The Issue Of Quality Of Care And Patient Safety In Malaysian Hospitals
Elderly and ill patients need to have more in-home care because they may no longer be able to handle tasks and works related to patient's capacity and compliance. For an instance, they may also need help with the basic physical therapy activities, organizing appropriate pills, a healthy diet, meal planning, giving their own injections, blood-pressure tests, and other needs of their care plan. Their related or other caregivers may also need to be educated with knowledge and well organized on how to help the patients to fulfill these responsibilities. These points to a specific areas in which nursing is transforming regarless to continue giving health care that meets the specific needs of elderly patients sucessfully.
The organizational structure of the MOH has three different levels structure which are the the Federal, the State and District, which are completely centralized to ensure positive outcome of these systems. Every level of the organizational structure determines the specific level's criteria. This system comprises of all aspects of care altogether such as curative, promotive, management and rehabilitative. The main aim and goals of this system is to contribute a greater needes of facilities, equity, accessibility and needs of health care resources. In a meanwhile, the National Referral Centres were organized to provide specific and give priorities care to improve and increase the basic care provided in health clinics. Besides, aging populations can also influence health systems in multiple ways. These include an increased used of health services by older age groups. Elderly and long period of care is rapidly becoming one of the most grieving healthcare difficulties of our day. Between 2015 to 2030, the number of people from all around the world aged 60 years or more is expected to grow by 56 percent, from just over 900 million to approximately. In addition, by 2050, the world population of people older than 60 is expected to increase in more than two billion. These episodes on aging will give a very clear look at the future of long period care through the several numbers of various healthcare systems.
Apart from that, Malaysian healthcare services are provided by the public sector, private sector and non-MOH organizations. MOH Malaysia is responsible for the population’s health. The public sector is the major provider of the healthcare and consists of 141 hospitals approximately. Therefore, a total of 28, 949 doctors and physician as well as 56, 503 nurses are working in a public healthcare facilities, delivering services for patients, with a capacity of 39, 728 beds altogether. The health status in Malaysia has grown rapidly, and Malaysians nowadays lived longer based on the MOH in 2011. Hence, The MOH in Malaysia has the missions and aim of facilitating and supporting the population’s health and providing high quality of care, characterized by patient centeredness, efficiency, affordable and environmentally adaptable care with accentuation on respect for human dignity. However, there are several challenges to strengthen the quality and patient's safety in Malaysia. As the population increases, the demand for healthcare increases as well. This increase creates challenges experience for the MOH in realizing their mission and aim of delivering high quality care. Thus, quality assurance activities have been introduced in Malaysian hospitals since 1985 in order to provide the best healthcare for the population based on Alihussein in 1990.
The importance of improving quality of care and patient safety in Malaysian hospitals in the growing attention to reduce medical errors, waste and inefficiency in the healthcare sector. Nowadays, the hospital quality has become national and international priorities for all. The studies investigated the staffing level, shift length and work environment in Malaysian hospitals are limited. Thus, optimizing quality of care and patient safety in Malaysia, the current global initiatives and the gaps for improving quality of care and patient safety were highlighted and determined. Moreover, Patients’ needs and wants are core and priorities to caring processes, so preparing skilled, trained, educated and empowered staff and maintaining healthy work environments are needed to increase patients’ satisfaction, engagement and participation in their care process. There is general agreement that the adequate staffing is an essential component that gives positive impact and improves the quality of care and patient safety. Thus, hospitals need to participate in contingency planning to prevent exceeding the occupancy limits to prevent overcrowding and subsequent errors resulting from overloaded staff. Hence, inexperienced and newly appointed staff should be trained to work in interdisciplinary teams and in quality improvement in order to deliver best and better practices.
Hospitals should also maintain adequate employee, sufficient equipment, strategies for continuing education, training and upgrading and improving interprofessional collaboration to maintain a positive work environment to deliver best care practices. Healthcare organizations should seek or maintain accreditation such as from the Magnet recognition in order to sustain and keep a healthy work environment.
