Quality In Long-Term Care

1. Quality in the health care setting has to do with: safety, effectiveness, patient-centered care, being timely, efficient, and equitable. As a health care provider, it is your duty to make sure that the patient is receieving these domains in health care so that their health is improving. Quality and expectations in non-health care settings (restaurants, clothing stores, automobile purchases) differ a great deal because they just have to make sure their customers are happy when they leave and for the most part their job is done. When you are caring for patients you have to make sure they are satisfied with the care that is provided, if they have issues in the future making sure they are taken care of, and most importantly making sure they are healthy. Satisfaction with the customer is enough in non-health care settings, but it takes a lot more than the patient being satisfied in health care settings. 

2. Long-term care has many differences when compared to acute care or physician practices in that patients/residents are going to be seen/treated in a facility for an extended period of time. The population it is usually serving is elderly or may have intellectual/developmental disabilities. Long-term care facilities constantly have to improve their facilities because patients/residents may not be satisfied with the care they are being provided. This is now these patients/residents temporary or permanent home so the needs that are having to be met differ a great deal then someone who is coming in for a check-up or going to the emergency room. 

3. I will expect that the employees are doing their job to the best of their ability and that they are treating the patients/residents the same way they would treat their own family members. I will expect employees to be patient-centered, to provide care that is respectful of patients needs and values and that they are being timely because I know how patients/residents can be when they feel as if they are not a priority. Expectations I have for myself are that I am respectful to patients/residents and make sure that I always have their best interest in mind. I know that working in long-term care can be difficult because not only do you have the resident to make happy, but their family as well. I think it is important to make sure that the resident feels as if they have a voice in the matter because sometimes they feel as if they have no control over their lives anymore and that can be a very sad feeling for them.