QUALITY MANAGEMENT

(Transcript for Lesson 3)

Maulana Abul Kalam Azad University of Technology, WB

QUALITY MANAGEMENT
By
Prof Sibamay Dasgupta
TRANSCRIPT
(For Students’ Use only)

Reasons for pursuing Quality in Healthcare Organizations

Practicing quality management in any organization involves both cost
and time which are justified against the benefits obtained out of it. In
case of Healthcare organizations, we can summarize the reasons for
pursuing Quality in Healthcare in the following manner.

• 1. Requirement to define and meet patient needs and

expectations.
• 2. Increased demands for effective and appropriate care
• 3. A forum for measuring performance
• 4. Standardization and variance control
• 5. Necessity for cost saving measures.
• 6. Benchmarking

To continue with the reasons for pursuing Quality in Healthcare

organizations, we have
• 7. Report cards on provider performance
 • 8. Accreditation, certifications, and regulation.
• 9. Need for improvements in care and services.
• 10. Enhancement of positive competition
• 11. Desire for recognition and strive for excellence.
• 12. Ethical considerations.

Attributes and Dimensions of Healthcare Quality

Quality is a process of meeting the needs and expectations of the
customer, both external and internal. The patients represent the
external customers primarily, and the employees of the organization
represent the internal customers. It is obligatory to fulfil the need
and expectations of both these customers from Quality Management
point of view. We need to find out these needs. Data collected from
several international surveys of consumers and providers of quality,
describe these needs in terms of attribute and dimensions for
Healthcare in the following way.

• 1 Effectiveness
(Doing the right thing. It is otherwise delivering agreed outputs,
i.e. products or services. The overriding aim is to be right first
time and doing it better the next. Only appropriate and
necessary care should be provided. Waste, duplication and re-
work should be eliminated. Only most economical ways and
most effective ways to provide care should be stressed upon.)

• 2 Efficiency
(Doing the things right. It is the way of delivering the outputs,
product or services. The overriding aim is to be right first time
and doing it better the next. Only appropriate and necessary
care should be provided. Waste, duplication and re-work
should be eliminated. Only most economical ways and most
effective ways to provide care should be stressed upon.)

• 3 Technical Competence
(“Health care is a complex field and without good technical
background the chance of a professional survival is weak.
 Quality must be associated with highly technical capabilities
and competencies.”

• 4 Safety
(No one will accept a healthcare service in an environment
which is unsafe. From the risk management point of view also,
it must be treated with absolute necessity. “it is the duty of the
health professional to secure a safe environment for his/her
patient”)

To continue with the Attributes and Dimensions for Quality in

Healthcare organizations, we have

• 5 Accessibility
(It is a very important dimension. “Accessible care is care that is
available, acceptable, and affordable. Accessibility includes
physical, financial, and intellectual accessibility.”)

• 6 Interpersonal Relations
(Interpersonal relation within the team members of Healthcare
providers is an essential parameter in providing quality service
to patients. A hospital with the most sophisticated medical
equipment and highly qualified personnel will be an utter
failure without good teamwork.)

• 7 Continuity
(This dimension is very special to Healthcare. Experts look at it
in this way. “Health care quality is a process not a program. A
program has a beginning and an end but a process has no end.
It is continuous.” “..care should be initiated, rendered,
evaluated, improved, and continuously monitored even after
the patient is cured of his present illness.”)

• 8 Amenities
(This about the environment of Healthcare. A quality facility
involves paying attention to the minute details of its customers’
comfort and well-being, and providing cleanliness, decor of the
environment and quality service.)