The success of any healthcare provision system is heavily dependent on its ability to provide quality healthcare to all. This can only be attained when the various components of healthcare providers work in concert to ensure that frameworks that ensure quality are properly and adequately established. The various component of an effective healthcare system includes the healthcare providers, patient population, and governments. An interplay of all these three will ensure effectiveness and quality healthcare provision. Nurses, being a critical component of the healthcare provision team, are mandated to play their role considerably well to ensure stability and effectiveness of healthcare providers. This paper seeks to discuss healthcare quality improvement as well as to highlight quality and safety issues within the healthcare system.
Improving the quality of Healthcare is dependent on several healthcare issues. Steps towards improvement may require major alterations within the healthcare system, sometimes requiring an overhaul of the entire system, or may require micro-practices such as effective and safe handling of the patient by the healthcare providers. Improving healthcare quality may utilize several strategies. The collection of data and making a detailed analysis of the patient outcomes of a treatment process is the first strategy towards the attainment of quality healthcare. Data collection and analysis will inform the establishment of a baseline to which patient outcomes are measured as well as define standards for quality attainment. Setting goals and periodic continuous evaluation are as well important in determining whether the system is within the path towards quality provision. Improving access to care is as well important, and remains the most important aspect of improving quality. Focusing on patient engagement as well as the establishment of a collaborative approach towards service delivery is also important in improving quality (Aveling et al., 2017). All these strategies are utilizable in the quality enhancement and improvement of any working healthcare system.
Quality issues in Healthcare encompass several factors that are about but not limited to safe and effective healthcare delivery efficiently and equitably. These issues range from finances, access to healthcare services, patient and provider-related issues, and legislation, among others (Vesnic-Alujevic et al., 2016). These issues do interplay to determine the overall bearing of a healthcare system. Access to Healthcare, for instance, remains the sole most important issue that heavily affects quality healthcare provision. Access to Healthcare is a multifaceted aspect that draws several players in the healthcare system. This issue does not only concern governments and authorities but also concern individual patients and healthcare providers.
Access to Healthcare defines the ability of a population to get quality, safe, and affordable healthcare services. Its impacts on the population can easily be seen in the overall well-being of the population and remains a major determinant in societal growth and development. Poor access to Healthcare has been implicated in increased morbidity and mortality among the affected communities, with characteristic retardation in community growth and development. Conversely, adequate access to Healthcare has ensured that the incidence of diseases among the various populations is adequately picked up by the healthcare providers with a general establishment of curtailment measures and consequent improvement in the quality of life. It is for these reasons that access to Healthcare still maintains its position in governmental agendas and works in service delivery to the communities and people.
Enhancing access to Healthcare requires a collaborative approach that draws both the government and the people. Strategies that work to enhance access to Healthcare are dependent on individuals, their communities, and the authorities (Goodman et al., 2016). Individual responsibility towards health-seeking and adoption of good health behavior remains vital towards the enhancement of access to Healthcare. The willingness of people and their communities to visit healthcare provision centers whenever they are ill not only ensures that diseases are picked up early, and effective management initiated but also ensures that public health catastrophes are averted before their establishment. The government’s role is also very important. Ensuring adequate funding for the health insurance programs remains a responsibility of the government. This can be in the form of increasing the funds available for the Children’s health insurance program or continued expansion of the Medicaid insurance program even to states that have currently not implemented it. Additionally, the governmen