Quality Assurance Flashcards
What is Quality?
What is Quality?
Ordinarily quality is how good something is; service/ a product
Words used to describe quality are; beautiful, durable, meeting standard, healthy
What is Quality Assurance?
What is Quality Assurance?
It is a set of activities that are planned and carried out systematically and continuously to improve quality of care. It involves.
- The setting of standards
- Monitoring to identify gaps between what is being done and what is expected and addressing the gaps
- Operating within available resource; human, material, finance
Why is QA important?
Why is QA important?
Health staff are morally, professionally and legally bound to provide quality service
Democratization of the society is making people to demand their rights
Rising global and local consumerism
Accreditation requirements of the NHIS
Increasing literacy level is making the society more aware of their rights and responsibilities
Poor quality is costly and good quality is beneficial
Application of Quality Assurance in business, commerce and industry has yielded great success.
Note
Quality is the extent to which a product or service satisfies a person or meets his expectations
People’s expectations differ; what akosua expects from a service may differ from what Kofi expects
Also with time expectations change so we need to keep on improving quality. It is dynamic
Factors like ,
exposure, education and age can affect expectations
CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITY ASSURANCE
CHARACTERISTICS OF QUALITY ASSURANCE
COMPONENTS/DIMENSIONS OF QUALITY
PRINCIPLES OF QUALITY
PERSPECTIVES OF QUALITY
Components of Quality health services;
Some of the barriers to access service are:?
Components of Quality health services;
Quality has several parts which needs to be addressed to improve quality of care;
1. Access to Service; every one should have -access to quality health care; Some of the barriers to access are
- Geographical
- Financial
- Culture, beliefs and values
- Organizational availability
- Technical Competence; It implies that we should have adequate knowledge and skills to provide quality service.
• Having a successful professional education. MB.CHB; GRN etc
• Regular updating of knowledge and skills after school. ie Continuos Professional development (CPD/ IT), Sourcing information from Literature and colleagues - . Equity; Quality health service should be provided in all parts of the country for all who need them. Age, sex, religion, tribe disability should not be a barrier
- Effectiveness: we are interested in the type of care that produces positive results in the patients health
- Efficiency: provision of high quality care at the lowest possible cost. By avoiding waste
- Continuity: it means that clients get the full range of services she needs including referral and keeping records for proper follow up.
- Safety; we have to reduce to the barest minimum injuries, infections, harmful side effects
- Interpersonal relations; it refers to the relationship between us and our clients
- Amenities; these are features that can be provided to make life comfortable ie tv, comfortable chairs
Perspectives of quality
Perspectives of quality
The health staff, health manager, Clients and communities are all stake holders in service delivery. Each of them have different expectations of the health services
Patient/Client:
Affordable fees
Good staff attitude
prompt services,
Privacy,
Availability of drugs
Providing adequate information
Health Staff
Adequate knowledge and skills
Enough resources; staff, drugs , equipments
Safe and clean working environment
Continuous professional development
Well paid and reward for hard work
Health Care Manager
Managing efficiently the resources
Health staff achieving
Health staff being regularly supported and supervised
Having adequate and competent staff
Disciplined staff
Providing enough resources for work
Community Perspective:
It is similar to the perspective of the clients
We need to tailor our services to the needs of the community
Principles of Quality Assurance:
Principles of Quality Assurance:
1.QA is orientated towards meeting the needs and expectations of our clients
•QA focuses on systems and processes
•QA uses data to analyze service delivery
•QA encourages the use of teams in problem solving and quality improvement
- QA uses effective communication to improve service delivery
Meeting the needs of our Clients- Principle 1
Meeting the needs of our Clients- Principle 1
We have to treasure the people who keep us in employment- the clients
There are 2 types of clients
- External client; they directly use our services; Patients, relatives, community
-Internal clients; the workers in the health
facility become clients at one stage
Focusing on systems- Principle 2
Focusing on systems- Principle 2
They are the various components of service delivery that have to operate as a unit to deliver quality service
The 3 components are
Inputs,
Processes
and outcomes.
When things go wrong lets question the system or all the areas of service delivery
Input/structure: Include Physical infrastructure and other resources both material and human required to provide service.
Examples
•Consulting room
•Drugs and supplies
•Patient records
•Clinical guidelines
•Human Resource
Process: Is the series of steps to perform an activity or deliver service
•Reception of patients
•Waiting time
•Patient flow
•Privacy
•History taken, Physical examination
•Ensuring confidentiality
•Documentation of findings diagnosis and treatment
Output: Amount of work done
No. of deliveries
No of admissions
No. of Malaria cases
Immunization coverage
Outcome: Result of the work done
Patient satisfaction
Mortality rate
Case fatality rate
Malaria cure rate
utilization
Impact: It is the long term effect of service delivery. Other interventions ie socio-economic factors etc also influence Impact.
Maternal Mortality rate
Infant mortality rate
Under 5 mortality rate
Prevalence
Life Expectancy
Fertility rate
Use of data to improve quality-Principle 3
Use of data to improve quality-Principle 3
•We do not use the data we collect to make decisions
•Data tell us where there are problems in service delivery
•The data we collect can help us in planning our services and for monitoring
•Data can help us identifying resources required for health services
•Sources of data; HMIS or routine data,
Surveillance data collected by Public Health,
Surveys
Improving Team work- Principle 4
Improving Team work- Principle 4
A team is a group of people who work together to achieve a common goal
In health we have different cadres/ professions working together
Different perspective is important for the treatment of the patient
Quality Assurance use teams in problem solving
Effective communication-Principle 5
Effective communication-Principle 5
Process of message passed from a sender to a receiver and vice versa. In health care the ff. is expected
Health worker and patient: improves patient satisfaction
Health worker and community: regular interaction boost trust and confidence
Health worker and health worker: enhances dissemination of information, team work
Result of poor quality of service
Result of poor quality of service
Obvious ( visible) cost:
Wrong diagnosis
Wrong treatment
Prolonged illness
Repeated OPD visits
Poor utilization
Death
Waste of time
Costs that are not obvious (Invisible)
Wasted Laboratory tests
Unnecessary treatment
Wasted medications
Poor patient compliance
Frustrated patients
Late presentations
Low health worker morale etc
Barriers to Quality Assurance:
Non commitment of management to QA
Wrong attitude of staff
Lack of team work
Poor understanding of the QA concept
Poor communication among staff
Fear of Change
Suspicion about comparisons
Patient views not given adequate attention
Low staff morale
Weak supervision
Poor communication among staff
