Quality Improvement In Patient Care

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The quality improvement plan is a method to promote continuous improvement in patient care. Through the quality improvement plan, medical, allied health professionals, service personnel, vendors, patients and other dialysis customers work together to improve the process of care that is delivered. Each dialysis center/facility should maintain its own quality improvement plan. To assist with implementation, the Medical Review Board of The Renal Network recommends the following, which is based largely on recommendations from the Joint Commission for Healthcare Organizations and the Forum of ESRD Networks.[1] The multi-center system poses special challenges and offers special opportunities for dialysis quality assurance and improvement. Within…show more content…
We do not intend to promote the notion that our patient care processes are analogous to manufacturing widgets. Indeed, we would be delighted if it were possible to stabilize or reduce the patient-to-nephrologist ratio. Patient care should continue to be personalized, but it is just not possible to spend 10 min per patient when 50 or more patients are treated during a 4- or 5-h shift. In the face of these time constraints, perhaps we can improve high quality HD care by carefully considering the industrial factory analogy. The application of industrial models of quality control and continuous quality improvement (CQI) to our HD facilities is one strategy. Indeed, volume-driven processes of care in HD would seem to be amongst the most ideal health care models available to implement and study modified industrial solutions. Why look to industry for a new paradigm? Consider that serious error rates in ultra-safe industries like commercial aviation are one in a million , while more people in the USA die of medical errors than motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer or HIV . CQI methods can and must be applied successfully in health care…show more content…
It is acknowledged that there are substantial variations in quality of care indicators between doctors within a facility, between facilities and between countries. It is desirable to reduce these variations and to improve performance so that more patients reach targets. Finally, CQI works best when it focuses on the health care team and on improving the process and system of care. It does not work well by identifying individual poor performers and then naming, blaming and shaming them. Safety and quality should no longer be considered the responsibility of individuals; rather it must be built into all systems and processes of

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