could also take one of the Critical Concepts or Discussion Questions and research an aspect of that. It’s very broad; I want students to select a topic in which they have an interest.  (This is why we do the proposal; so I can be sure students are heading in the right direction!) so be sure to select a topic that has that much information.