Question

Quality assurance is quickly becoming the way to evaluate patient satisfaction. Find an example and share it in the forum. Explain why you chose to share this particular example.

Answer 1

Quality Assurance in medical and health care aims at prolonging life , releving distress, restoring function and preventing disability.The fundemental objectives of medical and health care are:

Reduction of death, disease, disability, distress , discomfort and dissatisfaction. The first three can be assessed objectively, but the last three being subjective parameters are not so easy to assess. To measure this outcomes, Health care providers as well as consumers depends on 'quality Assurance'. Consumer satisfaction, approximately termed 'patient satisfaction' in the context of medical and health care, should be the ultimate goal of every health and delivery system

In medical and health care delivery system,it is not just sufficent to evaluate "what " is being delivered; it is equally important to evaluate as to "How" it is delivered.That means it is necessary to include not only the physical and mental well-being of the patient, but also the emotional and sentimental aspect while assessing patient's satisfaction.

The following variables can defy the quality  of measurement

1. patient's concepts and values

Patient's concepts and values,their expectations of courtesy and comfort are likely to affect their assessment. Patient's may be guided by their own felelings of obligation to express gratitude, irrespective of their level of satisfaction and hence give more favourable response. On the other hand, patients may be guided by their self-perceived severity of illness, which may be unnecessarily exageratted ; in this case the responses may not be favourable

2.Environmental factors

These factors are beyond the contol of administration and may affect patient's response. For eg: during lean admission period a solitary patient in a mult-bed ward may feel more satisfied than a patient in a normally fully occupied ward with serious and sick patients

3. Personality traits

Personalitiess of patients differ., so do their attitudes, level of tolerance and severity of reactions. These factors can create a conflict between outcome of treatment and degree of satisfaction. For e.g: a completely cured patient may leave the hospital with total dissatisfaction decides never to return. On the other hand, a patient with an incurable disease or patients with advanced cancer may be totally satisfied and may like to return for follow-up care and management. Then there are patients who do not like to respond at all . This bias is non-responsiveness and can influence the statistics

Most investigators uses graded scales with varying numbers or points. Quality mainly depends on the contents and construction of questionnaire, the sequencing of questions , the methodology of administration to patients and finally on the interpretation of the results

An accurate quality assessment leads to effective quality acheivement which inturn provides mutual benefits for the health care providers as well as health consumers