Paper Example: Improving Health Care Delivery and Patient Safety

Quality health care can be viewed as the umbrella upon which general safety of patients is harbored. It is the level upon which service delivery in healthcare is dispensed to individuals thus raising the probability of better-desired results that are in line with existing professional knowledge (Knickman & Kovner, 2015). Patient safety emphasizes service delivery that the resultant outcome is one that prevents are reduces errors, advocates for lessons to be learned in mistakes previously committed and, is primarily founded on the safety of all the stakeholders involved patients, organizations and healthcare institutions (Mitchell, 2017). Reduction of risks relating to adverse exposure due to inadequate diagnosis and treatment during healthcare delivery is also vital to patient safety and improving healthcare delivery (Shah, 2017).

Reduction of hospital-acquired conditions or diseases is one of the aspects of quality healthcare delivery and patient safety that has been of focus lately given the extra burden that it provides already ill or sick people. These are usually various conditions that someone sick contracts while still admitted or cared for in the hospital. The federal government, in collaboration with Partnership for Patients, has put in place various resources and tools to ensure the prevention or reduction of hospital-acquired conditions. They include the toolkit for reducing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) in hospitals and AHRQ Safety Program to prevent surgical site infections during surgical operations ("AHRQ Tools To Reduce Hospital-Acquired Conditions | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality", 2017).

Any improvement in the quality of healthcare delivery and patient safety requires the collaboration and unity of purpose of all the professions involved. Ranging from nurses, clinical officers, doctors, and surgeons; an inter-profession partnership goes further in cementing any reform, change or improvement that is to be effected in the medical profession. Thus, such reforms cannot be implemented on a partial basis and would only take away the gains already made on improving patient safety and quality healthcare delivery (Shah, 2017).

References

AHRQ Tools To Reduce Hospital-Acquired Conditions | Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. (2017). Ahrq.gov. Retrieved 7 October 2017, from https://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/quality-patient-safety/hac/tools.html

Knickman, J., & Kovner, A. (2015). Jonas & Kovner's health care delivery in the United States (11th ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing.

Mitchell, P. (2017). Defining Patient Safety and Quality Care. Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Retrieved 7 October 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2681/

Shah, P. (2017). In patient satisfaction survey- how does it help our health care delivery system (the patient, the health care giver and the organization)?. International Surgery Journal, 4(10), 3280. http://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20174140