Table of Contents
The quality improvement plan involves working across multiple disciplines and systems within a practice. The quality improvement efforts require buy-in and support from the organization leadership for them to be successful. In quality improvement, leadership plays a vital role in providing a support structure for effort improvement, setting priorities to improve quality, promoting a learning atmosphere, modeling core values, allocating resources for improvement, and acting on recommendations. In this practice, the quality improvement team will be responsible for implementing the plan. However, it will require the support of organizational leadership. The quality improvement team includes board of directors, executive leadership, quality improvement team, medical staff, middle management, and department staff. The above are involved in the following roles;
Board of directors-the board of directors will play a significant role to make sure that the facility provides quality care, and that the facility has processes in place to evaluate and deliver improved healthcare. The directors will also assure effective linkages between all the departments of the facility to assure compliance with the quality improvement plan.
Executive leadership- they will have the authority to experiment and implement changes in the quality improvement plan. They will also help in solving problems that might be reported in the process.
Quality improvement committee -The quality improvement committee will carry out the improvement efforts of the facility. The committee will be the chief executive officer of the organization. The quality improvement committee will meet regularly to review the performance data and note the areas that should be improved.
Medical staff- the medical staff will review the medical services given to the patients. The staff will also assess the quality, which will help in providing a process that will help to improve the performance of the quality improvement plan.
Middle management- the middle managers hold a position between the frontline staff and senior leadership. They will mediate between the daily activities of the hospital and the strategy. They will act as the supporters of the frontline staff, where they will always translate the broad strategies of the quality improvement plan into actionable tasks.
Department staff- the department staff supports the wide focus of the organization on quality improvement.
Communication
Communication takes a pole position on the characteristics of a good strategy or list of managerial qualities. In this quality improvement plan, communication will be important to make sure that the leaders and staffs are at par. The performance activity outcomes of the quality improvement plan will be communicated to the management. The presentations and periodic updates about the activities of quality improvement committee will be communicated to the program managers, the board of directors, and the executive team. The presentations will be done through meeting updates, storyboards, or newsletters. The managers will be responsible for all the communications done to staff about the quality improvement plan and the established processes in the agency.
The managers will communicate to staff through resources such as templates and materials. These materials will be posted on boards under quality improvement. The manager will also make sure that all new resources are posted on the board and announced to staff. The reason behind this is the fact that sharing of information with the staff members consistently is critical to making sure their commitment and involvement in the quality improvement plan (Fawole et al., 2013). The communication will be done in a comprehensive way to make the team members understand what is expected of them, and how they will help in the plan.
Education
The staff will first be informed about the quality improvement plan through a staff meeting. They will then be enrolled in a quality improvement training program that will aim at expanding their quality improvement skills and knowledge. The training will have booster sessions before the course begins and a refresher class after the training ends. The training will be done by the supervisor, who will be expected to give the staff maximum support for the training to be successful. The training program will aim at making it possible for the participants to translate theory into practice.
The training program will provide the participants with new ways of solving problems, active changes to learn new methods of solving challenges, and a change in the quality improvement plan (Sklar & Lee, 2010). The training will run for three weeks, where the participants will have two lessons per day. The staff training will also include email support and webinars. The training will be offered with the idea that it is possible to provide a single program despite the participants having different quality improvement knowledge before the training begins. The supervisor support will be critical in a successful implementation of the quality improvement initiative.
Monitoring and revising
The quality improvement committee will make annual reviews and suggested on improvement areas in the quality improvement plan. During the review, the quality insurance committee will aim to comply or maintain alignment with Accreditation Standards. The committee will also submit a report summarizing the findings, review process, and recommendations to the board of directors at the beginning of every year. Subsequent to approval, the quality improvement committee will provide the revised plan to the management and board of directors. The staff members will be required to report the program evaluation to the quality improvement committee. The reason behind this is that the quality improvement efforts include improvement and review of all processes and programs that influence the quality of public health services.
In this case, the program evaluation will involve a systematic application of research procedures to access the implementation, conceptualization, and utility of the improvement plan. The evaluation will consist developing a framework of the program and developing an effective data collection tool that will be used to measure the impact of the program on provision of health care services. The program evaluation will also involve reviewing staff data on annual basis, improving and updating logic framework to the program, and be reporting the results to the board of directors. The evaluation and review will be done by program managers and staff. The department of staff will report the key findings of the evaluation to the quality improvement committee. The committee will use the findings to inform quality improvement efforts and program planning.
Regulatory and accreditation
Accreditation is more effective in promoting safety practices at hospitals and healthcare facilities than public awareness or state-required error reporting. Accreditation requirements are the main drivers of quality and safety efforts. Government agencies and accrediting bodies such as Centers for Disease and Prevention Control (CDC), The Joint Commission, and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have affected the quality and performance measures of the decision-making processes of the organization (Tehewy, Bssiouni, & Okda, 2009). For instance, accreditation and regulation are useful and legitimate for patient safety improvements. The mentioned accrediting bodies insist on the provision of high-quality care that results in less harm and fewer errors. As such, the quality improvement plan of the organization aims at increasing the excellency of the healthcare provided to the patients.
The patient safety improvement plan aims at truncating or lowering the errors in the distribution of quality services. The organization is required to follow the regulation set by CDC for quality improvement. The CDC provides tools, information, and the expertise needed to protect health and prevent injuries and diseases. Similarly, the CMS works to establish cost-effective care standards. These requirements have seen the organization change its decision-making process, which has resulted in the implementation of the quality improvement plan.
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- Fawole, O. A., Dy, S.M., Wilson, R.F., Lau, B., Martinez, K.A. et al. (2013). A Systematic Review of Communication Quality Improvement Interventions for Patients with Advanced and Serious Illness. Journal of General Internal Medicine, April 2013, Volume 28, Issue 4, pp 570–577
- Sklar D.P., & Lee R. (2010). Commentary: What if high-quality care drove medical education? A multiattribute approach. Acad Med. 2010 Sep; 85(9): 1401-4.
- Tehewy, A.M., Bssiouni, S., & Okda, E.L. (2009). Evaluation of accreditation program in non-governmental organizations’ health units in Egypt: Short-term outcomes. Int J Qual Health Care. 2009;21:183–9.