QI Plan Part 4 and Presentation

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Running head: QI PLAN PART 3 1

Quality Improvement (QI) plan involves a number of events when incorporated together improve the performance of the healthcare organization. It involves studies to be carried out successively and the processes to be improved to suit the needs and expectations of patients, staff and the community at large. The Health Quality of Ontario is a system that seeks to monitor the progress that healthcare organizations are making in trying to improve their services. A QI plan will provide them with information on the various steps of improvement they have taken. The QI plan’s major objective is to ensure that a formal process exists to monitor and evaluate the quality of both clinical and operational services. The QI plan provides information on the general medicine, behavioral health and oral health care services that are used to facilitate the improvement of the performance. Comment by Dr. Cynthia Hughes: Introduction should discuss the salient points to be discussed in your paper.

Authority, structure, and organization

An organizational structure is a formal system that incorporates the people, information and technology in the organization to attain a common goal. Ontario health care organization has a major goal of maximizing the organizations value by ensuring the mission and vision promotes quality improvement. The board of directors, executive leaders, committee for quality improvement, department and medical staff, middle management all have different roles to play. Leadership and the organization structure are vital aspects to be considered during the implementation process of a QI plan. In order to establish an effective QI plan the organizational culture has to change over time to adopt the new changes in the organizational goals of quality. All the protocols involved in the implementation of the QI plan should embrace their roles.

The executive leadership is composed of the senior leaders and the chief medical officers. They are the highest authority in the organizational chart. Their main leadership role includes that of leading the organization towards the achievement of their goal of quality. They also provide guidance towards achieving the goals. The executive leaders should possess a level of commitment and should be available physical to ensure they lead by example hence promoting the quality improvement in the organization. The board of directors contributes to quality care in the organization. The main objective of a health care organization is to provide safety to their patients. The board of directors can meet this objective indirectly by being committed and overseeing the safety measurements being practiced in the organization on a regular basis. The organization should involve the board of directors in the implementation of the plan.

Communication

The quality improvement committee is answerable to the board of directors and is responsible for writing a report which should be presented to the board annually. The chair of the quality improvement committee should account for the certification of the approval of the QI plan. The middle management works in unison with the board of directors and the quality improvement committee to facilitate in the implementation of the QI plan. Their roles include providing all the data and information required by the committee and the board. They are required to write monitoring reports on their progress that should be presented to the board on a regular basis. The medical staff is involved in the implementation of the QI plan by suggesting areas that require improvement and strategies to achieve them. The department staff plays the role of connecting support staff and the quality improvement team. They are responsible for the communication flow between the two.

During the performance improvement phase, data management plays a huge role. In this stage the data is collected, monitored, analyzed and interpreted. This is a very important step in the implementation of a QI plan because it formulates and implements areas that can be improved and monitors the progress. The evaluation of the progress made is normally done once a year. The top management evaluates the objectives to monitor the progress achieved during the implementation of the QI plan. In order to achieve an effective plan the collection of data should be more frequency than a once a year basis. An individual is tasked with the collection of data and providing it when it is required. The duties and responsibilities of this individual are outlined clearly and separated from other staff members to reduce any disruptions incurred during transitions. The individual is required to possess the quality of responsibility.

Education

The leadership of the organization has the responsibility of providing structures that will support the improvement efforts, form values, enhance the education of the plan to employees, form support policies and allocate resources that will facilitate the improvement. The board has a role to play in this leadership. They are responsible for providing support, evaluating, and approving the plan every year. They are responsible to ensure the allocated resources are approved and provided for. The organization should provide training programs and technical assistance to the employees. The health care organization has imposed certain environmental standards which should be engineered to suit the QI plan. The health care environment should be developed based on national quality measurement and reporting systems. These strategies will enhance the efforts made to develop strategies in the implementation process.

Annual Evaluation

A QI plan is normally evaluated annually as the improvement activities of the previous year are reviewed and recommendations for the next year are made. In the annual evaluation, the QI plan is updated and the medical staff approves it. It is basically a two years plan of the clinical and service improvement attributes for improving events in the organization. In order to achieve an effective implementation plan, monitoring is recommended to be continuous with a minimum time frame of a year. When monitoring the clinical indicators, a study by the medical staff in the organization should be considered. This aids in the development of new strategies of the plan. The administrative indicators are reviewed on a departmental view. Each department formulates their own strategies and they are approved by the department managers. This should be done a regular time frame and should air the complaints of the staff. This will enable the organization to determine important areas that require improvement.

External Entities

The government uses agencies such as certification agencies and the joint commission to evaluate the health care organization. This will involve the agencies assigning trained personnel to visit the organization, interview its staff, review their documents and inspect the facilities used by the organization. The experts define standards that should be met by health care organizations and they gauge them against this. The hospitals pay a fee to be reviewed. The joint commission accredits these organizations which are then viewed to meet the required specifications of Medicare. The Medicare Certification is a compulsory requirement for all health care organizations. These are mainly tailored for organization that seek to provide Medicare but not accredited. There is no fee charged for this service. The appointed state agencies are paid and trained by the health care financing administration.

Challenges

The improvement efforts are propelled by the leadership and the organizational culture. However, they are limited by certain limiting issues. The staff may fail to comprehend the demand that comes with the quality improvement. The organization has the mandate of aligning the general and specific goals to avoid any confusion. Another challenge encountered is that the process of data collection is time consuming and hence requires external support. The concept of providing incentives to enhance improvement works only for the short term. In the long run the organization should prioritize on encouraging change and highlighting the benefits that come with it. Despite the many short falls of implementing a QI plan, an organization still benefits from it. It enhances improvements in the quality of life of patients that require long term attention.

Conclusion

Quality improvement process' main goal is to improve and assure the safety, quality, and cost efficiency of a health care organization, whereas performance measurement in reality measures the progress of these goals. Performance measurement and quality improvement processes are very different in the way that the information is handled. The consumer has a great deal of say into how an organization improves on their processes. Most consumers are more than happy to give their input and participate in an organization's quality improvement plan. Comment by Dr. Cynthia Hughes: Conclusion should summarize the major points discussed in your paper.

References

Beers, L. (2010). Quality Improvement. Pediatric news, 44(10), 55-55.doi:10.1016/S0031-398X(10)70482-3

Kinsman, L. (2004). Clinical pathway compliance and quality improvement. Nursing Standard, 18(18), 33-5. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/219838395?accountid=458