Introduction
Quality management in nursing centers refers to a systematic approach that seeks to improve the organizational processes. Generally quality management in healthcare facilities such as in nursing care centers primarily focuses on the satisfaction of the expectations of the patients, identification of the potential risks in the facility as well as promotion of open decision making processes among the employees working in the facility. Marina Garden nursing center just like many other nursing homes in the United States has begun to implementing quality management strategies that are designed to improve and monitor the quality of care in the facility. Given the nature of the services that the facility is offering, the implementation of quality management will focus on improving the relationship between the patients and the nursing care professional at the facility, enhancing efficiency of the personnel in the facility through trainings, seminars and continuous education programs to help them improve their knowledge in the profession (McLaughlin and Kaluzny, 2006).
Purpose of quality management in nursing care facilities
The primary purpose of quality management in nursing centers and other health care facilities is to improve the quality of services and patient car, decrease the risks and enhance the profitability of these institutions. Consequently the assessment of the quality management at Marina Garden nursing center involves the overall quality of respite and nursing care being offered at the facility. This includes the strategic planning, leadership, process management and the workforce efficiency. On the other hand, the nursing center has also focused on improving the affordability of the services being offered to the patients. This also involves efficiently using the staffing and physical resources in an attempt to make the facility more financially viable while at the same time making the services more affordable.
With regard to mortality reduction, nursing centers just like the other healthcare institutions usually attend to frail and vulnerable members of the society. These kinds of patients have high mortality levels if adequate measures are not taken appropriately. Consequently Marina Garden nursing center has implemented numerous steps to limit the occurrences of preventable and premature deaths at the facility. Some of the strategies that are being used to reduce the mortality rates in the facility includes, improving the quality of respite and care services in the facility and enhancing the efficiency of workers at the facility to ensure that they attend to the needs of the patients in a satisfactory manner. Compared to the other nursing centers in Alameda, the mortality at the facility is comparatively lower and this is an indication of the effective quality management procedures and policies that have been implemented to improve the respite and nursing care.
According to Berwick and Roessner (1990), nursing homes and other healthcare facilities have in the past few decades increasingly began to adopt new policies that are aimed improving the quality of their care services to help them reduce some of the undesirable outcomes that may occur in their professional practice. Marina nursing care in particular has implemented various quality assurance policies and activities that are primarily aimed at enhancing the quality of care that the facility is offering to its clients. For example a client council has been established to look into the complaints of the clients and seek new ways of improving the patient handling processes in the nursing facility. On the other hand, various equipments as well as professional practice guidelines have been put in place to ensure a reduction in the number of risks and undesirable outcomes. In short the implementation of quality management strategies in a healthcare organization is important in the reduction of a number of undesirable health risks that may affect both the patients as well as the facility itself.
Concepts of quality management in healthcare organizations
In healthcare, quality management is defined as an organized systematic approach that focuses in the improvement and the analysis of the performance of a particular healthcare organization. As earlier been noted, the primary goal of quality management practices in healthcare facilities is to improve the quality of services related to patient care and increase the probability of desired outcomes in the care of these patients. In most cases, quality management in nursing care centers such as Marina Garden nursing center are not often restricted to the clinical aspects of the facilities. On the other hand, quality improvement is an integrated perspective which includes good governance, improved support activities, managerial improvement as well as improved clinical services at the facility. The key principles in quality management in nursing centers include the practice of Total quality management philosophy commonly known as (TQM), the use of continuous quality improvement (C01). Quality improvement is defined as the improvements that help in the satisfaction of the needs of the patients (Berwick and Roessner, 1990).
One of the most important concepts of quality management in healthcare organizations is the concept of leadership. This is particularly with regard to the fact that the leadership and management of the healthcare facility is in most cases responsible for giving the required direction in the implementation of the quality management policies as well as the establishment of unity in the facility. Leaders are also charged with the responsibility of developing the vision and the strategy of improving the care services in the health care organization.
Another principle of quality management is measurement. This generally involves the process of measuring the outcomes of the healthcare services being offered by the facility. In many cases, the process measurement is undertaken by the healthcare providers and the results of such measurements are significantly important in the making of the necessary adjustments to improve the care in the facility. Finally reliability is another significant concept that is increasingly being employed in the quality management strategies of various healthcare organizations. This is because most of the processes in healthcare organizations usually require some form of reliability and therefore it is necessary to improve reliability in an effort to ensure quality services in the healthcare facilities.
Short term and long term goals of Marina Garden nursing center
With regard to the implementation of quality Management practices at the facility, Marina Garden nursing center has developed a number of short term and long term goals that will enable it achieve its objectives of ensuring quality care to the patients receiving care at the facility. One of the shot term goal being implemented in many organizations is the involvement of all the employees of the facility in quality management and improvement. Marina Garden nursing center is now developing a mechanism through which it will be easier to capture the ideas and suggestion of all its employees with regard to quality management at the facility. Another short term goal of the nursing care facility is the improvement of the facilities at the center to ensure that they offer the necessary efficiency and reliability in the provision of care services. Finally, Marina Garden nursing facility has restructured its recruitment and retention strategies in a way that will enhance it acquire competent and properly trained healthcare practitioners. This is also a short term goal that will be achieved most likely through the practice of only employing and retaining health care workers with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude in their professional practice.
On the other hand, some of the long term goals of the nursing care facility in the strive to achieve quality improvement include promoting its organizational culture to ensure its commitment to the provision of quality care to the patients. This is intended to be achieved through the development of open communications where the health care providers can effectively participate in. Additionally there is also a plan to introduce a continuous educational system as well as trainings where the healthcare practitioners working at the facility will be able to continually update their knowledge in their field of practice.
Factors that influence the quality outcomes at Marina Garden nursing center
There are a number of factors that significantly impacts on the quality improvement at Marina Garden nursing facility. Currently one of the most challenging factors is low staffing (Wagner et al 2006). This is because quality services require enough medical personnel who invariably bring their diverse abilities together for the improvement of quality at the center. On the other hand, lack of the necessary training for the healthcare practitioners at the center can also influence the quality outcomes at the facility. This is particularly with regard to the fact they make lack the necessary expertise to handle some situations in their line of duty and therefore sometimes the quality of their services may be reduced.
Finally lack of modern nursing care facilities may also hinder the implementation of the quality management practices at Marina Garden nursing home. These factors are also related to the risks at the facility and therefore some of the fundamental quality management policies that can be implemented in healthcare organizations are also closely related to their management of risks (Carroll, 2009). For example, the organizations develop trainings, seminars and education to help their employees continually update their knowledge in their field of practice. This not only enhances the quality management of the organization but is also important in the risk management. Another fundamental quality management policy that is also related to risk management is that healthcare organizations should employ and retain employees with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitude in their professional practice.
In conclusion, Quality management programs focuses on the satisfaction of the expectations of the patients through the delivery of quality care services and reduction of the risks and other undesirable outcomes at the healthcare organizations. Quality management and risk management in healthcare are today closely related and the efforts to improve the quality of patient care services at the health care facilities are important in the risk management. The implementation of the quality management policies can not only help in the delivery of quality patient care but also in the improvement of the safety in the healthcare organizations.
References
Berwick, G., Roessner, J. (1990).Curing Health Care: New Strategies for Quality Improvement. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc.
Carroll, R. (2009). Risk Management handbook for health Care Organizations. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons Inc.
McLaughlin C., Kaluzny A. (2006). Continuous Quality Improvement in Health Care: Theory, Implementations, and Applications. Sudbury: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Wagner, van der Wal G, Spreeuwenberg P, Groenewegen, P. (2006). Quality management systems and clinical outcomes in Dutch nursing homes. Health Policy, 2006, 75, 1, 230-240.