Quality and Performance Management in Healthcare

Teams and Team Building

In the long-term health care industry, ongoing improvement is vital to quality patient medical attention. To achieve this goal of value improvement, a long-term health facility needs to make use of the learning, abilities, encounters, and points of view of an extensive variety of people; aka brainstorming. A quality improvement (QI) project requires critical thinking, numerous choices, and successful arrangements that include complex frameworks. Recognition of the importance of team-building practices, as well as retaining staff, play an important part in successful health care administration. An exhaustive multidisciplinary approach by a QI team is preferred over individual leaders, especially when:

• A project is multifaceted – for example, the evolution of a traditional nursing home into a more progressive, protective-care nurturing habitat.
• Creativity is essential because the route to development is indistinct – we must come up with non-traditional approaches that fit the lifestyles affected by today’s technology.
• Well-organized use of resources is mandatory -projects must try to stay within allocated budget, with an eye to quality/cost.
• Teamwork is indispensable to implementation – akin to driving a vehicle, all motion must be in the same direction; the entire team must be on the same page for success to happen.
• Team members are stakeholders in the result – let it be common knowledge that all staff members have a stake in being associated with this highly-regarded organization; prestige as well as financial gain associated with a successful medical facility is a persuasive factor.
• The procedure involved is cross-functional – involving people or departments who do different types of work for the same company. For example, this could include the Chief Medical Compliance Officer, the Chief Information Officer, and an internal audit.
• No one person has enough information to solve the problem (“Improvement teams,” n.d.). A health facility cannot be managed by a single individual; the expertise of persons with various talents are needed to successful run a medical organization.

The brainstorming approach’s advantages emerge from group collaboration and quick generation of new concepts. One of the significant focal points of the technique might be the enhanced confidence that it creates in the team, because a well-directed session ordinarily empowers the group and can improve team cohesiveness (Lighter, 2011). This approach gives people the confidence to contribute their ideas without fear of malicious criticism.

Steps involved in upgrading and maintaining a top-quality long-term health care facility would:

• Characterize zones that require consideration with an issue statement that is clear, centered, and generally defined.
• Give groundwork on the issue through a short synopsis sheet or data handout for the team.
• Select participants according to what they are best at and most interested in, much as the selection process for any other team.
• Expect writers’ block and prepare by having some motivational questions at hand.
• Direct the session with the facilitator leading and recording, guaranteeing that thoughts and conversations are documented (Lighter, 2011).

Ideally, my team would be as diverse as the population it serves. A varied patient base demands a multicultural health care staff to deliver relevant, quality medical attention that is received well by the public. An essential element in providing quality care is provider stability; a leader in the health care profession must provide an environment that encourages top-performing staff members to stay with the organization. A high turnover rate is counterproductive to implementation of a successful plan. This is an issue, as per a 2011 American Health Care Association study, the average nursing home turnover rate is 35 percent for all staff and 43 percent for CNAs. In dissimilarity, Fortune magazine reports that the 100 best companies to work for in 2011 had a turnover rate of 3 percent or less. Obviously, most nursing homes need staff retention strategies (Group, 2012). Teams improve the performance of healthcare organizations by collaborating to create successful clinical outcomes, patient experiences and reduce organizational costs.

See also: What is team work?

References:

Group, V. (2012, June 4). 5 team building practices that will make your staff want to stay. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from http://www.iadvanceseniorcare.com/article/5-team-building-practices-will-make-your-staff-want-stay

Improvement teams. Retrieved February 23, 2017, from https://www.hrsa.gov/quality/toolbox/methodology/improvementteams/part2.html

Lighter, D. E. (2011). Advanced performance improvement in health care: Principles and methods. Sudbury, PA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.