Quality Care

Quality Care and Performance Measures
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Quality Care and Performance Measures
Practice registered nurses play a crucial role in delivering affordable and quality healthcare services to patients. Even so, they experience a lot of challenges that significantly hinder their ability to provide high-quality care. As a result, creating a framework for measuring the quality of care is critical in ensuring health facilities identify challenges and continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of service delivery (Buppert, 2014). It also helps in revealing any emerging technologies which can be incorporated to promote better healthcare.
At its core, quality measure entails assessing the health care provided against specific set standards. Quality standards in healthcare delivery are determined using criteria such as patient satisfaction and safety, preventive healthcare, and health care providers’ experience (Rhodes, Bechtle & McNett., 2015). However, it is important to note that a fundamental difference exists between performance indicator and quality measures. Quality measures are used after providing care to check how well the service was offered. In contrast, performance indicators are used to show which aspects of care should be considered by nurses during service delivery to achieve quality care. The enforcement and measurement of quality standards are overseen by organizations such as the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). They also address differences observed in quality care delivery, assists in accountability of healthcare providers and insurance plans and investigate measures to improve healthcare.

The performance measures employed in Nurse Practitioners’ productivity include relative value units (RVUs) which indicate the relative value for every group of service. Incentives are motivational strategies used in ensuring better healthcare performance and outcome improvement. In clinical organizations, they can include bonus, promotion, and increased funding for medical research (Abduljawad & Al-Assaf., 2011). An example of a business model is the Pay-for-Performance system where providers are compared with other providers based on specific performance indicators. Those that attain the highest performance level are rewarded financially and recognized.
References
Abduljawad, A., & Al-Assaf, A. F. (2011). Incentives for better performance in health care. Sultan Qaboos University Medical Journal, 11(2), 201.
Buppert, C. (2014). Nurse practitioner’s business practice and legal guide. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Rhodes, C. A., Bechtle, M., & McNett, M. (2015). An incentive pay plan for advanced practice registered nurses: impact on provider and organizational outcomes. Nursing Economics, 33(3), 125-131.