Improving Quality of Healthcare Services

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Quality Improvement Initiative (IHI Triple Aim)
Strengths and Limitations
Contribution of Nurses in Improving the Initiative
Summary
References

Introduction

Quality of healthcare services is one of the most fundamentally vital aspects that determine the effectiveness of treatment. As a result, various initiatives have been developed to ensure that the quality of these services is improved continuously. The purpose of this paper is to identify an initiative that improves healthcare services, describe the reasons for its development, cite some of the limitations along with the strengths of the program, and elaborate on some of the contributions of nurses towards it.

Quality Improvement Initiative (IHI Triple Aim)

The Institute of Health Improvement developed IHI Triple Aim program to optimize the performance of health care systems. This program is based on the premise that an efficient system must pursue three dimensionalities which are known as the ‘Triple Aim’. The three dimensions aim at improving the experience of patient care, developing the health status of entire population, and reducing the overall cost of providing the health services (Anderson & McFarlane, 2011).

Reasons for IHI Triple Aim Program

There are various reasons as to why the program was integrated into the health care systems. One of the main aims of creating this program was to reduce the overall cost of providing healthcare services bearing in mind that healthcare is the most costly worldwide (Anderson & McFarlane, 2011). Additionally, the program aimed at improving the health status of the entire population by focusing on individual families to identify and manage their health challenges.

Strengths and Limitations

Essentially, this program has several strengths that underpin its appropriateness in healthcare circles. In this regard, the program provides improved health services at reduced cost. The number of funds, which are cut from the original expenditure, could be directed to other sectors of the economy without impacting the proficiency of health care facilities (Anderson & McFarlane, 2011).

Nonetheless, although this program aims at reducing the overall cost of health services, it incorporates some strategies that purportedly increase the expenditure. For example, it seeks to reconstruct the primary care system by training more customized specialists. However, training specialized practitioners is essentially inappropriate as compared to retraining the existing medical specialists.

Contribution of Nurses in Improving the Initiative

Nurses are probably among the most pertinent specialists in this program owing to some of the application of some strategies such as population care and individualized considerations of patients. As a result, they have many roles in improving the effectiveness of this initiative. They could assist in preventing personally evoked illnesses caused by abuse of drugs and substance abuse. In this case, nurses are in frequent contact with patients in hospital where they can advise their patients on best practices of health to prevent controllable morbidity (Bisognano & Kenney, 2012). In this regard, they could try to conduct community-based education which aims at enlightening the public about practices such as good hygiene. The learning programs would therefore aid in improving the proficiency of the initiative since nurses have the needed skills of guiding the patients on health issues. This could thus call for the nurses to remove the mentality that they can work in hospitals only.

Summary

The IHI Triple Program is based on improving community health, reducing health costs, and redesigning the primary healthcare system. Although the program claims to cut on the cost, it incorporates some strategies that increase the expenditure of establishing the program unnecessarily. Lastly, it cannot be disputed that nurses have a profound role to play in the establishment of this initiative by providing community education.

References

Anderson, E., & McFarlane, J. (2011). Community as partner: theory and practice in nursing (6th ed.). Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.

Bisognano, M., & Kenney, C. (2012). Pursuing the Triple Aim Seven Innovators Show the Way to Better Care, Better Health, and Lower Costs.. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

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