Health Quality Management

Quality Management – An essential healthcare resource

Quality management is an essential heatlhcare resource. It is necessary to have the tools and strategies to be able to carry out all the activities that the patient – client needs. There is no point in knowing whether we are doing something good if we do not know how  to achieve it.

Therefore,  the proposal in health centers of protocols, tools or quality systems that allow us to know how we are acting, is essential. In order to achieve this,  it is necessary the participation on the part of those responsible for the center, an organizational system with the necessary human resources and well-defined concrete activities.

Quality management programs imply  that there are no barriers to be able to implement the product or service  provided to the client-patient. In addition, they assume a very specific design and planning. The most important is :

1. Identify the problems of the product or service.
2. Identifiy what type of problem it is.
3. Evaluate the problem
4. Decide what methodology we are going to use to solve it.

The main thing is that the programs and quality management are not elaborated through the protocols and methodologies. It ‘s people who define it. Therefore, what is really important is  people have the necessary resources to be able to work properly. It gives a good job to the worker and the worker will perform well.

Importance of Quality Management

Improvement cycles are the initial part of a quality program and pillar of it. Reassessment at each end of the cycle is necessary, as the “cyclical life” of quality management must never end.

The importance of these methodologies will give us the validity, reliability and usefulness of any product or service we are going to provide. Therefore, the importance of not only good, trained and useful human resources, but also material resources: fungible, inventoryable or any other type.

The material resources needed range from the smallest to the most sophisticated element in an intensive care unit.

Organizational mechanisms are a priority, such as the arrival of patients at the primary care center.  These systems must be adapted to the capacity of each health system.

On the other hand, we must not forget that quality also means improving what exists.

Quality is not only to achieve patient safety and satisfaction, but also to ensure coverage of medical needs. Quality management measures the level of quality of resources. Also checks if these resources are enough to give a great coverage to the patient-client.