Question

Research a health care organization where you will need to identify a work process, find common causes of variations, and possible causes of special variation

Examples of health care organizations:

• Hospitals
• Doctors' Clinics
• Specialists' Offices & Clinics
• Nursing Homes & Assisted Living Facilities
• Laboratories & Diagnostics Clinics
• Dental Offices
• Orthodontics Offices
• Outpatient clinics

Answer 1

The key process of healthcare organizations such as the hospitals are focused in the patients. The hospitals have multiple staff members to provide required care and services to the patients. Work process of the hospitals include collaborative and combined actions from the nurses, physicians, special therapists, nursing managers, hospital administration, ward boys and special care providers. The common cause variation is a random variation that is caused by unknown factors in the stable hospital process. Some of the causes of the common cause of variation in the hospitals include, lack of clearly defined standard protocols, poor hospital environment, miscommunication and lack of evidence based practice. The hospitals which do not have a stable protocol for patient management and coordination among the multidisciplinary teams can experience issues in the form of clashes and conflicts. Moreover, lack of evidence based practice and unhealthy hospital environment reduces the chances of safe and effective patient treatment.

The special cause variations are the distractions from the parent cause. These deviations are unpredictable in nature and they are not even an intrinsic part of the system. Some of the causes of these special cause variations are lack of alertness, no previous history of special cause variations and conflicts among the team members. Lack of alertness in the emergency ward can lead to severe special cause variations in the form of patient health fluctuations. No previous history of the special cause variations can make the hospital staff reluctant and easy going. This can bring huge risk to the healthcare setting, patients and the hospital staff.