In healthcare, quality management refers to the administration of systems design, policies, and processes that minimize, if not eliminate, harm while optimizing patient care and outcomes. Whether you are a hospital with 1000 beds or 25, the fact remains, every hospital must navigate and manage the many complexities associated with a quality management system.
Why is quality management important in healthcare? There are numerous reasons why it is important to improve quality of healthcare, including enhancing the accountability of health practitioners and managers, resource efficiency, identifying, and minimizing medical errors while maximizing the use of effective care and improving outcomes, and aligning care to what users and patients want in addition to what they need.
The Healthcare Quality Management Toolkit demonstrates a practical approach to managing and improving quality. Whether you agree with the premise that these activities are complex, this book will outline a standardized approach that any organization can adopt to meet their needs while accommodating the foundational concepts of quality improvement by accreditation agencies. It also outlines how to set-up and manage a quality management program as a part of continuous process improvement initiative, as well as the purpose and managing of a patient safety organization.
The purpose of this book is twofold -if you're a senior healthcare manager or director tasked with setting up a quality management system, this book will provide tools and techniques you can immediately apply. If you're a healthcare professional preparing for the CPHQ certification exam, this book will take you beyond study guides by explaining what you need to know and explains the why behind each concept.
About the Author: Doug Johnson has been in healthcare over 30 years. He is a Registered Nurse, Certified Professional In Healthcare Quality, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and earned his BSN with summa cum laude honors. His healthcare career began in patient transport and has progressed over numerous areas including the cardiovascular lab, health plan operations, emergency department, operating departments, nursing units, urgent care, billing processes, electronic medical records, patient-throughput, regulatory and accreditation requirements, quality, database management, data analytics and software development.
Doug has outstanding interpretive skills in quantitative and qualitative analyses, identifying root causes of poor process control and inefficiencies. His vast experience in the multifaceted business of healthcare has equipped him to design, improve and provide sustainable solutions in all areas of healthcare operations.
His company, DcJ Solutions (www.Innovate2Accelerate.com) offers quality management consulting and training through proven tools and techniques to allow your organization to implement, manage, and sustain a quality management program using existing and permanent staff. He developed a team of experts both in healthcare operations and information technology design. By combining the skills of healthcare operations, process improvement and technology, this team is well aligned to create meaningful solutions for healthcare organizations.
