References

Garcia, A. (2013). State Laws Regulating Prescribing of Controlled Substances: Balancing the

Public Health Problems of Chronic Pain and Prescription Painkiller Abuse and Overdose.

Journal Of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 4142-45.

Hu, T.C. (2011). Quality improvement: reducing real-time inventory errors through quality

           control circles. African Journal of Business Management, 5(26), 10657-10666.

Innovations for Maternal, Newborn, & Child Health (2013). Quality circles for

           healthcare improvement. Retrievedfrom/publications/2011FINALProjectProfile    

           from/publications/2011FINALProjectProfile_-Quality_Circles_Sierra_Leone.pdf

Institute of Medicine (2012). Best care at lower cost: learning health care in America.  Retrieved

            from http://www.iom.edu/~/media/Files/Report%20Files/2012/BestCare/

BestCareReportBrief.pdf

Conclusion

          Consistency in sustaining quality of care in a healthcare organization is vital to patients requiring medical attention. Healthcare leaders must make certain that emphasis is placed on the quality of their organization; one way to do so is by implementing working groups such as quality circles. Quality circles contribute directly to patient care because information is discussed beyond the scope of daily activities. Instead, leaders discuss such concerns as medical errors or medication control.

          In conjunction with quality circles are QCCs and feedback loops. Combined, these tools assist healthcare leaders in strengthening an organization by way of communication and strategic methods to make certain that planning is successful. Furthermore, quality circles, QCCs, and feedback loops benefit healthcare organizations by identifying obstacles that requires change within an organization; the changes that are eventually made ultimately improves the  overall quality of care for patients.

Quality Circles and Feedback Loops in Healthcare

          Quality Circles and feedback loops play a vital role in creating successful approaches to team-based dynamics, exercises, and other factors in a healthcare setting. These tools provide significant support to healthcare managers when exploring the many different dimensions that can be used when improving quality based initiatives. Quality circles and feedback loops encourages medical personnel to speak up and provide suggestions as one may see fit.

          When considering quality circles and feedback loops, it is imperative to develop a quality-based initiative that has the potential to enhance communication within an organization. The reason being, is that effective communication will lead to a stronger collaborative relationship amongst medical personnel in an organization. Likewise, collaborative relationships will result in positive outcomes and enable feedback loops and quality circles to act as an indicator of a successful growing healthcare organization.

Feedback Loops in Healthcare

           In the healthcare industry, utilization's of feedback loops are useful in optimizing healthcare teams such as quality circles or QCC groups to accomplish a series of objectives (Institute of Medicine, 2012). Since new developments are frequent in healthcare, it is important to address any gaps in knowledge and connect different information in order to achieve a common goal. Feedback loops is an effective method used to support different healthcare teams and enable continuous improvement strategies and other tools to guide the direction of an organization (Institute of Medicine, 2012).

          When leaders use effective feedback loops, it enables team members to communicate with one another and share information at all times. Under these terms, a healthcare organization is more inclined to develop processes that will aim to facilitate growth of a team on a personal or professional level (Institute of Medicine, 2012). Furthermore, once a healthcare team has reached this maturity level, then feedback loops would be more effective and assist the entire healthcare organization.

Quality Circles in Healthcare Organizations

          Along with quality circles, there are also quality control circles (QCC) in healthcare such as drug safety groups that discuss appropriate dosages of medication for patients to be prescribed. QCCs establishes actions to take with team members in order to inspire medical personnel to share ideas and create a helping relationship (Hu, 2011). In 1999, the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners reprimanded a physician for inaccurately prescribing lower dosages of pain management medication for patients with chronic illnesses (Garcia, 2013). QCC groups allow providers to discuss their thoughts on situations of this nature to get general consensus in the correct course of action to take as situations are presented.

          QCCs are designed for healthcare leaders to express new ideas, encourage educational conversations regarding new developments, and efficiencies that will be in the best interest of patients as well as medical personnel. The efforts of QCC groups are contributing factors in renewing the camaraderie of the organization while leading to positive results for both patients and employees (Hu, 2011). In these groups, providers come together in an effort to minimize and prevent accidents from occurring or reoccurring.

Introduction

          Healthcare leaders strive to achieve consistency in caring for patients by providing quality of care to each individual that presents a health concern. Although there is a great deal of emphasis placed on quality of care in a healthcare environment, patients may not agree with the service provided to them. Quality of care can be considered the way medical staff treat their patients, minimizing medical errors, preventing mistakes from occurring, and more. In order to ensure attention is placed on quality, many organizations created quality circles and feedback loops.

          Quality circles consists of groups of employees performing similar tasks in their organization that meets on a weekly basis to identify and discuss improvement needs as well as provide positive feedback (Final Quality Circle, 2012). Additionally, when quality circle groups join together for a common purpose, this can be considered a feasible method to have employees collaborate and educate one another in order to optimize quality of care in a healthcare environment (Innovations, 2013). Quality circles addresses problem areas and create strategic plans in order to resolve any concerns in an organization. Furthermore, when quality circle groups combine, commonalities of care is addressed which ultimately benefits patient care.