Enhancing Best Clinical and Business Best Practices Term Paper

Healthcare Management (Discussion questions)

Healthcare organizations must always strive to provide quality care to their patients. This empowers them to be ahead of their competition and in line with the various rules set by healthcare bodies and the government. As such, companies often try to adopt best practices have been proven to be successful in other institutions. A best practice refers to a technique or method that has consistently shown or proved results superior to those attained by other means. Best practices can also be defined as methods used by organizations as benchmarks. According to Bogan and English (1994), benchmarks are used to uphold quality as an alternate solution to the enacted standards. The diversities within societies in terms of ethnicity, race, and religion calls for the importance of adopting affordable and quality care within the health care organizations.

According to Chin et al. (2012), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation began a national program in 2005 titled "Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change." This program aimed at identifying promising interventions to lessen disparities in the health care sector. The program established reduced disparities in the health sector. Health care providers sought to reducing the disparities by establishing a general culture of improving quality and incorporating various interventions in healthcare delivery. This shows that adopting best practices is the surest way of enhancing the quality of health in many health care organizations.

According to Kibbe et al. (1997), the dawn of free internet access has availed large sources of health care information to people willing to invest a small amount of energy and time. This shows that the implementation of best practices in health care organizations is a frequent phenomenon. Lovaglio (2012) shows that benchmarking can be used to evaluate the quality and performance of nurse striving to enhance patients' safety. Internal benchmarking can be used to identify best practices within a health organization as well as compare best practices within it and current practices over time. Competitive benchmarking entails using comparative data between organizations to evaluate performance and discern improvements that have been effective in other organizations.

Evidence-based practice is vital in health care organization like a contribution of indication to the effective care of patients. Best practices in neonatal care and obstetrics serve to reduce mortality and morbidity. Best practices also go a long way in promoting the quality of care, which in turn trickles down to patient safety while lowering the cost of health care. Best practices include evaluation of patient responses to medical interventions, planning the provision of patient care, diagnosing patient problems, assessing patient conditions and intervening to improve the patient's condition and functions.

Embracing best practices and clinical practices are important because it improves the effectiveness and competitiveness of the organization. In order to embrace these practices, I would identify problems in the health organization. This will be followed by stakeholder analysis identifying the available and viable options. Later on, I will assess the available practices that have been successfully implemented in other organizations. I would also assess the available resources to implement the best practices in my organization. This will guarantee the successful implementation within the organization because obstacles are eliminated.

References

Chin, M.H., et al. (2012). "A Roadmap and Best Practices for Organizations to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care. Journal of General Internal Medicine. http://www.rwjf.org/en/research-publications/find-rwjf-research/2012/08/a-roadmap-and-best-practices-for-organizations-to-reduce-racial-.html

Kibbe, D.C, et al. (1997). "A guide to finding and evaluating best practices health care information on the Internet: the truth is out there?" Joint Commission Journal on Quality Improvement. (12):678-89

Bogan, C.E., and English, M.J. (1994). Benchmarking for Best Practices: Winning Through Innovative Adaptation. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lovaglio, P.G. (2012). "Benchmarking Strategies for Measuring the Quality of Healthcare:

Problems and Prospects." The Scientific World Journal.

http://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2012/606154/

Student 2

The process of benchmarking is important to an organization when the need to establish a quality standard in business activities is pertinent (Benson, 1994). This methodology is increasingly being used by health care organizations to lower expenses as well as improve service and product quality. Benchmarking is a continuous process through which an organization can measure and compare its own practices with other organization in the same sector. There are four types of benchmarking: internal, generic, functional, and competitive. Internal benchmarking is characterized by the comparison of different functions in an organization. However, generic and functional benchmarking is carried out within organizations undertaking similar functions such as purchasing or payroll.

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