Continuous Quality Improvement and Patient Satisfaction

Introduction

This paper is mainly aimed at offering a foundation, as well as an introduction to the various concepts that can be applied in order to enhance the quality within the healthcare centers and to provide various ways through which the quality within the healthcare centers can be enhanced. A number of measures have been offered by the paper on how quality can be improved within the healthcare settings, but above all, the paper looks into the ways through which quality improvements results into the satisfaction of the customers, both the external customers together with the internal customers.

Quality Improvement

According to Rau (2011), continuous quality improvement refers to the various efforts that are put by providers of health care in order to enhance the quality of the services that they offer through continuously striving to exceed the expectations of their patients. Satisfaction of the patients can be deemed as one of the various measures that can be used in the assessment of healthcare’s quality. According to Trossman (2012), quality improvement entails a highly systematic, as well as various continuous actions resulting into various kinds of measurable improvement within health care services, as well as the health status of the patient groups that are targeted. Quality within the health care can also be defined as the direct link between the levels of enhanced health services, as well as the various health outcomes of people, as well as populations that are desired (Rau, 2011).

Within the emerging competitive market like the healthcare, there is the need for the managers to lay much emphasis on the achievement of excellent ratings in order to differentiate their organization from the other organizations. With regard to customer loyalty, the term “excellent” has several meanings. The customers who are just satisfied in a number of cases fail to come back, hence, there is always the need for the healthcare organizations to strive to make sure that various measures are put into place in order to ensure that quality is provided at all times to ensure the satisfaction of the customers.

Quality Improvement Principles

According to Trossman (2012), quality entails the various ways through which various things are conducted within the healthcare organizations. In addition, the performance of the health care can be defined by the efficiency of the organizations, as well as the outcome of the care provided by the organizations as well as the patient satisfaction levels. Quality is generally connected to the approach of service delivery adopted by various organizations together with the underlying care systems of the healthcare organizations. In order to attain achieve a different performance level, (like results) besides enhancing improve quality, there is the general need for change of the current systems of the organizations. Whereas every QI program might generally appear to be very different, a highly successful program generally entails for major principles:Quality Improvement work as processes as well as systems; Focus on the patients; Emphasis on forming part of the team, and Emphasis on data application (Trossman, 2012).

Quality Improvement Programs

Quality Improvement programs entails systematic activities, which are generally organized, as well as implemented by various organizations in a bid to assess, monitor, besides significantly enhancing health care’s quality. These activities are generally cyclical in order to make sure that the given organizations continue seeking very high performance levels in order to optimize their care for their patients, as it also strives to ensure that there is continuous improvement.

Additionally, QI programs generally envelop every QI activity in an organization. QI initiatives, which are clinically related together with various activities that are aimed at enhancing the operations, as well as the finance of organizations (Rau, 2011).

QI programs within the health care organization always commences with leadership taking into consideration a number of questions like why QI programs are significant for the organization; what organizations ought to know in developing QI programs; how organizations commence developing QI program; and how QI processes work in order to provide support to the QI program success.

How QI Programs ensures satisfaction of the customers

The organizations implementing QI program generally experiences several benefits; key among them the improvement in the satisfaction of their customers. There are a number of improved patient health outcomes, which involve process outcomes as well as health outcomes (like minimized decreased morbidity, as well as minimized mortality).

At the same time, there is always enhanced efficiency of various clinical, as well as managerial processes. Through the improvement of the outcomes and the processes that are relevant to the priority health needs, healthcare organizations have the potential of reducing various costs, as well as wastes that are linked to the failures, as well as the redundancy of the systems, something that also contributes to the satisfaction of the customers of the healthcare organizations (Rau, 2011).

Additionally, numerous costs that are linked to process errors, poor outcomes, as well as failures are always shunned, something that is significant in the enhancement of service delivery, which consequently enhances satisfaction of the customers. In a number of cases, costs are always incurred if systems that are inefficient and nonstandard increase errors besides causing rework. Generally, maintaining reliable and streamlined processes are often less expensive.

Through continuous improvements, there are proactive processes, which generally recognizes besidessolving problems prior to their occurrence and this always makes sure that the care systems are not only reliable but also predictable. Improvement cultures often develops within the organizations, which are committed to the provision of quality since errors are often reported besides being addressed in highly effective means, something that also contributes to the satisfaction of the customers.

Additionally, through QI programs, there is always enhanced communication using resources, which are internal, as well as those that are external to organizations like civic, funders, as well as community organizations, something that also contributes to the level of satisfaction among the employees. Through the successful implementation of QI infrastructure, communication is always enhanced and besides, issues that are deemed highly critical are always solved thereby enhancing customer satisfaction (Rau, 2011).

Conclusion

As explored by the paper, several strategies can be adopted by various healthcare organizations in a bid to enhance the quality of services that are provided by them. These include effectively facilitating communication among every member of the team, like the patients, as well as their members of the family; promoting a work environment that is deemed very healthy; as well as the enhancement of the perception of an environment that is both clean, as well as quiet.

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