Managing Quality Assurance in the Workplace

Managing Quality Assurance in the Workplace

Grand Canyon University: HLT313V

Managing Quality Assurance in the Workplace

The health care organizations are transforming significantly in ways which increase the needs. As the population ages which is one of the major reasons of the increasing number of patients accessing medical care. As they age more medical needs are needed. Another provision of the Affordable Care Act like a focus on enhanced outcomes and the cost reductions is imperative to make sure healthcare is being delivered in a safe and quality care (McGinnis, 2013).

These changes should be the “light bulb” going off; it indicates a vital shift in the rising needs for healthcare workforce as well as the increase in allied health care positions and mid-level providers (BLS, 2019). Other industries and organizations associated with health care are predicted to continue with creating rapid health care growth in the future.

The current battle and top priority in the United States is transforming health care delivery. The goal is to make sure everyone has access to high quality care and making sure patients (everyone) has access to reasonable cost insurance to cover their medical needs. It has been a continued battle for the last twelve plus years and through Obamas presidency and currently Trumps presidency.

Not only the health care providers and nurses, many allied health professionals play a vital role in healthcare delivery. The demand for Allied health professionals is continuing to grow at a rapid pace due to increased insurance coverage and care delivery under Affordable Care Act. The growing health sector of the United States of America concentrates more on acute care versus chronic disease management when truly we need to focus on both. With this new outlook we really to focus on researching the best quality care available. We are beginning to see a large increase of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants taking of the general care of patients and medical doctors are doing the surgeries. Mid-level care is nothing to shy away from because they can truly help with patient’s needs.

According to, Allied Health Professionals, “There is currently around 5 million allied health professionals in the field”; whether it is in nutrition, health education, technology, occupational therapy, speech therapy, and daily function are involved with other health professionals in meeting the needs of patients.

The United States of America has gone through an always changing health care reform but still is facing a number of challenges. Many Americans are still uninsured. If we were to compare to other nations, the United States spends a great deal of money on health care; so we have effective care and services on chronic disease management. Medicare has certain criteria’s that have to be monitored for the disease process of Diabetes Mellitus. Truly we are trying to close the gap (the white elephant in the room) between the insured patients, uninsured patients (cash paying patients), and under-insured patient population. An area that would benefit from quality assurance would be completing research analysis to find the variation in treatment between the hospitals of the same geo area and to detect if there are any errors that lead to a decrease in the quality of care.

These steps are taken at the organizational level with department oversite that is governed by Managed Care Organization standards which is to provide high standards of care, easy access to services, providing the right care at right time, and prevention of complications. Evidence-based care and health information technology provides an outstanding care and minimizes the healthcare cost. Here in the United States we have several quality and measure certifications and accreditation companies that can help each and every Health care organization give the highest quality care to patients.

I believe that Health care in the United States biggest struggle is medical errors; The Joint Commission is there for a reason to hopefully cut down on medical errors. When you pull the data on medical errors and see that it is the eighth leading cause of death – no wonder cost of health care has increased over the years (AHRQ, 2018). It truly continues to threaten the economical future of our country.

The demand for allied health professional has continued to increase, so the healthcare workforce productivity should be increased as well. With Health care reform there have been changes in reimbursement; which will further increase the demand for services. “The Bureau of Health Statistics reported the demand should be increased for next five years” (BLS, 2019). What needs to be done is developing workforce planning areas to access of the allied services in remote areas.

“In politics, access is defined as having health insurance, even though access to insurance does not guarantee access to care” (Antonucci, 2010). Five ways to Improve Access to care I believe is having providers continue to see their patients routinely. Make it easy to schedule follow up appointments; when it is difficult to make an appointment most will skip this step and forget to follow up until they are declining in health. A third way is to offer to see patients same day as they call in to the office. This might not be as easy due to clinical hours. A huge improvement is using an electronic medical record that provides emailing that is directed through their chart. Lastly would be staying on top of the demand of patient’s needs. Ultimately is removing barriers from patients.

The end game for quality assurance is that the maintenance and quality in health care is held with high quality care that is free off medical errors. To get there we have administration put into place such as Risk Management and Quality Improvement Management. We these departments we can achieve the goals that are set within our health care organization. Health care will always be around and will always be a front runner in politics as we will always continue to be sick, having children, unfortunately getting cancer and needing surgeries to repair broken bones, mental health, and so much more. Health care will be a forever “cocooning butterfly” meaning forever changing; transforming as time goes by. We need to make sure going forward we put High – Quality care at the center of our attention going forward. Patient quality care should be important to everyone who works in health care. We sometimes can face burnout and we need to be reminded that changes means transforming into something better; a better version of itself. We can only continue to improve and hopefully we will have no medical errors in the future. Health care has truly been revolutionized and will continue to go in that direction especially with the continuing of medical research and modernization of certain technologies, procedures; telemedicine is the way of our health care future. Before we know it we will be living in a real life Jetsons episode, scanning remotely, automated x-ray machines, and robots performing surgeries without supervision. I look forward to health care improvement and to the future.

References

AHRQ. (2018, July 05). Guidelines and Measures. Retrieved August 3, 2019, from https://www.ahrq.gov/gam/index.html

Antonucci, J. M. (2010, October 01). Five Ways to Improve Access to Care. Retrieved August 4, 2019, from https://www.aafp.org/fpm/2010/0900/p48.html

BLS. (2019). Healthcare Occupations : Occupational Outlook Handbook:. Retrieved August 3, 2019, from https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/home.htm

Brooks, L. (2019, April). Allied Healthcare Professionals. Retrieved August 3, 2019, from https://explorehealthcareers.org/field/allied-health-professions/

McGinnis, T., Houston, R., & Brown, D. (2013, November). The Balancing Act: Integrating Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations into a Managed Care Environment. Retrieved August 3, 2019, from https://www.chcs.org/media/ACO111313_Final

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