Quality Plan Analysis And Cultural Assumption In Healthcare

1. Some healthcare organizations post their quality plan on the Web. Search the Internet/Website for the quality plan for your local healthcare facility. Summarize the facility plan. Review and discuss plans introduced by your group members.

2. Consider the cultural assumptions and beliefs underlying a perfectionist mentality: perfection is always expected; mistakes aren’t allowed. This assumption can create an environment inhospitable to quality improvement. Are cultural assumptions addressed in the plan that you reviewed?  What changes would you make to the plan regarding cultural perceptions? Why?

 

1. Quality is one of the most important aspects that the healthcare facilities should focus on. It is extremely important to provide quality healthcare service as this will ensure better health of the service users and will naturally develop the reputation of the healthcare organisation. Building an effective quality facility plan that prioritise the quality objectives  will help the organisations to build the trust among the consumers as this will enable them to be consistent with the service quality and hence will develop the trust of the service users. The quality plan helps to develop quality objectives that add to the overall quality of service provided at the healthcare facilities. In the recent past there have been number of discussions on what should a quality service plan should be and what scholars felt was to introduce effective service provision and the attainment of best degree of quality served (Grol et al., 2013 p, 56). Healthcare facility is a key concept that most of the healthcare organisations will have to focus on. Healthcare facility plans are effective in developing the vision and mission of the healthcare organisation as it helps them to act effectively as per the laid out quality plan. There are number of healthcare companies all around the world which have focused on developing an effective quality plan which has helped them to work on the overall quality of the service provided to the care seekers (Scott et al., 2003 p, 78). One such organisation is Saddleback Memorial Medical Centre which has focused on planning an effective quality plan that has helped them to work effectively towards the provision of better healthcare facilities for the care seekers.

Saddleback Memorial Medical Centre is based out South Orange County in California and is counted as one of the leading healthcare facility in that region for its effective high quality health service. The company has an effective quality plan that it intends to achieve step by step. Quality management is the science of process management and the organisation understands it well. The company has a mission that focuses on providing the best quality care to individuals and the vision works accordingly that focuses on having excellent people that helps them to provide extraordinary care every time. It is important to mention that effective quality plan includes value creation for the service users and this is done through accountability, fair practice and empathy and vibration within the organisation (Poksinska, 2010 p, 67). The organisation Saddleback has implemented these aspects effectively within their process of providing care so that value could be created for the service users. Quality depends on the management of healthcare process and not the doctors and nurses and hence the company has managed the quality of its health system which has helped them to provide customized care for the service users and this has also created value. The healthcare system of the organisation collaborates with different other healthcare organisations which has provided better facilities to the service users. Some of the movements by the company have been very effective for instance the company is one of the very few hospitals that provide minimal invasive heart surgeries that are an important breakthrough for the company in terms of providing quality care (Spath, 2009 p, 12). Saddleback Memorial also contributes to a large extent for the development of the community and collaborates with different organisations all across the place in South Orange County in order to provide the best quality service to the consumers. One of the major focuses of the company is to measure the improvement of quality within the organisation as it will help the organisation to implement plans and programs for the development of the service quality. The company organises occasional assessment and quality audit which helps to identify the basic loopholes in service and eliminate them effectively for the development of service quality. As stated earlier the company prioritises value proposition and that’s what has developed the service quality within the organisation. In the recent past the company has come up with valve evaluation which has advanced the cardiac treatment at the hospital and this has also contributed highly to meet the quality goals of the company. Overall it could be said that the quality plan of Saddleback Memorial Medical Centre is quite effective and visionary that strives to achieve excellence and perfection (Powell et al., 2009 p, 34).

2. Cultural assumptions often affect service provision and don’t help an organisation to attain perfection. There are number of culturally biased assumptions which mainly state that all the patients have same expectation is wrong. It is important to mention that the sole motive of the patients to come in the hospital might be same that is to get cured but their requirements and needs might be different which needs to be properly assessed by eliminating these culturally biased assumptions. For instance at Saddleback the focus is always on person centered care, the company understands that the needs and wants of the different consumers are different and accordingly they provide person centered care which eliminate that issue of failing to provide quality service to people (Khatri et al., 2009 p, 23). What needs to be changed in the organisation is that the healthcare company doesn’t have any separate system for people who cannot speak their minds. The company should come up with significant changes in its infrastructure so that the company is able to provide services even to consumers who are not able to speak or speak any other language.  It is also important for the organisation Saddleback to include patients in the healing process (Dahlgaard et al., 2011). They should be viewed as the partners in the development process of their state of health. Quality measures should focus on developing effective counseling approaches which would help to improve the kind of service provided by the organisation.

Saddleback Memorial needs to be sensitive towards the socio cultural preferences of their patients. They need to be familiar with the cultural norms and traditions of the people belonging to the different ethnic backgrounds and this will help them to create a strong bond with their end users and this will enable the organisation to ensure a long term association with their patients. The organisation needs to respect the cultural traditions of their patients and at the same time ensure that the patients are provided with excellent quality of care and treatment with their organisation. Having a proper cultural assumption regarding their patients will help the organisation to serve them in a better and effective manner and this will go a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction for their patients. Thus, the organisation will be able to retain their customers for the long haul by fostering brand loyalty among them (Spath, 2009 p, 62).

Saddleback Memorial must recruit people from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds within their organisation as this would enable them to indentify the needs and preferences of their different customers in a better and effective manner. They will be able to familiarize themselves with the social and cultural norms of people coming from different cultural background and this will help the organisation to deliver truly world class quality of care and treatment to their patients. Cultural assumptions play a very important role in ensuring a positive interaction with the patient and the care providers. This will help the patient to communicate their medical history and medical symptoms in an effective manner and this would help in better detection and diagnosis of the diseases suffered by the patients. This will enable Saddleback Memorial to gain the trust of their patients and this will help in ensuring customer satisfaction for the end-users of the organisation (Khatri et al., 2009 p, 96).

Saddleback Memorial needs to get rid of any cultural biases and stereotypes which are usually found in the healthcare industry. The organisation needs to improve their way of thinking and they must try to understand how their unconscious thinking and assumptions is seriously affecting the quality of care and treatment which are being provided to the patients. This will enable them to ensure culturally competent care to their patients and thus the organisation will be able to further enhance the quality of care and treatment which are being presently delivered to their patients (Grol et al., 2013 p, 134).

Finally it is important to mention that provider awareness is a significant culturally biased assumption where it is thought that the provider knows everything but it could be proven wrong and hence Saddleback in order to provide quality services should communicate with the service users in order to provide the best quality service (Campinha-Bacote, 2011 p, 45).

Campinha-Bacote, J. (2011). Delivering patient-centered care in the midst of a cultural conflict: The role of cultural competence. The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 16(2).

Dahlgaard, J. J., Pettersen, J., & Dahlgaard-Park, S. M. (2011). Quality and lean health care: A system for assessing and improving the health of healthcare organisations. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence,22(6), 673-689.

Grol, R., Wensing, M., Eccles, M., & Davis, D. (Eds.). (2013). Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley & Sons.

Khatri, N., Brown, G. D., & Hicks, L. L. (2009). From a blame culture to a just culture in health care. Health care management review, 34(4), 312-322.

Poksinska, B. (2010). The current state of Lean implementation in health care: literature review. Quality Management in Healthcare, 19(4), 319-329.

Powell, A. E., Rushmer, R. K., & Davies, H. T. O. (2009). A systematic narrative review of quality improvement models in health care. NHS Quality Improvement Scotland.

Scott, T., Mannion, R., Davies, H., & Marshall, M. (2003). The quantitative measurement of organizational culture in health care: a review of the available instruments. Health services research, 38(3), 923-945.

Spath, P. (2009). Introduction to healthcare quality management. Chicago, IL: Health Administration Press.