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The evolution of quality improvement in healthcare: Patient-centered care and health information technology applications
Author(s) -
John Cantiello,
Panagiota Kitsantas,
Shirley Moncada,
Sabiheen Abdul
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of hospital administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1927-7008
pISSN - 1927-6990
DOI - 10.5430/jha.v5n2p62
Subject(s) - quality management , health care , quality (philosophy) , information technology , knowledge management , business , medicine , process management , nursing , marketing , computer science , political science , philosophy , epistemology , law , service (business) , operating system
Objective: Quality improvement in the healthcare industry has evolved over the past few decades. In recent years, an increased focus on coordination of care efforts and the introduction of health information technology has been of high importance in improving the quality of patient care.Methods: In this review, we present a history of quality improvement efforts, discuss quality improvement in the healthcare industry, and examine quality improvement strategies with a focus on patient-centered care and information technology applications via patient registries.Results: Evidence shows that the key to quality improvement efforts in the healthcare industry is the coordination of patient care efforts through better data evaluation processes. By utilizing patient registries that can be linked to electronic health records (EHRs) and the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) framework, the quality of care provided to patients can be improved.Conclusions: While many healthcare organizations have quality improvement departments or teams in place that may be able to handle these types of efforts, it is important for organizations to be familiar with processes and frameworks that employees at different levels of the organization can be involved in. In order to ensure successful outcomes from quality improvement initiatives, managers and clinicians should work together in identifying problems and developing solutions.