Quality Management

Quality of patient care has always been an important concept in the medical and insurance industries. Now since quality can be measured and made more and more objective, its value has only increased. The government has also made customer satisfaction surveys a part of its evaluation of an HMO's Star Rating and a Medical Home or Hospital's credentials. Soon, all the information about providers and their evaluations by peers and patients might be available online. This means that patient care will not only mean seeing a patient, doing a procedure, and billing a code but also focusing on the interaction among the staff, patients, and provider. Patient education will become a part of all disease management protocols

The intensity of care of specific conditions will only increase not only due to financial and regulatory reasons. When healthcare is oriented around the unique needs of the patient, it can lead to higher patient satisfaction and better clinical outcomes. Quality takes a patient-centered approach that honors each individual's culture, social context and values and empowers patients to play an active role in making decisions about their own care.