I did some more of my course this
evening...
How exactly do we measure quality. What
criteria do we pick? It was said that we need to choose the right measures in
the right situation and use them in the right way. There needs to be a proven
link between the measure chosen and the patient’s eventual outcome. And there
has to be a link between a measured low performance and a low level of patient
care.
And suddenly something has clicked…
I’m now getting into this course… I’m
seeing why I’ve been utterly disillusioned with the entire concept of quality
management. The important thing is to choose the right criteria as a measure of
quality. For example what is the point of demanding that certain blood tests
need to be completed (and results available) in a couple of hours when
the results aren’t actually needed until the patient’s next appointment which
is in two months’ time?
We fall at the first hurdle in the labs.
Because it is easy to count what we do in a given period of time, there’s an
obvious metric. But is it the right thing to measure in every situation? And
should we churn out any old result regardless of the accuracy and precision…
I’m actually looking forward to the next
lecture.
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