Quality and Performance Measures

What is Quality?

Quality is perceived differently from person to person. Some people think that quality depends either on the outcome or a personal approach. It is defined as a continual improvement in meeting or exceeding professionally established and measurable criteria to aid in balancing patient's goals and values with ethical guidelines. Quality of care happens when health care services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.

Why is it important to measure quality of care?

Healthcare is happening more and more outside the hospitals today and hospitals, nursing homes, and home health care agencies have been the primary focus of quality of care measurements. It is measured to aid in improving health care. The goal is to provide better care and lower the costs which aids in standardization. Improvement can't happen without measurement. The measurements focus on processes. The goal here is to encourage doctors to follow what are considered best practices.

What I believe is the most effective measures of quality and why.

I do not believe that just one measurement can measure the true quality of care. I believe that it will take at least four measurements to do this. One measurement is the outcome. If my outcome was negative then I would perceive the quality as negative also. Outcomes should be evidence-based processes. The second measurement is health status. If I am healthier than someone else that is terminal, I feel that they should get more quality than me just for the simple fact of comfortableness to die without being in pain. Health status of both, individuals and populations, should be compared to peer practices. The third measurement is patient satisfaction. If I am not satisfied then I do not believe that there was quality involved at all. The process and access of care should be assessed. Last but not least, the fourth measurement is value. Value expresses professionalism to me and is very important to both patients and payers. Clinical outcomes, health status, patient satisfaction, and value are four measurements that will help improve quality of care.

Reference

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