Quality Reporting in Healthcare

Question

Description

I need a discussion response for the following:

Hospitals should be required to keep and post scorecards in an effort to make performance and process improvements as well as increase transparency of medical mistakes, errors, or other outcome statistics. The more forthcoming and honest an organization is when it makes a mistake a good yardstick for how trustworthy it is. It has been found that disclosing medical errors as well as compensating fairly for them reduces liability claims, lawsuits, and legal costs, and speeds up the time from error to resolution (Brin, 2018). This system also increases accountability directly on providers and in turn creates a culture of safety rather than a punitive culture focused on perfection and hiding mistakes (Brin, 2018). Medical errors are a leading cause of death in the United States and must be taken as seriously as the major diseases at the forefront of medicine (Brin, 2018). The cons of this system include the sharing of bad news and thus bad publicity which could deter patients from seeking service at said institution. Most medical errors continue to go unreported due to a fear of retaliation and punishment from the provider’s perspective, various pressures and productivity demands (Shaw, 2012). No provider wants to cause harm to any patient, and it is extremely difficult to be in these situations and have to face the consequences of these errors, however, this all comes back to the idea of trust and the goal of building trust by increasing transparency and honesty with the genuine goal of resolution, explanation, understanding, emotional support, and fair compensation (Brin, 2018). Transparency is the key to a sustainable future and adaptability for providers to be accountable and determined to improve.

While it is important to monitor and evaluate many of the same quality metrics between rural hospitals, urban hospitals, and suburban hospitals, the context is important to consider and the figures will not be comparing apples to apples. There are often many indirect factors that have an impact on rural, urban, or suburban areas differently. For example, inner city populations may be impacted by poorly designed school systems and poverty, whereas rural populations may not have easy access to clinics or specialists due to distance or the lack of sophisticated health information systems (Institute of Medicine, 2005). Similarly, targeted quality improvement approaches for each type of hospital must be considered as some will be more impactful in urban settings than in suburban settings and so on (Institute of Medicine, 2005).

References

Brin, D. W. (2018, January 15). The Best Response to Medical Errors? Transparency. Retrieved from AAMC.org: https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/best-response-medical-errors-transparency

Institute of Medicine. (2005). An Integrated Approach to Improving Health and Health Care in Rural Communities. In Quality Through Collaboration: The Future of Rural Health (pp. 30-58). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Shaw, G. (2012, July). Most Adverse Events at Hospitals Still Go Unreported. Retrieved from The Hospitalist: https://www.the-hospitalist.org/hospitalist/article/125141/most-adverse-events-hospitals-still-go-unreported