Read the article below and write a short essay answering discussion questions:
42310Read the article below and write a short essay answering discussion questions:
The Culture of Quality at Arnold Palmer Hospital
Founded in 1989, Arnold Palmer Hospital is one of the largest hospitals for women and children in the U.S., with 431 beds in two facilities totaling 676,000 square feet. Located in downtown Orlando, Florida, and named after its famed golf benefactor, the hospital, with more than 2,000 employees, serves an 18-county area in central Florida and is the only Level 1 trauma center for children in that region. Arnold Palmer Hospital provides a broad range of medical services including neonatal and pediatric inten- sive care, pediatric oncology and cardiology, care for high-risk pregnancies, and maternal intensive care.
The Issue of Assessing Quality Health Care
Quality health care is a goal all hospitals profess, but Arnold Palmer Hospital has actually developed comprehensive and sci- entific means of asking customers to judge the quality of care they receive. Participating in a national benchmark comparison against other hospitals, Arnold Palmer Hospital consistently scores in the top 10% in overall patient satisfaction. Executive Director Kathy Swanson states, “Hospitals in this area will be dis- tinguished largely on the basis of their customer satisfaction. We must have accurate information about how our patients and their families judge the quality of our care, so I follow the questionnaire results daily. The in-depth survey helps me and others on my team to gain quick knowledge from patient feedback.” Arnold Palmer Hospital employees are empowered to provide gifts in value up to $200 to patients who find reason to complain about any hospital service such as food, courtesy, responsiveness, or cleanliness.
Swanson doesn’t focus just on the customer surveys, which are mailed to patients one week after discharge, but also on a variety of internal measures. These measures usually start at the grass- roots level, where the staff sees a problem and develops ways to
track performance. The hospital’s longstanding philosophy sup- ports the concept that each patient is important and respected as a person. That patient has the right to comprehensive, compas- sionate family-centered health care provided by a knowledgeable physician-directed team.
Some of the measures Swanson carefully monitors for con- tinuous improvement are morbidity, infection rates, readmission rates, costs per case, and length of stays. The tools she uses daily include Pareto charts, flowcharts, and process charts, in addition to benchmarking against hospitals both nationally and in the southeast region.
The result of all of these efforts has been a quality culture as manifested in Arnold Palmer’s high ranking in patient sat- isfaction and one of the highest survival rates of critically ill babies.
Discussion Questions*
1. Why is it important for Arnold Palmer Hospital to get a patient’s assessment of health care quality? Does the patient have the expertise to judge the health care she receives?
2. How would you build a culture of quality in an organization such as Arnold Palmer Hospital?
3. What techniques does Arnold Palmer Hospital practice in its drive for quality and continuous improvement?
4. Develop a fish-bone diagram illustrating the quality variables for a patient who just gave birth at Arnold Palmer Hospital (or any other hospital).
Collepals.com Plagiarism Free Papers
Are you looking for custom essay writing service or even dissertation writing services? Just request for our write my paper service, and we'll match you with the best essay writer in your subject! With an exceptional team of professional academic experts in a wide range of subjects, we can guarantee you an unrivaled quality of custom-written papers.
Get ZERO PLAGIARISM, HUMAN WRITTEN ESSAYS
Why Hire Collepals.com writers to do your paper?
Quality- We are experienced and have access to ample research materials.
We write plagiarism Free Content
Confidential- We never share or sell your personal information to third parties.
Support-Chat with us today! We are always waiting to answer all your questions.
