Accountability Paper
The Importance of Accountability
Rona F. Payne
HCS/475
July 8, 2013
Kathie Huttegger Accountability is a major issue in healthcare. It entails the procedures and processes by which one party justifies and takes responsibilities for its actions. Accountability simply reflects the achievement of sustainable outcomes (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2007). According to Richard D. Wittrup, “Hospitals need to acknowledge the responsibility they have already assumed for ensuring compliance with best practices”. The United States Health Care System use to be the envy of the rest of the world, but now it is struggling due to costs spiraling out of control, standards of quality not being met, and an inadequate response of the system (Wittrup, R., 2013). This paper will address why accountability is important and how to measure an employee’s accountability in the healthcare industry. The paper will describe what a successful checks and balance process looks like and it will also address the effect of accountability on the organization’s working culture and ways to maintain a positive working culture and avoid a working culture of blame.
The Importance of Accountability in Healthcare Accountability is used more than any other concept in work, yet it is so hard to understand. Accountability is about the achievement of results. It is important because it is directly related to responsibility. Responsibility without accountability is a work crisis of the current age (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2007). Effective accountability implies that all team members understand each role as a reflection of the team. Roles are defined in such a way that that job expectations are clear and performance outcomes are well outlined. Team expectations are the sum of the individual performance factors and can be advanced only by individual accountability (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2007). The concept of accountability consists of three important steps: 1) the loci of
Rona F. Payne
HCS/475
July 8, 2013
Kathie Huttegger Accountability is a major issue in healthcare. It entails the procedures and processes by which one party justifies and takes responsibilities for its actions. Accountability simply reflects the achievement of sustainable outcomes (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2007). According to Richard D. Wittrup, “Hospitals need to acknowledge the responsibility they have already assumed for ensuring compliance with best practices”. The United States Health Care System use to be the envy of the rest of the world, but now it is struggling due to costs spiraling out of control, standards of quality not being met, and an inadequate response of the system (Wittrup, R., 2013). This paper will address why accountability is important and how to measure an employee’s accountability in the healthcare industry. The paper will describe what a successful checks and balance process looks like and it will also address the effect of accountability on the organization’s working culture and ways to maintain a positive working culture and avoid a working culture of blame.
The Importance of Accountability in Healthcare Accountability is used more than any other concept in work, yet it is so hard to understand. Accountability is about the achievement of results. It is important because it is directly related to responsibility. Responsibility without accountability is a work crisis of the current age (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2007). Effective accountability implies that all team members understand each role as a reflection of the team. Roles are defined in such a way that that job expectations are clear and performance outcomes are well outlined. Team expectations are the sum of the individual performance factors and can be advanced only by individual accountability (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2007). The concept of accountability consists of three important steps: 1) the loci of
References: Berg, B., (2013). How to Maintain a Positive Work Culture and Avoid a Culture of Blames. Retrieved from http://www Lechowicz, L., (2011). Health Care Checks and Balances-What Goes Around Comes Around. Retrieved from http://www Emmanuel, E.J., & Emmanuel L.L., (1996,Jan). What is Accountability in Healthcare? Annals of Internal Medicine, 124(2), 229-239. Porter-O’Grady, T., & Malloch, K. (2007). Managing for success in health care. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Wenger, L, (2009). Creating a Culture of Workplace Accountability. Retrieved from http:// www.EzineArticles.com/?expert=Larry Wenger Wittrup, R., (2013). Accountability in Healthcare. Hospitals and Health Network, Health Forum, Chicago, IL