In this assignment I will be discussing the case study in our text on “Memorial Hospital”. I will be looking at the ways the hospital might measure quality. I will also explain the potential costs and failures of quality for Memorial Hospital and discuss how each can be measured. I will be looking at the ideas or techniques from TQM that Janice could use to help Memorial focus on providing quality health care. Finally I will analyze the methods Memorial could use to discuss the quality of health care it is providing.
Memorial Hospital is a hospital that does not have any one specialty type care for their facility. They provide general care for patients at an affordable cost. They have a complete laboratory and X-ray facility, an emergency room, an intensive care unit, a cardiac care unit and even a psychiatric ward. They do have other hospitals that are close by that can provide specific care when a patient needs it. Memorial feels they need to concentrate on offering high-quality general health care at an affordable price instead of specific care like orthopedic or dermatology. Memorial wants to be able to treat those patients that need immediate care and treatment and then they can refer them to another location if there is more extensive or specific care they need.
The Term Paper on Jackson Memorial Hospital
“We are close, if not already in, a health care death spiral. ” These were words of Chief operating officer of public health trust, David Small as he was describing the situation Jackson memorial hospital is in right now. It is the Miami city’s major hospital and is running out of finance (Armario, 2010). The hospital is $229. 4 million in debt and it has been predicted that it will run out of ...
This helps patients take care of common things that happen all of the time, like illness or injury. “However, the hospital’s administrator, Janice Fry, is concerned about whether the hospital can really deliver on its promises, and worries thatfailure to provide the level of health care patients expect could drive patients away. “ (Vonderembse, 2013) She feels that the failure to provide a certain level of health care for their patients can end up driving them away and they will not get the business they need to keep the hospital running smoothly. I think that giving their patients a questionnaire is a great idea in order to see if there are any improvements that can be made to make the hospital better for their patients. Getting this kind of feedback will only benefit their hospital.
If the hospital decides that they want to make these changes to their hospital to make it better for their patients, they will need to be able to handle the cost of making these potential changes. There are also more stresses that need close personal attention to each of their patients and they will also need to hire more staff to accommodate any changes that are made to the hospital in the form of patient care. The hospital’s administrator is concerned that they will not be able to deliver the promises they have made to these changes and they do not want to be responsible for the failure of the hospital if these changes do not go over well. With change, there also can be more problems that come up. These good intentions may not always be for the best. If the hospital decides to make changes, they need to put the value of human life ahead of their profits. Making sure that their patients get the best treatment they can will help them to be a bigger and better hospital for their patients.
The total quality management is a way for the hospital to see if any ideas or techniques can help provide better quality health care for their customers. “TQM cannot, by itself, be expected to enhance the bottom line of a company with overpriced products or a company that is highly vulnerable to slight downturns in the economy. Quality is a prerequisite for success, but does not guarantee it. Nonetheless, it has become fashionable to label TQM programs as ineffective when, in fact, other factors are to blame.” (Paetsch, 1993) Total quality management is the approach to quality management and embodies the following which they focus on the customer, have quality function of deployment, responsibility for quality, team problem solving, employee training, fact-based management, and philosophy of continuous improvement.
The Essay on Customer Satisfaction and Quality Care
In this competitive health care environment, consumers want and expect better health care services and hospital systems are concerned about maintaining their overall image. There is also attention to ways in which patient satisfaction measurement can be integrated into an overall measure of clinical quality. To begin, review the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (H.C.A.H.P.S.) ...
It is important that if the hospital decides to focus on providing quality health care for their patients, this is the best way to decide what needs to be done. I think that if they were responsible for quality of their patients, it would give them an edge on being better than some hospitals in the area. If they are able to provide more services for their patients, it will go a long way. Making sure that they also train the right people to do these new jobs will help the hospital become something great.
If Memorial wanted to assess the best quality of health care, they can make sure they are properly staffed to handle more patients, making sure that they have trained them the right amount of extra care that is provided, and maintain a stress free environment for their patients and staff. If they take some cues from the patients on better quality health care, they may be able to do a better job for their patients. I would also suggest that they only make these improvements if they will improve the quality of the health care and not cause more stress and problems down the road for their patients and staff.
References
Vonderembse, M.A. & White, G.P. (2013) Operations Management. Retrieved on June 8, 2015 from: https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUBUS644.13.2/sections/ch04summary?search=memorial#w48224 Paetsch, J. (1993) Success at Total Quality Management Requires Commitment, Patience. Retrieved on June 8, 2015 from: http://search.proquest.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/333599959/25AC787080104301PQ/1?accountid=32521