A Critical Evaluation On The Role Of Quality Assurance

Introduction

Why is Quality Assurance (QA) important? Quality Assurance is based on the process of healthcare services provided. Quality Assurance is defined as “Maintaining and providing high quality of health care by continuously measuring the success of the organisations that are providing those services”. Quality assurance is important because healthcare is the process of diagnosing, treating and preventing illness and injury to patients, if the quality of these stages are not to the best of quality patients will not be satisfied. Through Quality Assurance a systematic approach is undertaken that includes watching over the services and a feedback system is in place to prevent issues from arising in the future. Quality Assurance within the healthcare ensures that the required examinations and medical treatment provided are of the best possible quality.

The process of ensuring good quality is in place, assessments are conducted this followed by evaluating the results of those assessments, from this stage then the manager can go ahead and design a better care plan if it is required, which can be followed up by follow-up assessments after 6 months which is followed by an assessment every year, this ensures that care is provided in a patient-centred manner. Quality Assurance can be assessed in many ways. The article, “How Should We Measure Quality Healthcare?” (Bartol, 2018) showed a study that had been conducted using the method of “Patient-Reported Outcomes” (PROs), which showed the level of the patient’s health and not their fulfilment with the care being provided, which is also equally important in the case of quality. In the Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses, it highlights there is a major importance on the system of care delivery, it looks at preventing error, identifying and learning from those errors and is developed further with the help of healthcare professionals, organisations and patients. Problems can be identified in four ways, Latent, Active, Organisational System and Technical failures. Latent failure is when failures within the organisation, environment and equipment are over-shadowed until it has caused an issue with the treatment of a patient and has caused the patient harm for example inadequate training or lack of resources.

Active failure are those failures that cause bad results instantly which are instigated by an individual, active failures are the result of latent failures. Organisational System failures are failures which involve the management team(s), Protocols that are in place. Technical failure is when equipment and/ or facilities have failed to appropriately examine and/or treat patients for example if the technology and software for diagnosing abnormal heart rhythms failed, it would be difficult for the Cardiac Clinical Physiologist to confirm or reject the consultant’s doubts.

Case Study “Quality management in a healthcare organisation: a case of South Indian hospital”

This study was conducted in a South Indian Hospital in 2007, the aim was to give an analysis of quality management, they used the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria, this criterion gives a template of set criteria for organisations to assess and improve their quality. The results of the study showed that the hospital did score high 753/ 1000 points as a case hospital, but the hospital can improve even more within each of the seven categories. The criteria for Performance Excellence include seven categories Leadership, Strategy, Customers, Measurement, analysis and knowledge management, Operations and Results. The Leadership category looks at how the organisation works within the community and how it is managed by the management team. Strategy looks at how the organisation plans to develop in a strategic way. Customers are where the organisation is developing healthy and long-lasting relations with their service users. Measurement, analysis and knowledge management is where they use the information they have gained to improve their service and provide support. The Workforce category looks at how the organisations aims to inspire their employees to provide the best possible care. Operations is how the company develop, control and improve their services. Finally, Results is simply looking at if the customers are happy with the services being provided.

Evaluation & Conclusion

There are many advantages and disadvantages of Quality Assurance. One of the disadvantage of Quality Assurance is that conducting audits, risk assessments can consume a lot of time and money, along with this money is having to be spent to train staff to keep them updated with the latest information and methods of practice despite this issue it’s seen that the healthcare team continue to train their staff as providing the best possible care for patients out-weighs this disadvantage of time and money which is a huge advantage to both patients in terms of their health and the workers in terms of their employment.

Another disadvantage is that if the standards of quality are not being met for patients, complaints can begin to arise resulting in the hospital or healthcare service being brought to court to give an explanation for why these standards are not being met, to avoid this issue healthcare services conduct regular assessments and audits to find where they are lacking in providing the best quality care, following these assessments the management can put in place policies and plans to meet patients’ needs, resulting in patients being content with the services being provided which meets their needs physically, intellectually, emotionally and socially also another advantage.

Meeting standards of quality assurance can also cause stress within departments as it may become difficult to keep up with these standards overtime, however, to avoid this build-up of stress employers can get and provide support for each other, forming positive bonds with each other can help to talk out any issues that may be arising. Setting clear goals is a great way to reduce stress as this allows the whole team to work together to achieve the standards of quality. In spite of this although there are disadvantages within the short term, in the long run these advantages are more beneficial, and patients will be more content.

One way to successfully meet the standards of quality is by using the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) which is a system used to achieve an equilibrium connecting the systems and behavioural aspects of management of quality. Plan is simply where you are thinking about what stage you as an individual are and where you want to reach, you think and plan how you are going to achieve those goals. Do has three stages, first you have look at the risks and assess them, secondly get organised telling someone your plans will help you achieve your goals as they can help to motivate you and direct you down the correct path by giving you advice and valuable resources, thirdly execute your plan, choose the precautionary and protective measures and put these into your plan, with the correct equipment provided train others within the team to ensure the best quality of care is being provided in a safe manner to patients.

The Check part of PDCA is where your performance is measured, your plan is assessed to ensure that any risks that can occur are well controlled, this can be assessed via risk assessments, audits and infection control assessments. Finally, Act is whereby you review your performance so far, look at incidents that have occurred are looked into and new care-pathways and policies can be set in place to prevent the same incident from occurring again.