Health care organizations should provide quality care to patients. A health care organization should have effective systems whereby the nurses and physicians take responsibility for their actions. The approach will promote the best behaviors and actions in order to deliver quality health services to patients. “Clinical governance is a new concept that combines the best activities and behaviors in order to provide quality care to patients (Stanton, 2006)”. According to the concept, nurses and caregivers should embrace a sense of accountability in order to provide better care to patients.
Meaning of Clinical Governance
Clinical governance is a concept aimed at providing safe care in nursing organizations. Clinical governance is “an integrated approach that ensures health care organizations are clinically accountable and responsible in order to continue improving safety and quality in health care (Clinical Governance, 2013)”. According to the definition, health care organizations should offer quality care to their patients. Clinical governance is an essential framework used in Western Australia to provide the best health care to patients. As well, clinical governance in Western Australia ensures that health care organizations demonstrate to the public that they can provide the best care.
In Western Australia, health care organizations use the framework as a symbol of healthcare commitment and dedication. Health care organizations embrace new ideas and knowledge in order to improve the quality of care availed to patients. Nurses use these ideas to provide quality health care. The Department of Health (DoH) introduced the model to facilitate proper healthcare implementation and development. The clinical governance model has made it easier for Australian health care organizations to provide quality care to their patients (Stanton, 2006).
The clinical governance model is based on four key pillars. The first pillar focuses on “consumer value”. The pillar has made it possible for health care organizations in the region to involve different stakeholders and communities in their efforts to provide quality healthcare to patients. The second pillar is clinical evaluation and performance. The pillar has made it easier for healthcare organizations to introduce, evaluate, and monitor their clinical practices and performance (Huntington, 2000). The organizations rely on clinical audits, standards, and indicators to achieve their goals. The organizations achieve their goals by monitoring and evaluating their clinical services. The third pillar is a clinical risk. The pillar focuses on the best efforts to reduce risks and improve safety measures. Finally, the fourth pillar is professional management and development. This pillar guides leaders in health care organizations to offer the best care to patients.
How Quality Improvement Cycle Can Use Clinical Audits
The idea of the Quality Improvement Cycle (QIC) focuses on the status of a health care organization and its future expectations (Swage, 2004). Healthcare leaders should embrace the idea of clinical governance because it helps them formulate a quality improvement cycle. The approach is essential towards the provision of the best health care and services to patients. The quality Improvement Cycle helps organizations address the challenges affecting the nature and effectiveness of their services to patients (Swage, 2004). The other important aspect of the Quality Improvement Cycle is that it brings all the nurses and physicians together. Teamwork and coordination are critical aspects of the Quality Improvement Cycle.
One of the best ways to ensure the cycle is successful is to use clinical audits. “Clinical audits are procedural methods used to evaluate and improve organizational behaviors and clinical practices (Stanton, 2006)”. Clinical audit is defined as the “systematic evaluation and measurement of health care in terms of quality, effectiveness, and efficiency (Stanton, 2006)”. Such audits are used to analyze the nature and quality of clinical practices and healthcare outcomes. They also evaluate the procedures used by nurses to treat their patients. Clinical audits monitor the nature of resources used in medical support and the effectiveness of patient care. As well, nurses can use clinical audits to monitor the effectiveness of their clinical practices.
That being the case, Quality Improvement Cycle can rely on clinical audits to measure the quality of health care provided to different patients. Health care organizations can use clinical audits to analyze the resources, procedures, drugs, and practices used to provide the required care to patients. There is a need to examine the existing gaps and barriers that make it impossible to provide quality health care. After identifying the gaps existing in a health care organization, nurses and leaders can carefully rely on the four pillars of clinical governance to improve the quality of health care (Swage, 2004). The approach will ensure most health care organizations are effective.
This discussion explains the importance of clinical governance. Health care organizations should use the clinical governance framework in order to provide quality care to patients. The current application of clinical governance in Western Australia explains how healthcare organizations can rely on Quality Improvement Cycles in order to provide quality care (Stanton, 2006). As well, nurses and caregivers should work together to improve the experience of their patients. There is also a need to use clinical audits to measure clinical effectiveness in order to improve the quality of healthcare provided to patients.
References
Clinical Governance. (2013). Web.
Huntington, J. (2000). Organisational Development for Clinical Governance. British Medical Journal, 321(1), 679-703.
Stanton, P. (2006). The role of an NHS Board in assuring the quality of clinically governed care and the duty of trust to patients. Clinical Governance, 11(1), 39-49.
Swage, T. (2004). Clinical Governance in Health Care Practice. Sydney: Oxford University Press.