Quality Evaluation in Health Care

Introduction

Evaluation of quality in health and social care is associated with two concepts such as quality control and quality assurance. Quality assurance is referred as monitoring as well as analysing the level of service delivery against the policy document and the quality control is referred as monitoring process of managing quality in service by determining shortcoming of the process. Based on Charles Handy’s concept, there are four categories of organisational culture such as power culture, role culture, task culture and person culture. This report is going to evaluate the quality of service provided by UK based health and social care home, Clare Court Care Home. This organisation is a voluntary healthcare organisation that serve wide ranges of duties to the service users such as provides care homes for older people, adults and children, ensuring equal care and support system for all service users, provides proper risk management framework and rehabilitation services to older people. this report will evaluate the quality of health and social care service provided by this organisation. Through using relevant sources , including healthcare dissertation help, this report is going to analyse the service policies and quality management initiatives taken by the chosen organisation in term of providing quality service.

A detailed description of the chosen organisation:

Clare Court Care Home is voluntary health care organisational situated in Birmingham, United Kingdom. It provides wide ranges of care services to its service users such as dementia care, residential care, respite care and nursing care. This organisation maintains its service quality in terms of making the service users positive in managing their health and wellbeing. through supervising and evaluating its service and work process, this organisation provides its service hassle-free lifestyles with a high level of independence and mobility. Clare Court Care Home had developed Stable and Able Program for older pope in terms of providing ten times support to the services users for reducing the risk of falling. It has highly skilled care staffs and healthcare professional who ensures a high quality of care and support to all service users with showing a moderate level of integrity.

Summarising the theoretical perspectives:

Two important theoretical perspectives that can be used on discussing the main proposition of Clare Court Care Home are Donabedian’s Model and Total Quality Management Model of Moulin.

Donabedian’s Model:

Based on this model there are three dimensions of quality assurance process which are as follows: Structure, process and outcomes.

Structure:

The structure is referred to as physical elements, equipment, organisational framework and procedural requirements, that are important in maintaining the quality of service (Aktas et al. 2015). Clare Court Care Home has classified organisational structure which assists care mangers to divide different types of care services to different staffs based on their designations. On maintaining the quality of physical element of care homes, care manager of Clare Court Care Home inspects that whether the offices, health wards, premises and doctors' cabin are properly cleaned. In terms of maintaining the procedural management, there are high skilled administrative staffs in each healthcare ward of Clare Court Care Home, who assure the quality of line management for assuring that all the clinical and health care processes will be managed simultaneously. according to Barbé et al. (2017), along with procedural management and physical element maintenance, there is another important aspect hat an organisational need to take into account for assuring service quality, the proper management of equipment. In Clare Court Care Home, care managers are assigned to supervise whether the equipment that is used for the specific clinical purpose is fit with the objectives of the process. Administrative officials of this care home focus on supervising the condition as well as the quality of all equipment that is used in providing effective care service to service users. For example, the care manager of dementia ward supervises that that ECG machine, BP machine, feeding equipment and walker that are used for the service users regularly are in proper condition.

Process:

Process refers to the quality of communication, action and relationship within the delivery, assessment and review of care (Lloyd, 2017). Clare Court Care Home has high skilled care executive manager who supervises the level of communication among staffs. they also supervise the quality of performance of all staffs to ensure that best care is delivered to each service user. According to Kanamori et al. (2015), to supervising the procedural management, organisational need to focus on maintaining a friendly environment within the workplace. in Clare Court Care Home, administrative managers focus on maintaining the quality of relationships and understanding among staffs, by conducting useful programs such as staffs raining, staff's appraisal and self-assessment raining process. care mangers of this health care home focus on maintaining transparent communication among staff in each ward in term f assuring the highest quality performance. Quality management is also associated with reviewing the process of care delivery to ensure that service users get the best care service. in this aspect, Clare Court Care Home has highly trained care inspectors, who inspect the overall care process in each month, by checking the performance book of care staffs and conducting an interview of service users and their family members.

Outcomes:

This can be referred to as the care implication that Clare Court Care Home will have on its service users. As stated by Thakur and Ramesh (2015) outcomes of care process depend on different aspects such as the usefulness of policies and objectives that are taken by organisational staffs to deliver care, organisational structure, skills and knowledge of staffs and level of cooperation and connectedness among all staffs. although here ae some conflict among care staffs in Clare Court Care Home, it has strong administrative and human resource bodies that ensure highly skilled care staffs and beneficial service delivery processes which is essential for analysing the quality of care service. In terms of analysing the outcomes of the care process, the care staffs in Clare Court Care Home needs to compare their mission statement and aims with the actual care process that they follow to provide the best care to the service users. Care manager of these care homes would focus on communicating with service users and their family members in terms of getting information about any type of miscommunication, misbehave and lack of service quality that they face. The administrative officials of this care home will compare the target that is met by the employee and the target that are missed to be met. In addition to this process, it is important to analyse the injuries, accidents and falls, that happen in the organisation to analyse process outcomes. In this aspect, Morozov et al. (2018), will conduct a clear discussion with a care manager and service manager in terms of getting proper information about how many accidents and injuries have occurred in the care homes.

Total Quality Management (TQM):

Total Quality Management (TQM) is the process of evaluating the degree of excellence of organisational processes in terms of achieving the organisational goals (Lloyd, 2017). Clare Court Care Home has conducted TQM process in terms of evaluating the quality of the entire service that this organisational deliver to its service users. This approach assists the care managers of Clare Court Care Home in taking a holistic approach in analysing the usefulness of principles and objectives that are taken for providing best service to service users. Moreover, TQM approach assists the administrative team of Clare Court Care Home in developing a bundle of effective initiatives in identifying the areas of improvement in service of this organisation which will assist this voluntary healthcare home to meet the ever-changing care needs of service users. Along with the strength of the TQM approach, there is some limitation that Clare Court Care Home can face while applying this process. first, of all this approach can create a high level of conflict and competitiveness among staffs, inn term of proving individual efficacy in front of senior officials. In this aspect Bloom et al. (2015) stated that, during the TQM process, the organisation conducts service inspection which can create unhappiness and job insecurity in staffs. therefore, managers of Clare Court Care Home need to focus on conducting effective communication will staff for making them understand about the importance of TQM in improving the quality of performance as well as care service. By using TQM model Clare Court Care Home has developed the following propositions in evaluating its quality:

This care home will assure that all the staffs who are working in this organisational are knowledgeable and high skilled

All the staffs feel valued and respected in this care home

Mangers and higher officials focus on maintaining the employee engagement of each staff in developing the standard of performance

The administrative team uses a structured problem-solving process in solving any issues among staffs and managers

Plan of the stage of evaluation:

In terms of conducting effective plan of evaluating service, it is important to fir any organisational execute the use of processes that are followed in the organisation. According to Vaughn et al. (2019) planning process is referred to as the set of initiatives and objectives in terms of analysing the implications often existing processes and policies of the organisation on its service users. Clare Court Care Home has developed the following planning in terms of evaluating its overall service delivery process.

Reviewing and setting the standard:

According to Kanamori et al. (2015), the organisational standard can be referred as specifications of procedures and principles that should be maintained and followed by all the employees in terms of maintaining integrity and ethics in their work. The planning of evaluating quality by Clare Court Care Home involves the proper review of the existing organisational standards and set the new relevant standard for making betterment in the service. for reviewing organisational standard, the mangers of Clare Court Care Home need to understand what are the existing standard in this care home that they need to maintain. In this aspects, managers if Clare Court Care Home need to review of organisational policies and principles in terms of analysing that if these policies can meet the needs of service users. the standard for Clare Court Care Home includes the transparent information delivery system, friendly working environment, highly productive staffs, maintaining dignity and respect in the workplace for each staff and follow the legislative obligation in health and social care service in promoting bet quality service. In reviewing the organisational standard, the care manager needs to get clear information about the principles and policies of eth organisation. Thorough evaluating the standard their relevance to the needs of service users, managers can make suitable recommendation for changing the irreverent standard. Moreover, the managers and higher official in Clare Court Care Home would set such organisational policies that will make the workforce more productive.

Setting proper codes of practices:

According to Prince et al. (2016), in terms of evaluating the quality of service, an organisation needs to set as well as follow proper codes of practices. In the case of Clare Court Care Home, staffs need to maintain the following codes of practices in terms of managing quality in service.

Prioritising people with treating them with proper respect and dignity

Practising good habits in terms of maintaining the proper quality of care

Ensuring safety for both the service providers and service users

Promoting trust and loyalty among staffs to maintain the proper organisational reputation

Proving training to staffs:

Through providing training the mangers and the higher officials in Clare Court Care Home can determine the areas on improvement in the workforce. Through conducting training for the staffs, the care managers can understand the issues, preference and decision of care staffs. training to staffs is one of the most important processes to evaluate the weakness and strength of the workforce. In this context, Clare Court Care Home can arrange the staffs training and self-evaluation process, through which managers and staffs will be able to understand their skills, areas of improvement and knowledge. Planning of conducting training will also assist all the staffs to have a clear discussion with their care managers regarding important work-related issues. Therefore, through the training process, Clare Court Care Home can evaluate the usefulness of policies procedures and actions that are developed by care homes in terms of providing better service with its service users.

Reviewing and improving service policies:

National Institute of Care and Excellence [NICE] has developed evidence-based policies and guidelines for healthcare organisations in the UK. Clare Court Care Home needs to conduct an overhaul program in reviewing whether the employees of this organisation follow the guidelines when providing care to service users. in this aspect, the administrative team of Clare Court Care Home will review the following policies:

Whether the acre staffs have developed a patient-centred approach for improving the quality of care process.

Whether the care mangers make the proper execution of staff's behaviour and activities in assuring the equal and quality care for each service users

If all care staffs, nurse and health professionals would follow proper NHS guidelines on terms of implementing the relevant treatment and clinical processes for service users

Whether the overall health and social care policies in this organisational is free if any discrimination or bias. Whether the care mangers have a trustworthy relation with the other healthcare staffs that are important for making a synergistic approach in the care delivery process for promoting the betterment of service. Staffs would report any type of safety risk to the care manager to take proper action in terms of eliminating the chances of the list after effect.

Outlining the methods of evaluation:

Service users experience:

Through analysing service users experience, it is possible to execute the quality of service in an organisation (McFadden et al. 2015). Clare Court Care Home is going to plan to survey collecting primary database from its service users. In this survey, the administrative manager will provide close-ended questions to the service users and their family members to collect the database on their experience on care service provided by the care homes. Through planning of this survey, Clare Court Care Home would analyse the usefulness of care delivery process that is provided by the care staffs, nurses and health professionals of this care home.

Staffs training:

Staffs training is one of the most important processes through which Clare Court Care Home can improve the way of service delivery to service users. According to Morlion et al. (2015), during staff training managers can understand the strength and weakness of their staffs, which is important to set relevant strategies in maintaining service quality. HR managers of Clare Court Care Home can conduct the training program for all staffs, which will assist the managers as well as staffs to make effective group discussion. in the group discussion process, managers would be able to communicate with staffs in terms of understating their organisational issues, weakness, preference and decisions. In this process, Clare Court Care Home will arrange some focus groups, which includes managers of different wards and administrative staff. The focus group will conduct the limitations and obligation of personal sharing and minority opinions. On the contrary Morozov et al. (2018) argued that training program sometimes cannot be beneficial in conducting proper TQM process of the organisation as it has the tendency of unfair practices by mangers and higher officials. For example, sometimes managers prefer the staffs of their departments in providing better guidance and training. In this aspect, Clare Court Care Home is going to appoint the administrative inspectors who will decide the fairness and loyalty of training programs, to ensure the proper method of evaluating the quality of care service.

Service users’ journey:

According to Thakur and Ramesh (2015), analysing service user's journey is one of the most effective processes in terms of analysing as well as managing the quality of care service. in the case of Clare Court Care Home, higher officials including care managers and the administrative manager will cooperatively analyse the ways through which service user's journey can be made more fruitful. Here the care manager needs to overhaul the entire journey of each service user, in understating their health condition, clinical processes that are used for their treatment and types of drugs that are prescribed to them. Also, to this, the care manager will analyser the entire journey of the patient to understand whether the patient has any sign of recovery from the illness. This process will assist Clare Court Care Home to make its mangers and staffs understand that whether the services that are already provided and going to be provided are relevant to the health needs of service users. On the contrary Tozzo et al. (2018 ) argued that, to analysing the quality of service, execution of service users' journey is not enough if the staffs are not skilled and knowledgeable, rather the organisational needs to focus on improving the quality of performance and skill of staff which is important for assisting managers to understand easily the health needs of service users. in this context, Clare Court Care Home needs to train its staffs in such a manner which will assist managers to get appropriate information regarding the journey of service users. in addition to this, the administrative team of Clare Court Care Home will coincide the annual review which will assist them to identify the funding priorities in the care homes. Through executing and analysing journey of service users, the care manager is also able to identify the areas of improvements in their service. Clare Court Care Home will get benefits from the process if analysing service users journey as it will assist staffs and manager to develop a cost-effective solution for the care home.

Achievements through evaluation:

Managers, service users, staffs and other stakeholders in Clare Court Care Home would achieve their goals through this quality management and evaluation process. Managers would be able to analyse the usefulness of the policies, procedures and activities that are set by the organisational in terms of providing better care delivery, according to Vaughn et al. (2019), evaluation of the quality management process, will assist the stakeholders of an organisation to meet their target. Care staff in Clare Court Care Home will achieve their target in improving their performance standard which is important for providing high-quality care service that is relevant are process would meet the health needs of service users. health professional and nurses in Clare Court Care Home would be able to set such effective care process and policies which can ensure the health and social care delivery to service users. finally, the service users would achieve their goals of having good health and wellbeing.

Conclusion:

From the above-mentioned discussion, it can be concluded that evaluating quality in health and social care is important for assuring highly fruitful service delivery to each service user. Total quality management is the buddle of approaches that are taken to analyse the use of processes, activities and policies that are set by the organisation for delivering their service. in terms of evaluating the service quality, the organisation needs to develop strategies such as employee training, analysing journey of the service user, communicating with service users and their family, feedback process and reviewing the existing policies and procedures. Through implementing proper strategies and setting, an organisation can improve the overall quality of health and social care service

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