Essay Example on Health care is very complex every aspect of it is Demanding

There are many concerns regarding the healthcare system today Concerns such as availability cost and reliability There are two major concerns that are affecting many people These growing concerns are over the quality and safety of health care Americans have a growing concern on the quality of care they are receiving and how their wellbeing and safety issues are being handled There are opportunities and challenges in improving the safety and quality of care in the healthcare field Most of these challenges and opportunities are focused on redesigning the organizations and their processes These organizations need to focus on system improvements According to Donald Lighter Director of The Institute for Healthcare Improving the quality of care is a rather general concept but it translates into one important goal that of patient safety One of the biggest concerns with health care is the quality of care Today Americans are very displeased with the current quality of health care Most Americans of 54 are now dissatisfied with the overall quality of healthcare in the United States the first majority in three polls since 1993 and up ten points since 2000 Langer 2003 

In order to do something to improve quality of health care you must come up with a method to improve it train people to monitor assess and improve the objective In 2002 the Joint Commission began requiring hospitals that wanted accreditation to report core quality measures Today hospitals offer quality improvement activities to support their staff professionals interests and to add more qualified physicians and nurses to their hospital staff Hospitals that actively communicate with and provide timely and useful feedback to staff reportedly are more likely to foster quality improvement than those who do not Draper 2008 Internal quality improvement activities can include the implementation of protocols and clinical pathways that reduce unwanted variation and incorporate evidence based practices and guidelines Hospitals can also establish checklists to minimize mistakes and improve communication and teamwork among providers and staff Share 2011 For hospitals to improve quality in health care they should optimize the roles of nurses by offering education programs that strengthen the skills needed to participate in quality improvement activities Nurses are the primary caregivers in the healthcare field The Magnet Recognition Program developed by The American Nurses Credentialing Center promotes quality in a setting that supports professional practice identifies excellence in the delivery of nursing services to patients and to disseminate best practices in nursing services Draper 2008 To help nurses improve their quality and safety of care the AARP created the Center to Champion Nursing in America in 2007 

The Affordable Care Act and Patient Protection made some provisions in health care These provisions were a result from society's concerns about their quality of care and safety in health care Some of these provisions include A Center for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety was established a National Quality Strategy was created the Patient Centered Outcomes Institute PCORI was established numerous delivery models and updated payment methods were created and it required public reporting on the quality of health insurance plans There is no doubt that the healthcare field has changed throughout the last few years Society's concerns with the quality of care and safety have played a key role in health care changing There have been some major changes because of these concerns Nurses play a pivotal role in healthcare and providing more education and quality improvement activities have helped with quality and safety issues Hospital practices and procedures being changed changes to the ACA and Institute of Medicine and adding quality improvement plans have improved society s concerns for quality of care and safety in healthcare Healthcare is a very complex system but with improvements being made and new developments occurring quality care and patient safety will improve over time and concerns will fade away