As early as 400 BC, the Hippocratic Oath admonished physicians to keep patients from harm or injustice. Current codes of ethics remind health care practitioners that safety and quality are imperative in health care. Yet quality and safety remain a critical issue for health care managers and patients today.

To prepare for this Discussion, carefully review your Learning Resources. Seek additional resources to support your Discussion from one of the known web resources of health care quality:

Websites:

The Joint Commission http://www.jointcommission.org/
Institute for Healthcare Improvement http://www.ihi.org/ihi
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/
Post a comprehensive response to the following:

How is quality of care viewed from the perspective of each of the followiing:

A patient
A health care provider
A purchaser
What role can the health care manager play in ensuring quality and safety in a health care setting? Select one of the different methods for improving the delivery of care described in your Learning Resources (this can include the websites identified). Provide a specific example of how that method can help protect a patient from errors of underuse, overuse, or misuse of care.

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resources

Chapter 2, “Performance Improvement in Healthcare: The Quest to Achieve Quality”

Quality is defined from a variety of stakeholder perspectives in this chapter. The importance of quality in health care settings is explained. The authors describe leading models and elements to achieve quality in health care today and in the future.

Chapter 4, “Customer Service”

Health care managers should be aware of the various internal and external customers served by their health care organization. This chapter describes the impact of managed care on the delivery of services to health care customers. The author identifies the essential elements of customer service and provide techniques to improve and sustain superior customer service.
Article: Woodard, T. (2005). Addressing variation in hospital quality: Is Six Sigma the answer? Journal of Healthcare Management / American College of Healthcare Executives, 50(4), 226–236. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mnh&AN=16130806&site=ehost-live&scope=site
Article: Woodard, T. (2005). Addressing variation in hospital quality: Is Six Sigma the answer? Journal of Healthcare Management / American College of Healthcare Executives, 50(4), 226–236. Retrieved from http://ezp.waldenulibrary.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mnh&AN=16130806&site=ehost-live&scope=site
The Joint Commission: http://www.jointcommission.org/

The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit organization that accredits and certifies more than 18,000 health care organizations and programs in the United States. Joint Commission accreditation and certification is recognized nationwide as a symbol of quality that reflects an organization’s commitment to meeting certain performance standards.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement: http://www.ihi.org/Pages/default.aspx

The Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) is an independent, not-for-profit organization. IHI helps lead the improvement of health care throughout the world.
National Academy of Medicine: https://nam.edu/

The National Academy of Medicine is an independent, nonprofit organization that works to provide unbiased and authoritative advice to decision makers and the public.
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: http://www.AHRQ.gov

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. AHRQ supports research that helps people make more informed decisions and improves the quality of health care services. AHRQ is one of the agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Nursing Home Quality Campaign: http://www.nhqualitycampaign.org

The mission of the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign is to help nursing homes achieve excellence in the quality of care and quality of life for the more than 1.5 million residents of America’s nursing homes.