What does quality assurance look like in terms of patient safety? Quality in this context has been defined by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) as doing the right thing at the right time for the right person to pursue the best possible result. It goes beyond the definition of patient safety by the World Health Organization (WHO) as the prevention of adverse effects to patients brought on by health care actions.
Improving patient care and patient safety has become a priority for all health care providers, especially because doing so also increases patient satisfaction. Part of improving patient engagement naturally involves payments and other financial transactions. If your health care facility is having trouble outsourcing medical billing services or quality assurance, contact CodeMax Medical Billing today by calling 866.471.3267 or completing our online form.
What Is Patient Safety?
Patient safety is actually a health care discipline. It emerged with the evolving complexity of health care systems and the eventual rise of patient harm in health care facilities. Patient safety programs aim to prevent and reduce risks, errors, and harm that occur to patients during the provision of health care. A cornerstone of the discipline is the continuous improvement of programs like this based on learning from errors and other adverse events.
Patient safety is fundamental to delivering quality health services. Patient safety strategies, clear policies, and skilled health care professionals are needed to ensure successful implementation. Medical professionals should involve patients and their families in care processes, too.
What Are Elements of Patient Safety?
Patient safety should be an integral part of patient care and treatment provided by medical practices and other health care facilities. The key elements of an efficient patient safety program include:
- An agenda for knowledge generation, tool development, and dissemination.
- Processes designed to prevent failures and harm to patients.
- A commitment to detecting and analyzing patient injuries, as well as near misses.
- A balance between the need for event reporting and the need for disciplinary action.
- The involvement of patients and their families in most processes.
Improvement of patient care results in the improvement of patient safety. Patient care or a safety program is a dynamic process. The development and maintenance of a patient-sensitive system could be the most critical elements to achieving these objectives. When it comes to patient safety, it’s important to pay attention to quality in every aspect of patient care, both medical and non-medical.
How Can Health Care Providers Improve Patient Care Practices?
Maintaining a patient safety culture within your health care facility or medical practice will help you. Having a patient safety culture means that every member of your team is equally committed to putting patient safety first. Each person on your staff should continuously engage in actions that reflect that commitment. This should be easy to do, as at least the medical aspects of patient care are typically understood by most health care providers.
Patient safety is often dependent on the quality of medical and technical expertise, the quality of the equipment, and other quality assurance systems. Therefore, improving them can improve patient care practices. Factors that may also contribute to the improvement of patient care include:
- Trained staff
- Available and well-maintained equipment
- Access to appropriate medications
- Help from new technologies
While medical billing services aren’t directly related to patient safety, they are still part of the big picture. For example, a patient needing to undergo an important medical procedure may need to wait for verification and then their payment to go through before the health care facility does the procedure. This can happen even when doing the medical procedure immediately can improve the patient’s medical stability.
Improve Patient Safety with CodeMax Medical Billing’s Services
If your health care facility is having trouble outsourcing medical billing services to improve your patients’ safety, our team can help. Contact CodeMax Medical Billing today by calling 866.471.3267 or completing our online form.