Quality of Care

Policy Topic Search and Selection (Quality of Care)
Maya Bynes
HCS/455
June 2, 2010
Instructor: Robbya Green-Weir

Quality of Care
In this paper I will define quality of care and provide information about the uninsured as it pertains to the quality of care.
Quality of care is effective and efficient services that are rendered to patients in the health care field. Quality can be in the form of patient safety, patient satisfaction and patient assurance. Quality of care includes training of health care personnel, improving delivery system processes, and attention to systemic level factors such as technology and medical records. Patient safety in health care is making sure that products are clean, safe to use and staff are using them correctly. Quality assurance in the health care field has intensified because of the concern that health care is costly, may sometimes be dispensed inappropriately and inequitably, and varies unduly among physicians and locations. For the medical profession quality assurance is seen as an important means not only to demonstrate that physicians meet universal standards of competence and that the safety of the public is not compromised, but also to identify physicians' educational needs. (CMAJ, 1992)
Potential deficiencies in the knowledge, skills and attitudes of physicians can affect the outcome of quality given to patients. That is why it is important patients ask questions to make sure they are receiving adequate care. Some questions to ask are; Does your health care fits your needs and preferences, is your health care is given without unnecessary delays, and is your health care fair and not affected by such things as your gender, language, color, age or income. Quality of care is important to all patients but in recent studies uninsured people are more likely to receive poor care from health facilities. (Checkpoint, 2004)
Health care access for the poor and uninsured in the U.S. is an increasingly complex problem. From 2000...