Reference no: EM132453259

The Business Case for Quality

Decision making in today's health care organizations requires a continuous balancing act, often involving tradeoffs to meet various clinical and business needs. For decisions related to quality, it is especially important to be able to provide a sound rationale for the choices that are made.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Bring to mind a specific quality or safety challenge that might be encountered in a health care organization (choose a type of organization that is of particular interest to you).
• Review the information presented in the Learning Resources, including the "Making the Business Case for Quality Management" section on pages 128-141 in Medical Quality Management.
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• Consider how and why you would suggest an organization address this challenge. Examine the following considerations, as well as others that would inform your response:
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  • What are the driving forces or most compelling reasons for addressing this challenge?
  • How might financial constraints impact this situation?
  • What other resources might be limited within the organization? How could these resource constraints influence this situation?
  • What role might pay-for-performance play?
  • How could the short- and long-term financial outcomes of this situation be assessed? How would the return on investment be determined?
  • Who are the key stakeholders that would need to be included or considered in this decision?
  • What are the expected benefits? What unanticipated consequences might occur?

Note: You may find it helpful to preview the Application Assignment and use this Discussion to inform your focus for that assignment.