Modern Health Care
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Modern Health Care
Health care is an essential element in today’s world. Healthcare involves the active provision of health care services to the overall population. However, from the sessions covered, I have realized that healthcare is not only the provision of services; instead, it involves diversification of factors such as health quality, technological adoption, and constant improvement of the processes. In this paper, there will be an augment reflection on the sessions posted.
Factors Influencing Quality Improvement Strategy
Quality improvement refers to the systematic and continuous tasks that lead to measurable improvement and enhancement in health care services and health status in health institutions. Various strategies are used in the process of quality improvement. Moreover, it can also be referred to as the process of using data to monitor the results of the care process and using various improvement methods to implement and test multiple changes to continuously enhance the status of quality and safety of care systems. From the session, there are three main approaches towards quality improvement; they include; pen and paper, Desktop/spreadsheets, and web-based systems.
One of the significant factors that influence the strategy for quality improvement is the institution budget and funds. A health care institution must pick an approach that is affordable according to its finance. For example, an institution may lack the finance to adopt the web-based system; thus, they are forced to use the pen and paper, or Desktop/spreadsheets approach.
Another factor may include the literacy level of the healthcare personnel such as pharmacists. A good illustration is when a pharmacist lacks computer knowledge and skills. Some of this personnel may not have experience in a computer or their beliefs and morals show computers as tools of immorality. Lack of computer knowledge affects the type of strategy used in that such an institution cannot use the Desktop/spreadsheets, or web-based system. Thus, the organization is forced to stick to the pen and paper approach.
Change Concept
According to my perspective, change concepts refer to the various ideas that are used to stimulate specific/particular, actionable steps that lead to the improvement of health care. Change in health care is critical as it welcomes the development of quality and safety in health care delivery. A good example of change that has occurred to health care in the 21st century is the adoption of technology in health delivery. This has led to a significant shift in patient-centered health care and has led to a faster and easier diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. Such change was initiated by a concept, idea, or notion, and with that, more lives are being saved daily. Thus, the change concept is an idea to alter a factor in health care that leads to significant improvement and effective quality delivery.
Challenges Associated with Technology in Quality Improvement Process
As suggested earlier, the adoption of technology in health care has caused significant breakthroughs. Technology enables the detection and effective treatment of illnesses. Through technology, there is a faster communication process in the health care institution network. However, despite its various benefits, technology also poses a significant challenge in the quality improvement process. Humans, i.e., programmers and engineers, implement the technology. Therefore, it’s evident that some various errors and bugs will arise. When such technology is used in health care units, it communicates inaccurate information i.e., the wrong patient’s results. Doctors give the wrong prescription to the patients, which is a significant challenge as it endangers human life.
Another challenge is that the installation and use of technology are expensive. For example, the installation of an overall hospital system is costly and takes its toe on the hospital’s finances. This leads to the use and spending of the hospital finances that would otherwise be used for the process of quality improvement. Moreover, technology also increases the cost of treatment. New forms of treatment and surgery processes are now being performed by technology, for example, the robotic surgery. However, most of the people come from rural areas and thus cannot afford such kind of treatment. Thus, technology has resulted in an overall increased cost of health care services and thus diminishing the process of quality improvement.
Additionally, technology is prone to failure and crashing. For example, servers and computers often crash due to overloading overheating, among other causes. When such a situation occurs, it becomes immensely time-consuming to bring the system back up. This causes significant delays in the health care units. Additionally, with such a crash, data may end up being lost, which is a substantial blow to the institution. Thus, technology holds numerous challenges for quality improvement in health care facilities.
Future Technology
According to my perceptive, one of the future technologies is the use of virtual reality technology in health care. Virtual reality is the technology that simulates a real-world event and environment. In health care, the patient’s conditions or body functions can be simulated. In this case, the health care expert will seem to be in the body on the individual looking at the organs and bodily functions and reporting on their observations. This would be a significant breakthrough, and there will be a significant market for this technology.
In conclusion, health care is a critical element all around the globe. As the world continues to grow, so does healthcare. Such growth is experienced through technological advancements. Despite the various benefits experienced, there are also challenges. Thus, it’s the responsibility of the health care institution to ensure complete eradication of such issues.