Quality Issues In Health Care
According to issue 4 of Prescriptions for Excellence in Healthcare, Walter H. Ettinger, President of UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, states that over the next decade, hospitals will need to make significant improvements in clinical performance such as the safety, effectiveness, and efficiency of medical care, in order to satisfy the demands of patients, and insurers (Ettinger, W. H., 2008). Quality problems are reflected today in the wide variation of use in health care services, the misuse, underuse and overuse of others. Improving the quality of health care and reducing medical errors are the priorities for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ, 2002). In the April 11, 2002, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine,
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The mortality rate among patients who received beta blockers was 43% lower than it was among those who did not receive (AHRQ, 2002). Lastly, overuse of services, every year millions of people receive health care services that are unnecessary, expensive, and may endanger their health. For instance, an analysis of hysterectomies performed on women in seven health plans found that one in six operations was inappropriate. A study examining the use of antibiotics for treating ear infections in children on Medicaid found that expensive antibiotics were used far more often than indicated (Botwinick L, Bisognano M, Haraden C., …show more content…
In any circumstances, organizational change is difficult. It requires a clear vision, urgency, an actively managed change process, and considerable resources and energy. Furthermore, leading change in hospitals with the goal of improving clinical performance poses a few key challenges such as the clinical performance improvement in health care while it is in its early stages and the hospital leaders have the difficult responsibility of managing clinical professionals whom they have little or no authority over (Salacuse J.W., 2006). The physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals who provide clinical care resist being followers. They have specialized knowledge and skills that are highly sought after and they often are leaders in their own right. convincing these professionals to work together toward common goals requires skilled leadership capabilities. Although a hospital’s clinical performance is measured by how well the organization performs as a whole, care is actually delivered by different teams of professionals, each of which has its own culture, beliefs, and unique metric of
The mortality rate among patients who received beta blockers was 43% lower than it was among those who did not receive (AHRQ, 2002). Lastly, overuse of services, every year millions of people receive health care services that are unnecessary, expensive, and may endanger their health. For instance, an analysis of hysterectomies performed on women in seven health plans found that one in six operations was inappropriate. A study examining the use of antibiotics for treating ear infections in children on Medicaid found that expensive antibiotics were used far more often than indicated (Botwinick L, Bisognano M, Haraden C., …show more content…
In any circumstances, organizational change is difficult. It requires a clear vision, urgency, an actively managed change process, and considerable resources and energy. Furthermore, leading change in hospitals with the goal of improving clinical performance poses a few key challenges such as the clinical performance improvement in health care while it is in its early stages and the hospital leaders have the difficult responsibility of managing clinical professionals whom they have little or no authority over (Salacuse J.W., 2006). The physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals who provide clinical care resist being followers. They have specialized knowledge and skills that are highly sought after and they often are leaders in their own right. convincing these professionals to work together toward common goals requires skilled leadership capabilities. Although a hospital’s clinical performance is measured by how well the organization performs as a whole, care is actually delivered by different teams of professionals, each of which has its own culture, beliefs, and unique metric of