Healthcare is a dynamic industry. While new medical advancements have paved the way for increased quality of care, many believe that improving patient experience will prove more helpful for the present and beyond. This means the quality of care goes beyond simply ensuring patients get proper help when they’re on the premises.
Below-average care comes at the cost of time, money, and – above all – life. However, many factors contribute to improving the quality of healthcare services. While governments play a substantial role in ensuring equal opportunities and access to all citizens, healthcare facilities and practitioners can adopt specific strategies to improve the quality of care. These include:
1. Utilizing healthcare data for analytics and research
Analytics and big data have brought noteworthy advancements in improving the quality of service and patient outcomes in healthcare. With the help of analytics and research, healthcare providers can make near-certain predictions regarding many complicated diseases and processes. Such predictions can, as a result, increase the quality of treatment and help decrease possible re-admission rates.
Ever since the pandemic struck, the healthcare sector has expanded its IT spending by 4.8%. As a result, many healthcare facilities and providers now focus on creating practical solutions, such as implementing connected medical devices and cloud storage. And research is integral to improving health infrastructure and addressing public health concerns. If you’re wondering what is public health research and why it is essential, it helps researchers understand various factors that influence human health. The findings of such studies allow researchers to discover characteristics that augment the prevalence of heart disease, cancer, obesity, etc. Moreover, it helps health service providers develop and implement measures to reduce the incidence of such ailments.
2. Increase safety
Safety is a significant concern when it comes to improving the quality of healthcare services. Removing or reducing medical errors can enhance the level of safety and patient outcomes in healthcare.
According to a reliable study published by the John Hopkins University in 2013, medical negligence and malpractice is the third most crucial leading cause of death in the United States of America, preceded only by cancer and heart disease. Not to mention, more than 50 percent of these errors are preventable if healthcare providers follow proper standards. Therefore, improving safety procedures and protocols can help to reduce the problems that lead to fatalities every year. Moreover, this can save healthcare facilities thousands of dollars lost in litigation and compensation.
3. Patients privacy
One way to improve quality healthcare services is by using hospital screens. Hospitals have used curtains to block windows for many years because it’s convenient and easy, the disadvantages of curtains are that they don’t allow natural light to come, they’re difficult to clean, and they cause privacy violations. On the other hand Hospital screens help compensate for these factors and are easy to install. Screens are also ideal for medical use, mitigating risk in both pre-admission and post-admission conditions. The last benefit is that when left open, screens provide much better ventilation than curtains.
4. Encourage preventive care
Preventive care is mandatory to reduce the risk of developing both acute and chronic medical conditions. It helps to reduce ER and doctor visits and minimizes healthcare costs for patients. In addition, preventive care also helps to improve the overall quality of life.
Clinical practitioners and community health workers need to educate people about healthy life choices and safety measures. They can raise awareness and design interventions that address specific conditions such as lung cancer, STIs, and common viral infections. Or provide general guidance such as healthy eating habits, fitness routines, stress management tips, etc.
5. Modernize operations
Now is the best time for healthcare organizations to automate their operations since technological advancements are being made everywhere, with no exceptions.
How can modernization and automation improve patient outcomes? By replacing manual treatments that are more prone to errors with modern processes that are more accurate. These processes can be in the form of technological upgrades to complex surgical procedures or something as simple as using automated IV equipment to dispense precise drug dosage. With the help of coding and EHRs, practitioners can also streamline trivial processes such as billing, prescribing, hospital check-ins and check-outs, insurance payments, etc.
Since regulating bodies will be working hard to ensure improvements to the healthcare systems, there will also be a need for effective policymaking. Knowing this, having the necessary tools to quickly and easily disseminate and implement these policies across the healthcare facility will provide important transparency in the care delivery process.
6. Prioritize patient engagement
No doubt, patients can be the best representatives for their own health. Still, to do that, they must be educated and engaged to be proactive health consumers.
It isn’t an easy thing to do. Still, it is one that primary care providers are particularly well-equipped to undertake. You may say that primary care providers can play a decisive role in educating patients and increasing the overall quality of care.
For this part, it is up to the primary care providers to think more holistically and discover practical ways to encourage communication and connection between patients, families, insurance providers, and other aspects of a patient’s entire healthcare journey. As a result, the patient will display a better understanding of their health and become more able to look after and manage it. As a result, there will be fewer emergency visits and increased quality of care.
Conclusion
Improvement in patient care and quality of life is a dynamic process. It should be on top of every healthcare provider’s list of priorities. This article went over a few methods to improve the quality of service in healthcare facilities. Healthcare facilities should utilize data and analytics to drive research and generate outcomes. They should also prioritize safety and incorporate automation and modern processes. Practitioners should engage patients more often and focus on preventative care to reduce the risk of short-term and long-term health issues. With all of these methods in place, patients will have access to better services and will be able to improve their quality of life.
