Quality management is one of the significant focuses of organisations in the healthcare sector. Quality healthcare services positively impact the patients’ experience and wellbeing. It helps an organisation to make a prominent mark in the sector and attract more people who have health care needs. Operational managers of health organisations seek to have a cohesive system of quality management or QMS through which their staff can manage their different functions efficiently, address different challenges, and meet the expectations of patients. However, there are several specific concepts of quality management in healthcare which they need to ensure in their QMS.
If you own a healthcare facility, this blog can help you to improve your quality management by better understanding its different concepts.
To improve the quality of your healthcare services for ensuring better satisfaction of patients, do not forget to include these key concepts while developing your QMS.
Quality comes along with the concept of ‘safety’ in healthcare. Any risks or negligence in health services can severely harm the patient. Everything including the processes, equipment used for diagnoses, prescribed drugs, injections, surgeries, or even application of topical medicines has a direct influence on the health condition of patients. They should be meant to revive the condition of the patients but do not further damage them. Therefore, extra care should be taken about ensuring the safety of medical products, equipment, procedures, technologies, and facilities used for treating the patients. You should conduct frequent periodic assessments of everything to identify any issues that can affect the safety of patients. Also, staff should be guided well with proper information to make sure they are able to provide services in the right way.
Efficiency implies the judicious use of resources by your organisation so that there is less waste. To ensure the efficiency of your healthcare services, you should be conscious regarding the use of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, equipment, technology devices, treatments ideas, and also energy sources (electricity, water, etc.). Therefore, your quality management should focus on making processes and resources efficient to minimise wastes.
Achieving efficiency in your healthcare organisation helps to save both resources and costs. You can dedicate the extra resources or costs for research and innovation. In short, being efficient makes your organisation capable of providing better and more advanced services.
Goals of quality management in healthcare differ widely from that of general businesses. You need to determine the goals first to establish an appropriate QMS. To determine the goals of your quality management, the operational leaders and quality managers need to work together. They should thoroughly assess all your treatment services, medical supplies, equipment, infrastructure, staff roles and customer-care functions. According to the assessment outcomes, they can decide the targeted performance improvements required in each area.
Quality improvement by your healthcare organisation is not possible unless the staff are trained regarding patient care, use of medical supplies or equipment, and managing risks or issues. The managers along with leading health experts of your organisation should take the responsibility of holding training sessions at frequent periods for both existing staff and new recruits. Their patient handling experience, health knowledge, and ideas should be communicated to the staff. Training programs help ensure that everyone is headed in one direction, i.e., enhancing the healthcare services for the benefits of patients.
Delays in health services can be seriously harmful to the patients and can reduce their faith in your services. Your quality management approach should therefore take the timeliness aspect into account. It should enable you to eliminate the delays in your processes or supply of medical products. A part of your quality management must involve reviewing of processes and medical supplies. It helps to identify any equipment failure or operational inefficiencies which can affect the delivery of services.
It is not easy for the patients or their distressed family to understand whether they are getting quality care and treatment services from their chosen healthcare service provider. Even the medical professionals taking care of them cannot judge this! A definite approach for quality management is necessary to ensure the offering of satisfactory services for the patients. Quality management in healthcare is much more comprehensive than quality management in any generic business. There is the integration of many concepts of quality management in healthcare, which are mentioned above. To make sure your organisation is able to improve patient care, you should consider these concepts in your QMS.
Quality management and continual improvement of your quality help your healthcare organisation to rise from an average service provider to an excellent one! Achieving ISO 9001 can provide credibility of your healthcare quality management to the patients. It demonstrates your commitment to patients’ safety with a consistent QMS and strives to improve the efficiency and timeliness of your services. Therefore, you can consider achieving the standard for your healthcare QMS.
Do you own a healthcare facility and are looking for ways to update your quality management program? Get in touch with Compliancehelp! We are a team of quality assurance consultants in Australia who can assist you in implementing the right QMS in your healthcare facility.
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