Introduction
Health standards play a very imperative role in ensuring that society remains healthy at all times. This is achieved by assigning and delegating such roles to a specified body. This paper discusses functions of NPHPSP and also the role of customer satisfaction in quality improvement.
NPHPSP and its function
NPHPSP refers to national public health performance standards program. According to CDC (center for disease control), NPHPSP is a public utility program whose main role is to set and maintain health standards. It has four main functions. First, it generates and disseminates health standards for public health structures and ensures the same is used by all health institutions hence ensuring security and safety of the public in reference to health standards. Secondly, it boosts and influences coordination of all stakeholders in national, state as well as local levels in relation to readiness for possible health exigencies thus ensuring that public is adequately covered for all possible worst case scenarios.
Thirdly, it is responsible for constant quality upgrading of public health bodies and structures in order to meet both current and emerging needs in public health. Finally, it is responsible for reinforcement of scientific background for public health practice advancement hence ensuring that new scientific inventions and innovations are used within stipulated standards for best interest of the public. Thus, NPHPSP can be seen as a public watchdog whose main role is to ensure that all the aspects of health standards are made and followed by all means (CDC, 2011).
Role of Customer Satisfaction in Quality Improvement
It is undeniable that NPHPSP cannot meet any of its core objectives without the feedback mechanism existing between itself and public. It thus becomes a measure of progress of NPHPSP in meeting its obligations. Depending on current public needs, NPHPSP reorganizes its objectives to meet those particular requirements. Review of customer satisfaction enables NPHPSP to allocate resources and energy to sections that will ensure utmost customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction also enables NPHPSP to review successful and failed projects. This way, it is able to implement projects successful on one area to all regions and also discontinue projects that have no value to public health system.
Results of customer satisfaction enable NPHPSP to understand emerging needs in the public health. Since one of the core objectives is to generate and disseminate health standards, it then works towards developing and disseminating new standards in response to these emerging needs. Finally, customer satisfaction enables NPHPSP to understand which stakeholders are failing in their duties. Depending on the public outcry, it will be able to see whether the problem is emanating from national, state or local level or even a combination of these stake holders. This way, issues are addressed to ensure health performance standards are maintained or changed where it is deemed appropriate (Duffy, G et al., 2010).
Conclusion
Public health is very important and thus maintaining standards in all health structures is necessary. NPHPSP is mandated to ensure that standards are made, disseminated, followed and all stakeholders incorporated. In order to do these, customer satisfaction is necessary to give the required feedback to ensure progress and development in the core objectives of NPHPSP.
References
CDC. (2011). National Public Health Performance Standards Program (NPHPSP). Web.
Duffy, G et al. (2010). The Continuum of Quality Improvement in Public Health. Web.