The Mental Health Practitioner: An Oxymoron? Research Paper Example

Introduction

The most important factor that determines the quality of service provided by a healthcare provider is that the service improves the quality of life for the patients. The center of a transformation program rendered by healthcare providers is the organization of care delivery. The main objective is to structure the organization around the needs of the patients. In today’s healthcare world, there are many specialty clinics popping up seemingly overnight, but what has happened to all of the general health practices. These clinics are able to better meet the needs of the patients. These types of facilities are called IPU’s-which includes practitioners that provide both clinical and nonclinical services.

Management

Management is the key principle when restructuring the culture of an organization. Team members must be willing to self evaluate and make adjustments when needed to increase the productivity of the organization. One great aspect of management is tracking progress. By tracking progress over time, stakeholders are able to compare their organization’s performance with the performance of other organizations. Once data has been collected, the organizations can then make adjustments to better the organization. The tracking of data is the first step in improving health care delivery. According to Warne & McAndrew, “When systematic measurements are conducted, the end result is improvement” (2002).  Usually, the only information that is diligently tracked is the costs of services.

Tracking

Nevertheless, most health care providers fail to track the improvement or lack of improvement of the medical conditions of each patient. For example, a health care organization should track health conditions of those who may suffer from a chronic illness like diabetes. To determine to what extent their services are beneficial, the facility may track how many times a chronic diabetic patient is hospitalized for related illnesses. According to Varkey, Horne, & Bennet, “tracking such information conveys how effective the quality of services being rendered (2008). To ensure that services are being rendered effectively, all stakeholders must be supportive of the overall goal and willing to make changes accordingly.

References

Varkey, P., A. Horne, and K.E. Bennet. 2008. Innovation in Health Care: A Primer. American Journal of Medical Quality, vol. 23: 382-388.

Warne, T. and S. McAndrew. 2002 The Mental Health Practitioner: An Oxymoron? Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, vol. 11: 179-184.