Total quality in healthcare: from theory to practice

Total quality in healthcare: from theory to practice

Efficiency in health care systems is an important aspect of service delivery. Every health facility has a variety of schedules through which health services are offered to the clients. They are concerned with the wellness of people. However, these services must be exhaustive enough to display the performance of the health facility with respect to the services it offers. Therefore, each health institution has a number of criteria through which the performance in the provision of services can be established. The facility thereafter uses these results to make adjustments and improve on their services to ensure the highest levels of health service provision are achieved. Mayo Clinic is known for their top notch doctors and reliable performance. They strive to make sure they are in the top 10 percent for not only performance, but quality measures as well. Mayo Clinic makes sure all patients are comfortable during their stay and well educated on their overall health. They ensure patient satisfaction by asking all patients about their stay and what could be improved. Quality measures are measured by outcomes and process measures, and also quality rankings(Marszalek-Gaucher & Coffey, 1993).

 How Quality is measured

Mayo clinic offers a wide variety of health services. The divergent characteristic of these services calls for different approaches in the measurement of quality of their services. The health practitioners at each service delivery point in the clinic have orders to constantly record quality measures that help in the classification of services. Basically, the measurement of quality aspects in the clinic can be done by the health practitioners themselves or through quality personnel who reviews the data on the services offered at each point. Surveys and tools are employed to check the quality of Mayo clinic. Information about the health is provided which is edited as new researches are made.

Outcome measures

These are the quality measures that relate to the outcome of health services offered by the facility. It is very important for a health facility to be well informed of the outcome of its services. Every service offered or product issued by the facility will have a definite result with respect to these aspects. Every health facility calculates the success of its services by high readmission rates. Mayo clinic has had a greater record of patients coming back to consult and refer other individuals to the hospital. They prefer coming to Mayo clinic than others because they find it more reliable. Other factors that relate to this particular quality measurement is the decrease in mortality rate as well as an increase in the safety of patients.

1. Mortality ratio

Mayo Clinic takes records of the number of patients that die in the hospital. These records are further classified with respect to the exact diseases from which the patients die from. A high mortality ratio always depicts that the clinic has not succeeded in the fight for human life by the ratio recorded. Basically, the main objective of every health facility is to protect and lengthen lives. Therefore, Mayo Clinic keeps a record of the number of patients who die in the process of treatment, their conditions at the time of admission as well as all the services administered to the patient in the clinic before the time of death. So, later more precautions should be taken and we are able to increase the mortality rate here at Mayo clinic.

2. Patient Safety

Patient safety is a service that every health practitioner in the clinic is mandated to ensure. Mayo Clinic has a number of personnel who are mandated with the responsibility of reviewing the safety standards of every section of the clinic. Additionally, the clinic conducts interviews and provides questionnaires to patients to establish the perspective of patients on the level and nature of patient safety in the clinic. This measurement basically summarizes the various services offered to a patient by the clinic. Through these surveys a better idea is gained of what is of more interest to people so it can be introduced and patients and clients feel more secure.

1. Readmission Rates

Readmission rates are a measure of the number of clients who choose to come back to Mayo Clinic for health services as a result of the quality of services offered. The clinic keeps clear records of new clients, old clients as well as the number of times they experience readmissions. Mayo Clinic also conducts surveys by interviewing clients who are readmitted to the facility. This is done to establish the exact services that impressed the clients and prompted their return to the health facility.

2. Transplant Quality

Mayo clinic is ranked as one of the largest and most efficient transplant centers(KROM, et al., 1989). Mayo keeps records of the survival of transplant patients to act as the quality indicators. Basically, Mayo clinic conducts several transplant services which are: heart transplant, children’s heart transplant, kidney transplant, children’s kidney transplant, liver transplant as well as lung and pancreas transplant. The process of organ transplants are very delicate and only works on the marginal chances of survival unless very experienced health practitioners are involved. The clinic keeps records of all the patients that have undergone any of the organ transplant processes to help calculate the successive ratios through which the clinic can be rated. Reports and information about successful transplant of patients and organs is saved and is provided to the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients.

Process Measures

These are quality factors that display how the services of the clinic measure up with reference to the processes that are conducted in the facility.

1. Is it being done in a timely manner?

This measures the time consciousness of services offered by the clinic. Time is a very important factor when it comes to the provision of services. Clients will feel disrespected when made to wait for longer periods before being attended to. Clients hate it when they are made to wait for so long. Timely services are considered to be of high quality. Time is an important asset for everyone and it should be honored.Therefore, Mayo Clinic records the durations that clients have to wait before being attended to.Through this, the clinic can strategize on through which waiting time can be reduced and clients can be served in time.

2. Is the care effective?

The effectiveness of care services is determined by how patients respond to treatment as well as those who are fully cured(Campbell, 2000).The clinic takes records of how patients respond to treatments and patient care services. For instance, the effectiveness of outpatient services can be recorded and compared against a time scale through which the patients recover. This can help us know how efficient our care services are.

3. Results for heart attack, heart failure, inpatient pneumonia, stroke

Heart attack, heart failure inpatient pneumonia and stroke have been ranked as the most deadly diseases that affect the global population. Therefore, the large ratio of our clients is facing these problems and we provide treatment to them. Mayo Clinic takes records of its performance in the fight against the prevalence of these diseases to establish its performance in the most striking health needs of the global population. Hencewe contribute for health on a larger scale.

Patient Satisfaction

Patient satisfaction refers to the aspect of patients to feel that the services offered to them measure up to their expectations. And we honor what our client’s point of view is and we try to implement it as much as we can. The clinic establishes this through questionnaires and interviews that are conducted and filled by patients.

1. Inpatient satisfaction

Inpatients refers to those clients that have been treated and fully recovered from within the facilities of the hospital.These patients are asked to feel(fill)questionnaires on their level of satisfaction with respect to the nature of services offered. They are required to do so, so we can have an idea what is the best thing people like about our clinic.

2. Outpatient satisfaction

These are those patients who have been treated from the hospital but have been extended health services to their homes. This category too is served by interviews and questionnaires at the end of the health transaction. This helps us know about our off campus services well.

 

 

Quality Rankings

These arethe* values that are offered on the level of performance the clinic displays in the various services it offers.

1. Care provided

Mayo Clinic has a large variety of resources and offers a vast array of healthcare services. It is compatible and takes care of its patients in a very efficient way.

2. Rankings of care provided

Excellent to a global context.

 

In conclusion, the emphasis Mayo Clinic puts on the various aspects of monitoring quality makes it one of the most efficient health facilities globally. As a matter of fact, the clinic ranks higher even in the most critical health services like organ transplant. The evaluation and definition of quality does not only apply to individual aspects of a system but as a collective product of the whole system. This is acutely achieved by Mayo Clinic.

Annotated Bibliography

Campbell, S. M. (2000). Defining quality of care. Social science & medicine, 51(11), 1611-1625. This article defines the various aspects used in the determination of quality in care. Mayo Clinic has used a variety of aspects of its services (not needed) to establish the quality of its services. This article discusses the aspect of quality generally and the determinants of quality that can be evaluated by health facilities to establish the quality of their services. The various aspects discussed in this proposal fall under the list of quality determinants addressed in the article.

Krpm, R. A., Wiesner, R. H., Rettke, S. R., Ludwig, J., Southorn, P. A., Hermans, P. E., & Taswell, H. F. (1989). The first 100 liver transplantations at the Mayo Clinic. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 84-94). Elsevier.This article documents Mayo Clinic’s performance in organ transplant processes, specifically, liver transplants. This article acts as a supportive document to the fact that Mayo Clinic is actually one of the leading health facilities in organ transplants. This article is only an example of the numerous articles that articulate the prowess of Mayo clinic with respect to organ transplants.

Marszalek-Gaucher, E., & Coffey, R. J. (1993). Total quality in healthcare: from theory to practice. Jossey-Bass Publishers. This article explains the significance of quality and practice in a health facility. Mayo Clinic integrates practical application of quality determinants in its operations. For instance, every health practitioner in the clinic takes records of services as a procedure in ensuring the quality of their services.

 

 

References

Campbell, S. M. (2000). Defining quality of care. Social science & medicine, 51(11), 1611-1625.

KROM, R. A., WIESNER, R. H., RETTKE, S. R., LUDWIG, J., SOUTHORN, P. A., HERMANS, P. E., & TASWELL, H. F. (1989). The first 100 liver transplantations at the Mayo Clinic. In Mayo Clinic Proceedings (Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 84-94). Elsevier.

Marszalek-Gaucher, E., & Coffey, R. J. (1993). Total quality in healthcare: from theory to practice. Jossey-Bass Publishers.