Journal of Hospital & Medical Management

Description

A level of value provided by any health care resource that is measured is known as health care quality. It is an evaluation of whether something is adequate and suitable for its purpose, just like quality in other fields. The provision of high-quality medical resources to all who require them is the objective of health care. For the purpose of attempting to determine the quality of health care, researchers employ a variety of quality measures. Some examples of these measures include counts of a therapy's reduction or lessening of diseases identified by medical diagnosis, a decrease in the number of risk factors that people have following preventive care, or a survey of health indicators in a population that is accessing particular types of care.

Health Care Management

The iron triangle of health care relationships between quality, cost, and accessibility of health care within a community is referred to as health care quality. Researchers measure health care quality to identify issues caused by overuse, underuse, or misuse of health resources. Cost-Effectiveness or cost-efficiency is the process of determining whether a service's benefits outweigh its costs. Over underutilization of a health care service can make it less cost-effective. When resources are squandered, overutilization, or overuse, reduces the value of health care. Thereby denying someone else the potential advantages of receiving the service. In health care that is overused, the costs or risks of treatment outweigh the benefits. Underutilization, on the other hand, is when a treatment's benefits outweigh its risks or costs but it is not used. Underutilization has the potential to have negative health effects. Lack of early cancer detection and treatment is one example, which reduces cancer survival rates.

Health care managers use critical pathways as a method to reduce variation in care, decrease resource utilization and improve quality of care. Using critical pathways to reduce costs and errors improves quality by providing a systematic approach to assessing health care outcomes. Critical pathways are outcome-based and patient-centered case management tools that take on an interdisciplinary approach by "facilitating coordination of care among multiple clinical departments and caregivers. Improved collaboration among interdisciplinary stakeholders in the health care system is made possible by reducing variation in practice patterns.

Clinical practice guidelines, or medical practice guidelines, are scientifically based protocols to assist providers in adopting a "best practice" approach in delivering care for a given health condition. Standardizing the practice of medicine improves quality of care by simultaneously promoting lower costs and better outcomes. "Outcome" is a change in patients' health, such as reductions in pain, relapses, or death rates. Large differences in outcomes can be measured for individual medical providers, and smaller. Technical performance is judged from a quality perspective without regard to the actual outcome. For instance, if a physician provides care in accordance with the guidelines but a patient's health does not improve, then by this measure, the quality of the "technical performance" is still high. A cochrane review found that computer generated reminders improved doctors' adherence to guidelines and the standard of care but lacked evidence to determine whether this actually affected patient-centered health outcomes. Risk Management Risk management focuses on avoiding medical malpractice and consists of "proactive efforts to prevent adverse events related to clinical care. Health care professionals are not exempt from lawsuits: As a result, health care organizations have taken steps to set up protocols specifically to cut down on malpractice lawsuits. Concerns about malpractice can lead to defensive medicine, or the threat of malpractice lawsuits, which can put patient safety and care at risk by requiring additional tests or treatments. Ordering expensive imaging, which can be wasteful, is one common form of defensive medicine. Other defensive behaviors, on the other hand, may actually make it harder for people to get care and increase the chance of physical harm. Many specialty doctors say that because of malpractice risks, they do more for their patients, using diagnostic tests they don't need. Because of this, it's especially important that risk management strategies use principles of cost efficiency with standardized practice guidelines and critical pathways.

Clinical Practice

The primary qualitative measure of the patient perspective comes from satisfaction surveys. Patients may not have the clinical judgment of physicians and frequently judge quality based, among other things, on the practitioner's concern and demeanor. As a result, patient satisfaction surveys have become a somewhat contentious method of determining the quality of care. Patients opinions, according to those who support them, can help doctors improve their practice. In addition, patient satisfaction can enhance patient-centered care because it frequently correlates with patient participation in decision-making. Opponents of patient satisfaction surveys are frequently unconvinced that the data is reliable, that the expense does not justify the costs, and that what is measured is not a good indicator of quality. Patients evaluations of care can identify opportunities for improvement in care, cost reduction, monitoring the performance of health plans, and providing a comparison across health care institutions.

Patients' perceptions of health care quality may also be influenced by technology. According to a survey that was conducted in 2015 among cancer patients, those who have a more positive attitude toward the health information tools provided by their providers use the tools more and as a result have a higher perception of their provider's care quality. According to the same survey, people are more likely to have a positive attitude toward the health information tools provided by their providers and, as a result, have a higher perception of the care they received. Additionally, people who believe their provider acts more securely and are less concerned about privacy are more likely to do so. Many specialty physicians report doing more for patients, such as using unnecessary diagnostic tests, because of malpractice risks. In turn, it is especially crucial that risk management approaches employ principles of cost efficiency with standardized practice guidelines and critical pathways. Significant initiatives to improve healthcare quality outcomes have been undertaken that include clinical practice guidelines, cost efficiency, critical pathways and risk management. While simultaneously issuing citations for closures of facilities deemed noncompliant with set measures of quality standards.