Читать книгу The Quality Improvement Challenge - Richard J. Banchs - Страница 76

Patients, providers, and staff are the customers of our healthcare processes. They expect an outcome (VOC). The outcome must have certain attributes and must be delivered within certain requirements. The VOC therefore has two distinct components (see Figure 8‐2):

1 The “what” (attributes). This is the needed outcome, and the attributes of the outcome the customer (patient, provider, or staff) expects. A patient expects an “effective treatment,” “clear instructions,” and “clean facilities.” Alternatively, when a physician is the customer of a process, he or she might expect an “accurate diagnosis,” a “centered chest X‐ray,” or the “correct demographic information.”

2 The “how” (requirements). These are the requirements that characterize the outcome (output). Patients expect care delivered “on‐time” or in a “culturally sensitive” manner. Physicians would expect a chest X‐ray (needed outcome) to show up in the EMR “in a timely fashion,” and the radiologist’s official reading to be “easily found in the EMR.”

FIGURE 8‐2 The outcome expected by the customer (VOC) is defined by attributes and requirements.

The customer (patient, staff, or provider) defines quality by identifying

 the needed (expected) outcome.

 the attributes of the outcome, and

 the requirements that characterize the outcome.

Fulfilling the attributes (the “what”) and requirements (the “how”) of the VOC results in customer satisfaction. Achieving customers’ satisfaction is the ultimate goal of the QI project.