Promoting Health Care Quality Project

The six quality improvement aims of every organization of health care providers according to IOM are safety, effectiveness, efficiency, patient centered, time observance and equitability (Sadeghi, Barzi, Mikhail, & Shabot, 2013). These six measures can be effectively used to identify area in which health care organizations are underperforming and used to improve them. A good example of health care organizations that could be improved using these 6 aims is Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago. There exist two areas that need to be researched in Sacred Heart hospital: patient safety and efficiency.

The hospital has an issue with the safety of its patients. According to an article by Binder (2013), the hospital has been found to have cases in which patients have fallen off from their beds. This implies that patients are not sufficiently cared for. The hospital also lacks sufficient safety information to communicate with the patients about risks.

Secondly, the hospital should consider reducing the shift. It is common knowledge that fatigued personnel are more likely to make mistakes than those who are rested. It is therefore important that the hospital ensures that its resident medical personnel work for a maximum of 16 hours. They should also have a protected 5 hour period of sleep to rest (Binder, 2013). This will reduce the number of safety issues that are caused by failure by personnel to take adequate care.

To improve on safety, the hospital can conduct a series of reforms. First, the hospital should consider working with a Patient safety organization. While maintaining confidentiality, patient health organizations help healthcare providers to obtain healthcare information so that the healthcare personnel can know how best to handle patients.

The hospital has also had cases of multiple imaging tests even in situations where none is required. Multiple imaging tests are not recommended. On top of that, they waste valuable time that would otherwise be used to take care of the patient. The fact that multiple unnecessary tests are often carried out in the hospital implies that something needs to be done to improve the efficiency of the efficiency of the hospital staff. They should be able to determine the right tests that need to be carried out and keep errors at a minimum.

The hospital should employ various techniques to ensure that medical personnel are more informed with regard to the type of care they offer to their patients. First, the organization should offer continuous training to its personnel. Continuous training for personnel ensures that medical personnel improve the quality of their knowledge and minimize the number of errors they make during their work hours.

Second, the organization should encourage employees to have team work when dealing with patients. This will help them to deliberate over issues adequately before choosing the right procedures to take. Team work will also increase efficiency as employees strive to offer their best in areas where they are more experienced. Enhanced teamwork also enhances communication between medical personnel thereby minimizing the possibility of errors through the introduction of a second opinion.

Sacred Heart Hospital is also not very good in following their literature. While they claim to prioritize customer safety, other concerns seem to be prioritized. The failure to offer patients with safety information is one case that should be looked into. The organization should look into its procedures and ensure that all their policies are put into action.

References

Sadeghi, S., Barzi, A., Mikhail, O., & Shabot, M. M. (2013). Integrating Quality and Strategy in health care organizations

Binder, N. (2014). Consumer Reports ranks most dangerous, safest hospitals. Cbsnews.com. Retrieved 28 September 2014, from http://www.cbsnews.com/news/consumer-reports-ranks-most-dangerous-safest-hospitals/