"Quality" has many different meanings; in philosophy it could refer to an attribute or property, in business it could refer to the non-inferiority or superiority of something, or it could be describing the ratio of mass of vapor to that of vapor and liquid (ie: vapor quality). Along with it's different uses, "quality" can be described in a cornucopia of ways by varying individuals. For the purposes of this Blog and for this course, quality will be discussed as it relates to healthcare.
Since I want to look at healthcare quality, this still doesn't mean that there are one or two ways to define quality. I used to believe that quality was best defined as access to care, or at that time I knew it best as the amount of time it took to see the doctor. As my education furthered, and I began to learn more about the administrative side to healthcare, I have since changed my definition of quality. I now know that access, along with cost of services, physician diagnosis/treatment recommendation, and clinical outcomes are many different aspects of healthcare quality.
Quality could describe the type of care being given, the employee who is giving the care, or the environment the care is being given in. Productivity, efficiency, and ability to make personal connections are just a few of the markers one uses to assess the healthcare professional providing the care. With many different arenas to judge healthcare quality, we rely on the consumers to give feedback and criticisms, so improvements can be made when needed. Through surveys, comment cards, personal recommendations and more, those in healthcare are constantly looking to the feedback of consumers to gauge the quality of the services being provided.
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