HCS451

Quality Management Assessment Summary

Quality Management The "Duke University Medical Center" (2005) website defines “quality improvement as a formal approach to the analysis of performance and systematic efforts for improvement”. Quality improvement programs are found in a variety of industries and are constructed differently. The medical field tends to use quality management to focus on patient and staff safety, reducing medical errors, and avoiding or decreasing morbidity and mortality rates. Health care organizations have been attempting to improve the quality of care for as long as “the nineteenth-century when obstetrician, Ignaz Semmelweis introduced hand washing to medical care, and Florence Nightingale who determined …show more content…

According to Chassin and Loeb (2011); “utilization review committees were established to identify whether hospital medical staffs were providing appropriate clinical services and to prevent fraud” (p. 560). These utilization committees were put in place as a Medicare requirement. This internal factor did not positively affect the quality of care because there were no formal guidelines. An external factor that influences the quality of care for organizations is the Office of Clinical Standards and Quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. According to “Centers for Medicare and Medicaid" (2011), “They identify and develop best practice techniques in quality improvement and they develop requirements of participation for providers and plans in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.” (Office of Clinical Standards and Quality). The CMS Office of Clinical Standards and Quality can either have a positive or negative affect on health care organizations success with quality improvement management. If the organizations work well with the department, they could actually be a resource to the organization, but if the organization does not work with them and is not compliant, it could harm the organization. Another external factor that influences quality outcomes is the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI). The Institute for Healthcare Improvement is “and independent not-for-profit organization that focuses on motivating and building the will for