Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay: Measuring Healthcare Practice

Measuring Healthcare Practice
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1 Approaches used to measure healthcare practice
Healthcare is a very vital sector in any economy. It is a sector that should be handled with utmost because it deals with saving human life (Valentine et al., 2015). It is the reason that prompts healthcare practice. Approaches of measuring healthcare are many and are always universal to all countries in the world, although some can be specific to other countries depending on their beliefs. Provost (2018) says that the US spends up to 18 percent of its GDP in streamlining the healthcare sector, yet around 14 percent of the total spending is wasted. Applying quality improvement approaches will reduce these wastes and make the best out of the sector. Some of the approaches include accreditation, quality improvement frameworks, clinical audits, performance indicators, safety care, and patient experience.
Accreditation
Accreditation is very crucial in measuring healthcare services. There are standards used to ensure that a health center qualifies to provide healthcare services. These standards and criteria show how the preparedness to save a life before a country issues a license of operation once it is satisfied. Jha (2018), however, notes that corruption is rampant in many countries, making some clinics acquire licenses through evil ways, thus, lowering down the standards of healthcare. Jha (2018) concludes that accreditation does not fully work in many countries. It makes it hard to measure the healthcare practice because all clinics cannot be differentiated.
It needs more effort to counter the malpractice of corruption in the health sector. Governments need to take regular audits in hospitals to assess the equipment and expertise of clinical officers. Owners of clinics found licensed yet do not meet the set standards and criteria should be prosecuted, and their clinics permanently shut down (Jha, 2018). Healthcare is a sector that should not be gambled with, and governments need to lay down the strict measure for accreditation.
Continued evaluation of healthcare centers shows ensures that standards are always followed. Accredited healthcare centers provide quality services that adhere to evidence-based measures. The importance of accreditation is evident in the hiring of healthcare workers in hospitals. Most unaccredited hospitals hire unqualified doctors because they demand less pay compared to accredited hospitals. Healthcare services in the unaccredited hospital, therefore, are likely to be of low quality and compromised. Thus, accreditation is another approach that helps in measuring healthcare practice, but it should be followed closely to ensure that only the hospitals that meed the accreditation criteria are licensed.
Quality improvement frameworks
Perfect quality means excellent healthcare practice. Quality in healthcare mainly relies on the expertise of clinical officers (Provost, 2018). However, systems overlook quality standards, while medical practitioners continue giving their best on patient care. In order to deliver fully, some principles should be adhered to, including defining quality and getting an agreement, measuring improvement as opposed to accountability, and facilitating adoption through hands-on improvement projects.
Provost (2018) says that there is a need to get an agreement that defines the quality and subsequently know the kind of data to collect and what to measure. Agreements help in documenting the required and necessary standards that should be followed at all times. These agreements should be centered on providing the best healthcare for patients respectfully, responsively, and ensuring that patient values guide clinical practices. Defining quality should include everything essential for the patient. It should be patient-centered in the quality life of patience and whether patients with chronic diseases are getting the best care, among others (Tinker, 2018).
Generally, the improvement of quality is patient-centered and also safety, effectiveness, and timeliness. It also aims at defining equity in healthcare like not discriminating healthcare services in the line of gender, race, location, and other socioeconomic factors. It closes down all equity gaps and ensures that healthcare practice is best (Davy et al., 2015).
Measuring improvement is very important and should be differentiated from accountability. Provost (2018) says that measuring healthcare improvement is about how much time is spent in attending to patients. It is a way of improving healthcare quality and hence is an approach of measuring healthcare practice.
Finally, it is essential to ensure that clinical officers depend on practical to ensure that they achieve the best of patient care. Theory only will not give the desired result and would not be used to measure healthcare services. Clinical practitioners need to always dedicate their services to hands-on projects that can be quantified.
Clinical audits
Clinical audits go hand in hand with the accreditation of hospitals. It helps in measuring healthcare services since audit assesses whether a hospital meets the required standards for accreditation. It also helps the governments and hospitals to know their strengths and weaknesses and hence crucial in measuring healthcare services (Limb et al., 2017). Limb et al. (2017) further explain that audits help identify problems, define standards, collect data, analyze areas that need improvement, and implement change.
Audits help in improving healthcare services in many ways. Limb et al. (2017) says that governments and hospitals outline areas of concern and make improvements through audits. Audits are also essential for planning. Re-audits are also crucial in correcting any mistakes or omissions that the previous audit might have committed. Where government audits find that a hospital does not attain the required standards, it is shut down. It is a step that helps to ensure that people only get the best services in inpatient care. Clinical audit is, therefore, an approach that can accurately be used to measure healthcare practice.
Performance indicators
Performance indicators, alternatively called key performance indicators (KPI), measure performance in an organization (Botje et al., 2016). In health care, KPIs include average hospital stay, treatment costs, hospital readmission rates, patient wait, patient satisfaction, patient safety, and the time is taken waiting in the emergency room.
Average hospital stay measures when a patient is taken into the facility until he fully recovers. It is a general indicator that varies depending on the kind of disease that person is admitted from. For instance, a person who underwent spinal surgery is likely to take a long time recovering compared to a person admitted due to a simple problem like tooth removal. It is only logical to break down the stay in hospitals depending on the type of diseases to get accurate performance results. It is the only way that healthcare practice can be accurately and satisfactorily measured.
Botje et al. (2016) say that it is also essential to calculate how much patients use in treatment in hospitals. Just like the average time spent in hospitals, cost varies with the type of disease. Technically, treating chronic disease is more expensive compared to diseases like the common cold. This KPI is important because it tracks the financial use in the health sector. Evaluating the cost used will help show if the charges are exaggerated or undercharged and adjust accordingly (Tinker, 2018). This way, healthcare practices are measured accurately used in improving services by appropriately addressing some areas.
The readmission rate is another KPI that explains the number of people who visit a specific hospital after getting discharged. This indicator works along with other indicators since it cannot stand ...