Introduction
A doctor should offer best services to the clients and at the same time should be a good teacher (Graham, 1995). One should emerge from a visit to his doctor very happy and better equipped to deal with problems in the future with more knowledge and tools to help one practice preventive maintenance and wise self-care. Patients look for e very reliable and highly rated doctors. They also want an experienced doctor because high experience is associated with success. This paper will therefore discuss a personal health experience with a doctor describing the event, and whether the experience met expectations (Lloyd, 2004).
Personal health experience with a dentist
I experienced some problems with my teeth and decided to pay a visit to a dentist. On examining my teeth the dentist said that one of my upper molars was suffering form a cavity and therefore the only choice left was to extract it. Because of the pain I was going through a quick appointment was to be set. As the day come, I read a book about teeth cavities and how they are filled or the teeth extracted as I waited in the reception. I was convinced that the process is not a bad one because the book had a smiling person who had a tooth extraction.
The assistant called me in the dentist’s room and arranged all the operators and left letting the gas to take effect. No sooner had the gas taken effect than I started experiencing nausea and almost vomited. The experience was not a laughing matter as indicated in the book. The dentist finally came holding a needle and this sent chills all over my body. The dentist noticed the fear in me and shouted at me to open my mouth and that he was not there to play. At this time the effect of the gas was reducing slowly and so to save time, the dentist together with his assistant held my hands tightly and the dentist threw all his weight into injecting my gum. After some few minutes my mouth was numb from the shot. The assistant came back with some other metallic operators and a small tent thing that was meant to keep my mouth open. The tent was put in my mouth forcefully thus injuring my gums. The dentist then came in, and as he put those small metals into my mouth to extract my tooth, I could not help screaming. He fiercely shouted at me to shut up as he struggled to extract the tooth. I could taste blood in my mouth but finally the tooth was down. I obtained gum complications after the tooth was extracted because the tools that the dentist used were not sterilized and also because the process was very harsh.
Quality health care
The quality of health care relates to the adequacy of the facilities, personnel, and policies to deliver medical care (Lloyd, 2004). Process quality is concerned about the appropriateness of diagnostic or therapeutic intervention whereas outcome quality means the effectiveness and efficiency, which is the health status that people experience as well as the economic dimensions of the health care. The dimension of quality in health care has become increasingly popular in the world. This is after the first important waves of cost containment in the health care center. Enormous pressure on health care providers has been put by economic evaluation and rationing in health care and lowering of their quality of service has been observed (Lloyd, 2004).
Although in former times, health care quality was taken for granted, currently individuals and health care authorities are becoming concerned about the quality of health care (Graham, 1995). Measures of health outcome are related to a process that can be changed to increase the outcome. Measures of the organizational quality are either connected to the processes or directly to the outcome to be reliable and valid quality measures. In order to assess and improve quality in health care, many countries have developed indicators of quality on a national level that may serve as a framework for health care providers. Indicators of quality are criteria, standards and other direct qualitative and quantitative measures used in determining the quality of health care.
There are three categories along which some of the indicators of quality can be defined. First are the indicators of the organizational quality. These include education and training of the doctors, continued qualification and number of staff, access to doctors’ offices and hospitals and equipments of the health care provider which include laboratories, doctors’ offices and hospitals (Graham, 1995). The second category includes indicators for the process of quality. These include the diagnostic techniques used by the doctor, therapeutic measures and nursing, principal diagnosis of hospital admissions, cooperation between colleagues, and communication with patients. The final category includes indicators for the quality of outcome. These include improvement of health status and healing of diseases, patient satisfaction and change of behaviors that influence health status. These indicators are interrelated as the existing organization and resources have an influence on the processes and processes influence the quality of outcome (Lloyd, 2004).
Health care professionals should try to incorporate quality indicators in their daily work and the terms of quality assurance and quality management should be part of the health care sector (Graham, 1995). Quality of health care should be maintained by quality assurance and by quality management. Quality assurance includes the evaluation of the quality of care, the identification of deficiencies and the activities leading to quality improvement. On the other hand quality management describes the whole spectrum of activities of activities leading to the continued improvement in quality. It encompasses planning quality measures including quality assurance, the implementation of these measures in the service delivery process, regular checking of the effectiveness of the measures and the follow-up actions to ensure continuous improvement of quality (Lloyd, 2004).
Service expectations
My experience with the dentist did not meet my expectation because he handled me in a very harsh manner and moreover I was not satisfied with his service because I got gum complication after that (Graham, 1995). Dentists should be qualified and experienced. They should handle the patients in a gentle manner to prevent further complications. For the patients to be satisfied with health care services, dentists should also have self discipline and good communication skills (Lloyd, 2004).
Conclusion
Today’s competitive healthcare environment demands constant attention to improvements in quality. Consumers are demanding that they receive full value for every dollar they pay (Graham, 1995). The goal of any healthcare provider is to have consumers desire to return for their healthcare needs. If healthcare organizations fail to strive for quality, they will fall behind in the highly competitive marketplace. Therefore, focusing on quality allows healthcare organizations to achieve many benefits like enhancing patient satisfaction, meeting demands of consumers and professional and satisfactory performance by providers (Lloyd, 2004).
Reference list
Graham, N. (1995). Quality in health care: theory, application, and evolution. Chicago. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Lloyd, R. (2004). Quality health care: a guide to developing and using indicators. Chicago. Jones & Bartlett Learning.