Improving Quality of Health Care Services

The U.S. leads the way in many areas into the future of economy, wealth and civilization. America spends more on heath care than any other nation with quality and safety being a key focus. Nevertheless, evidence of improvement of decreased errors is limited. We lack answers to financial stability and providing quality health care to all (Becher & Chassin, 2001). Nationally, everyone is engaged in improving the quality and safety of healthcare. We need to be awakened to preventing errors and providing safer care (Laureate, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to discuss the initiative to improve quality and safety of health care with the “Six Dimensions of Goodness in Healthcare.”
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U.S. health care must improve their standards of care (Laureate, 2009). Nursing can be a part of better communication and handoff’s. The patient has often been the communication link to give report to the next caregiver (Becher, E. & Chassin, M., 2001). Bedside nurses need empowerment to provide care and be involved in creating policies for better care. Nurses need more education, to get more involved in National groups that can affect policy, and to participate in research. Nurses have a great responsibility for safe healthcare. They have an opportunity to make a difference (Laureate, 2009). Nursing should be a part of identifying the error cause, gathering data, and making goals to prevent subsequent errors (NCC MERP, 2002).
Summary - 10 point
The second IOM report “Crossing the Quality Chasm,” asked for a fundamental change, recommending that the delivery of health care in the 21st century be based on six key dimensions (Madhok, 2002). The key dimensions are safety, effectiveness, patient centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equitability (Laureate, 2009). Healthcare systems are implementing the six dimensions as a basic initiative to improve quality and safety and direct the overall process of improvement of care (Laureate, 2009). We have an interaction between the errors of individuals and system flaws that need to be prevented. We need to strengthen our defense systems (Madhok, 2002). A fragmented