Introduction to Quality Assurance

One of the important aspects of any healthcare organization is the quality assurance mechanism.  Any healthcare organization would have to be professionally competent, ensuring that the processes in the organization would ultimately ensure the safety of the services provided.  The organization should develop an effective strategy of handling the quality issues.
It is important that the administrators understand the importance of quality, develop a quality assurance program, implement it in a phased manner over a period of time, release resources needed for quality assurance, utilize appropriate quality tools, develop and maintain processes and develop an appropriate auditing system.  Some of the quality assurance tools utilized include management tools, presentation tools and statistical analysis tools.  Some of the process deployment tools include marketing tools, tools for changing behavior, etc (Software Certifications, 2006).
As healthcare sector is a vital industry, it is very important that quality assurance is given prime importance by the organization.  One of the very important aspects is customer satisfaction and reducing risk.  Protection of patients is the most important aspect of quality assurance.  However, not less important is to ensure that cost-effectiveness and responsive attitude is maintained.  All these significantly contribute towards bringing about patient satisfaction (LRQA, 2003).

Some of the measures that may be required for quality assurance include:-
Having a quality assurance program in priority areas
Responding to the needs of the public appropriately
Identifying means by which costs can be reduced and implementing a strategy to save costs
Developing best practices mechanisms
Accreditation in order to improve quality standards
Not only achieving certain quality standards but upgrading them frequently
Having an effective decision-making and problem-solving process in the organization (Gonzalez, 2006).
References:
Gonzalez, M. (2006). “Health Care Sector Reform and Quality Assurance in Costa Rica.’ Retrieved on April 11, 2008, from QA Project Web site: http://www.qaproject.org/pubs/PDFs/costarica.pdf
Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance Limited (2003). “Quality in the healthcare sector.” Retrieved on April 11, 2008, from LRQA Review Web site: http://www.lrqa.fr/frsite/content/pdf/rev0603.pdf
Software Certifications (2006). “2006 CSQA Body of Knowledge.” Retrieved on April 11, 2008, from Software Certifications Web site: http://www.softwarecertifications.org/csqabok/csqa6cbok4.htm