Response to Post

Response to Post

Post by: Keisha Moore

Quality in health care is expressed by providers “doing the right thing, at the right time, the right way for the right person in the hopes of achieving the best possible results for each individual (SCHA, 2013)”. A hospital seeking to provide quality healthcare focuses on safety, effectiveness, being patient-centered, timeliness, efficiency, and equitability. Unfortunately, there are still some areas that lack quality care. This is a problem that the United States health care system has been working on for years and while some are satisfied there are still others who would like to see more progress.

Providers define quality of care on several factors. They consider local customs and traditions, medical culture, and the strength of their facility and health care system (Lantis, Green & Joyce, 2002). All around the world, providers are faced with lack of knowledge or a desire to not be able to provide the quality of care that patients seek. In the United States, it would seem that providers either are excited to be able to provide quality care to all patients or, in some areas they want it but can't afford it financially or staff wise. For providers, whether they want it, don't want it or can't afford it, quality of care is an ever present matter. They have quality of care measurements and they must report their finding regularly.

A patient perspective of quality of healthcare would be knowing that a trip to the doctor will result in a problem being completely being taken care of or having access to the treatments necessary to take care of a problem. This is true because in most cases, a patient won't seek medical assistance unless they have an existing problem. In other instances, patients might define quality healthcare based on affordability and accessibility. For patients who can afford regular visits to their physician and who can get to a healthcare facility quickly, they are likely to have more positive outlooks on quality of healthcare in America. For those patients who can't afford it or can't get to a facility quickly, they might see quality of healthcare in the U.S. as weak. To simply put it, patients value the “improved health status that they hope to gain from receiving health care (Frech, Parente, & Hoff, 2012)”.

Strengths of the quality of care provided in the U.S. health system are that there are process measures. These measures provide feedback that can identify which processes were followed or not followed and what their outcomes were. Process measures let physicians know what they and their facility are doing well and what areas can stand to be improved. With these measures in place, healthcare providers feel accountable and take responsibility for their actions (Rubin, Pronovost, & Diette, 2001). Focus on quality care in the U.S. has led to more and more healthcare providers taking initiative followed by action on the matter of giving patients top quality care.

Quality of care can also be seen as ...