My professor wrote this about the assignment below you did for me. I need you to answer her question and please be specific : Thank you for your comments. You provide some relevant mechanisms/steps for quality of improvement in general, but could you be more specific to the case study? For example, what outcomes are of interest to physicians, nurses and other clinicians dealing with COVID-19 patients and the health system? What might a plan be to attain the outcome.
This is the case study just in case you need it :The Covid-19 outbreak continues to overwhelm our health care system. Physicians, nurses, and other clinicians are experiencing fatigue, and some are walking away. There is a need for increased population-level prevention efforts. What can public health do? What are they doing now and how can they build on this? How can public health and health care partner to help combat this most recent surge in positive Covid-19 diagnoses?
The social determinants of health have played a great role by contributing to health inequities in the control of Covid-19 outbreak which results into the need of the public health to address the factors thus reduce the inequities. Among the key contributing social determinants of health include income and social status, education and literacy, personal health practices, working conditions and social environments. These factors contribute to the poor management of the spread of the COVID-19 which in turn has led to the overwhelming of the health care systems. For instance, due to low income and high poverty levels, people are not able to access private medical care and prevention techniques against the disease. This results into majority of the people accessing the free public health care services facilitated by the governments. The high population of the patients attending the public hospitals cause overcrowding, all seeking the scarce resources available hence overwhelming of the health care system. Lack of education as a social determinant of health has contributed to poor management of the disease thus increase in the spread of the virus in regions where people have low literacy levels in relation to the management of the disease. Poor working conditions where the employees are not provided with protective gears and masks or poor observance of social distance has also contributed to the spread of the virus hence overwhelming of the healthcare system (Ataguba, 2020). The public health has a role in reducing the health inequities through various strategies. One of the strategies to be implemented is reduction of the disparities by ensuring there is increase in medical and health access through establishment of clinics that have all relevant resources required. Another strategy is sensitization of the public on prevention of the corona virus which cause the disease which can be done through convening conferences or through mass media (Elavarasan, 2020).
Quality of the Health Service
Quality of health service is important in the control and prevention of the COVID-19 outbreak through several ways. One of the ways is that the quality of services provided in the healthcare system determines the outcome of the patient. This is because it determines the safety of care which focus in reduction of risks and medical errors which would result into increase of the spread or increased mortality rates. The other factor is timeliness which is an important aspect in responding to a COVID-19 19 patient. It also determines the efficiency and whether the healthcare service is equitable to all (Harvey, 2017).
Quality Improvement
In improving the quality of health service, various mechanisms can be applied through a well-developed improvement model. The first step is determining the specific outcomes aimed at achieving or the changes desired in the system. The second step is identifying the appropriate measures to track the success of the improvement process to ensure the initial plan is followed to attain the outcome. The third mechanism to applying is identifying the key changes that will be tested in determining the results of the process (Harvey, 2017).
