Healthcare Quality Management: Flow Charts and Diagrams

Running Head: HEALTHCARE QUALITY MANAGEMENT 1
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: HEALTHCARE QUALITY MANAGEMENT

Healthcare quality management
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A Pareto chart is a diagram showing a comparison between two variables. It’s a bar graph drawn with the length of the bars representing frequency of occurrence of a given situation or cost. Composed of bars and a line graph in which the bars represent individual value with cumulative total represented by the line graph. The purpose of the chart is to bring to surface the most important issue in a set of large variables. For example in quality control, it can be used to highlight the most common defects and establish the source of a given problem. In health care quality management, it is used to display factors that contribute to a similar effect and are arranged in order of their effect towards the overall outcome. The order helps healthcare practitioners to identify factors in most need of attention. This helps to identify areas in need of focus. The chart below shows surgical setup errors by type.

A scatter diagram is a mathematical diagram used to display values for variables. It is used to display two variables to avoid confusion. If color coding is clear, three variables can be presented in the diagram. They help teams identify cause-effect relations between two variables as well as establish the cause. A variable can be explained as any entity that can take different valuables. It’s a changeable value in a relationship. When plotting a relationship between two variables, the value they have impact on is plotted on the horizontal axis and the variables on the vertical axis. In other cases, the variables are in the two different x-axis and y-axis then compared at different levels. For example, comparison between Medicare returns to population density.

Process flowchart is a sequence of steps used to show a given process. According to Meleti (2008), it includes sequence of actions entering or leaving a given process. The process can be about anything in medical or any field. In medicine which is our field of interest, flowchart can explain a given process of treatment. It can also be a process of prevention. The chart below shows a medical billing flowchart.

A cause and effect also known as fishbone or an ishikava diagram is plotted to show a given direction to attain a given effect. It is used when causes group themselves under different categories to attain a similar effect (Arvanitoyannis & Varzakas, 2007). The categories can include environment, people, equipment or materials within which causes can be grouped. Cause and effect diagram shows causes of different problems at every step of a complete process. It helps different teams to understand that different causes can give the same effect. Hypothesis can be explained as a proposed explanation for a given phenomenon. A medical hypothesis is a set of ideas in medicine in biomedical sciences. In sciences, the hypothesis must be testable scientifically. It’s referred to as a fishbone since it involves finding out the roots of a problem for a diagnosis. The process involves finding the root cause to a problem for a solution to be devised.
Force field analysis is a process used to explain how forces affect a given situation. It is based on an assumption that every situation is a result of forces which affect the current situation either positive or negative. A change can be attained when the force is either countered or encouraged. Force field analysis is conducted with various steps to be followed. For example, an office-based surgery center wished to uncover their patients to stop using herbs before surgery.

References
Meleti, M., Vescovi, P., Mooi, W. J., & van der Waal, I. (2008). Pigmented lesions of the oral mucosa and perioral tissues: a flow-chart for the diagnosis and some recommendations for the management. Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, Oral Radiology, and Endodontology.
Arvanitoyannis, I. S., & Varzakas, T. H. (2007). Application of failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA), cause and effect analysis and Pareto diagram in conjunction with HACCP to a potato chips manufacturing plant. International journal of food science & technology.