Should Hospitals, and Health Systems, focus on Quality or Financial viability? This question haunts many executives. In reality, however, the growing regulatory changes merge the issues, leading organizations to fix both concurrently with a streamlined solution that focuses on enhancing Patient Quality Outcomes (PQO).The restructuring of existing Hospital and Health Systems’ Quality Infrastructures is inevitably. Tomorrows Quality Structure is a new Quality Paradigm that effectively and efficiently delivers PQO through an infrastructure that optimizes patient care outcomes and drives down costs.

In the New Quality Paradigm, Quality is not the sole responsibility of one department, or group of people; rather, it integrates into the practices of everyone within the organization by aligning the organizational mission with a STE3P program. The objective of a STE3P program is to drive a Safe, Effective, Efficient, Patient-Centered, Timely and Equitable care to patients that increases the quality of all outcomes:

• Safe – Low error rate in patient care. Care delivered helps, not harms, patients.
• Effective – With increased outcomes, not numerous alternatives.
• Efficient – Care delivered should be cost effective to all: Insurance Providers, Hospitals/Health Systems and the patient.
• Patient Centered – Patient preferences, needs, and values serve to guide clinical decisions.
• Timely – Time to patient care should continually be reduced.
• Equitable – One standard of care for all.

Figure 1 exemplifies a Quality Paradigm that achieves STE3P with the following key components:

• Aim to YIELD enhanced Patient Quality Outcomes.
• Deliver a Structure that culminates:
  • Awareness/Transparency – post key organizational metrics for viewing by all stakeholders and involved parties in the deliverance of patient care – The TEAM (i.e. employees, patients, etc.).
  • Innovation with Design and Implementation – establish automated reporting vehicles that generate the raw data used for awareness/transparency; and, streamline analytical systems that validate the data and collect the Voice of the TEAM.
  • Continuous Process Improvement Culture and Processes – spread the responsibility of the executives to the TEAM by enabling and assigning accountability through an embedded organizational culture and process infrastructure that uses the Awareness/Transparency and Innovation (with Design and Implementation) to stimulate, and maintain a pipeline of optimal innovative improvements that are rapidly validated and implemented.
• Establish the Drivers: Leadership, Communication, and Team Work.

In summary, Patient Quality Outcomes should not be the responsibility of a small select team of people. The responsibility should be spread through the identified TEAM, which includes everyone from the patients and their families to the physicians and the cleaning staff. Expertise in specific processes, or areas, is achieved through continuous practice/experience in the respective areas. As such, spreading accountability of improvements to the TEAM enables true innovative ideas to surface for quick validation and implementation. Otherwise, solutions implemented may only be sub-optimal. Yield PQO as a true TEAM.