Public Health and Continuous Quality Improvement Defining public health in simple terms is difficult even for the discipline’s professionals, which explains why the public is not likely to understand the role public health plays in their lives until a disaster occurs. The broad definition is public health exists to promote physical and mental health, and prevent disease, injury, and disability of the people in the United States. Public health is credited in helping control infectious diseases, improving the health of mothers and babies, improved motor-vehicle safety, and the widespread use of vaccinations, to name but a few of its achievements (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1999). Given the intense responsibilities of public health, performance management and continuous quality improvement (CQI) are essential and ethical practices of protecting public safety and saving lives in times of crisis. The Essential Components of Public Health Services The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in conjunction with national, state, and local public health departments, have outlined the essential public health services in an effort to support public health agencies in their efforts of CQI implementation. According to the CDC, the broad label to services are; assessment, policy development, and assurance (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). Within these categories are other components such as diagnose and investigate, mobilize community partnerships, and assure a compentent workforce. The scope of duties of public health departments, large or small, require standards and measures to ensure public safety. The CDC in collaboration with the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation (RWJF), support a national vo... ... middle of paper ... ... 14). Strengthening sytems, improving the public's health. Retrieved from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/nphpsp/documents/nphpsp-factsheet.pdf Duke University Medical Center. (2005). Method of quality improvement. Retrieved from Patient safety-Quality improvment: http://patientsafetyed.duhs.duke.edu/module_a/methods/methods.html Morrison, E. E. (2011). Ethics in health administration. pp. 33,48. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett . Public health accreditation board. (2014, February 14). What are the benifits? Retrieved from PHAB-Advancing public health performance: http://www.phaboard.org/accreditation-overview/what-are-the-benefits/ Taylor, H. A., Pronovost, P. J., Faden, R. R., Kass, N. E., & Sugarman, J. (2010, August). The ethical review of health care quality improvment initiatives:Findings from the field. The Commonweath Fund, pp. 1-2.
Wilson , James G. S., “Rights”, Principles of Health Care Ethics, Second Edition, eds. R.E. Ashcroft, A. Dawson, H. Draper and J.R. McMillan. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2007. pp. 239.
Healthcare ethics is defined as a system of moral principles that guide healthcare workers in making choices regarding medical care. At its core lies our attitudes regarding our personal rights and obligations we have to others. When an unprecedented situation comes into play, we rely on medical ethics to help determine an outcome that would be the best case scenario for all involved. In order to appropriately review this case study, we must first identify the key stakeholders, the ethical principles, policy implications at the federal, state, and local levels, financial implications, and a viable resolution for the situation.
Siegler, M., and W. Winslade. "Ethics in Medicine." Clinical Ethics. By A. R. Jonsen. 7th ed. N.p.:
Westrick, S. (2013). Legal and Ethical Issues in Healthcare. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
State and local public health departments throughout the country have the responsibility for improving health in workplaces, schools, and communities through identifying top health problems within society and developing a plan to improve. Barriers the public health system has encountered over the years include: changes in the overall health system that support cost containment and improved health, and an increase in the number of individuals with insurance coverage for direct preventive services; reduction of qualified public health professional and funding at all levels of government; increasing focus on accountability, with higher expectations for demonstrating a return on investment in terms of cost and health improvement (Trust, 2013). In the near future, health departments ...
The purpose of this paper is to identify a quality safety issue. I will summarize the impact that this issue has on health care delivery. In addition, I will identify quality improvement strategies. Finally, I will share a plan to effectively implement this quality improvement strategy.
Leal, S., Herrier, R.N., Glover, J.J., & Felix, A. (2004). Improving quality of care in
Gedge, E., & Waluchow, W. (2012). Readings in health care ethics (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press.
TQM was developed and utilized in other industries prior to adoption in health care (Shi & Singh, 2015, p.493-494). TQM has since modernized administration, reduced hospital stays, improved clinical outcomes, and improved patient satisfaction (Shi & Singh, 2015, p.493-494). Examples of utilization of the total quality management include improvement of patient safety through prevention of medical error incidences and as a positive influence for organizational learning and improvement. “Using total quality management approach to improve patient safety by preventing medication error incidences” is a study conducted at General Government Hospital to review current medication practices, implement a six sigma method through utilization of a five-step DMAIC procedure to find out the root cause for the errors, and establish solutions to avoid medication error occurrences throughout the hospital (Yousef & Yousef, 2017). The results demonstrated that the root cause was related to mistakes during prescribing due to poor handwriting (Yousef & Yousef, 2017). To decrease these errors, Guideline Recommendations to be followed by all physicians were published (Yousef & Yousef, 2017). This method is useful in decreasing errors during the prescribing phase and prevent the wrong medications from being administered. “Impact of Total Quality Management on Organizational Performance: Exploring the Contingent Effects of Organizational Learning and Innovation” is another article that discusses the importance of total quality management (Proceedings for the Northeast Region Decision Sciences Institute (NEDSI), 2017). This article examines the effect that total quality management can have on organizational learning and improvement. This has become an important concept for health care organizations specifically because of globalization and the pressure from insurers, accreditation agencies,
While examining the ethical impact of how health care professionals should discharge their duties to their profession, the community, and patients,
In today’s health care system, “quality” and “safety” are one in the same when it comes to patient care. As Florence Nightingale described our profession long ago, it takes work and vigilance to ensure we are doing the best we can to care for our patients. (Mitchell, 2008)
Garrett, T. M., Baillie, H. W., & Garrett, R. M. (2010). Health care ethics: Principles and problems (5thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Good leadership, fostering a culture of change and safety, team work are essential in implementing quality improvement and risk management in the organization. Leaders and the governing body must demonstrate commitment to the processes and define their expectations for all stakeholders. Leadership team should make sure that the team’s attention is focused on the core business of the organization, which is to provide care and treat patients in a safe and high quality clinical environment. There are different tools that can be used for quality improvement that also applies to analyzing risk issues. These are measurement of quality, benchmarking, RCA, FMECA, and so
Yet, as todays hospital ratings do not mirror that of the Toyota business, a demand for quality grows greater and tighter in various health care settings. Presently, health care has the task of seeking ways to avoid waste in its rising health care cost and streamline its cost and product quality. In order to achieve this everyone has to make a conscious effort to provide quality care and avoid the costly
To reiterate these six components, which are innovation, technical package, communication, management, and political commitment – the community is hand in hand associated with core functions of Public Health. In Public Health the three main core functions are assessment, policy development, and assurance. Assessment is a tool that helps monitors different health and environmental statutes to create, deploy, and identify solutions. It also used a diagnostic tool to investigate health-related problems and different health hazards. Policy development is an act of informing and educating those developed ideas and topics that help the communities and different organizations in their health care efforts. Lastly, assurance utilizes different laws and regulations to help in the aid of protecting the public or environment at risk. It also re-evaluates the laws and regulations to see its effectiveness and its quality (Schneider,