Essay on Measuring Department Performance

In healthcare, measurement of department performance is crucial because it is what monitors the progress of any department and the actual performance results of the organization. It is therefore paramount for any organization to ensure that it incorporates appropriate measures that will work in line with its intended goals. For the respiratory care department, the concept of adjusting for severity of illness is important because it ensures that all patients are taken care of regardless of their level of illness (Gold, 2011).

Adjusting for severity of illness is a topic that interests me (Kleinbaum, 2017). In this case, the severity for of illness is the extent of an organ system or in other words, the physiologic decompensation for the patient. The severity of illness gives a well medical classification into extreme, major, moderate and minor. The severity of illness is meant to provide a basis that can be used to evaluate the use of hospital resources and to establish guidelines for patient care. Patients will always have a varying degree of illness and this means that patients that are sicker will demand more time and resources to be treated than the patients that are less sick.

Adjusting for severity of illness hold importances to the respiratory care department. This is mostly in creating a respiratory health care that works closely with all the patients that suffer from respiratory diseases under both breathing and cardiac disorders. First, according to the level of severity of the illness, the respiratory receive training that is advanced for instance in the area of the advanced medical equipment in order to help patients manage their conditions. The disease severity does not form the treating elements in the respiratory care department. However, according to the level of severity of any type of respiratory disease, they create room for improvement for instance in terms of coming up with clinical decisions and on the other hand, in identifying cases that will have the unexpected outcomes (In Kacmarek, In Stoller, In Heuer, In Chatburn, & In Kallet, 2017). Adjusting to the severity scales is much important as well in the respiratory care department because it helps in quality of care comparisons and for the stratification of the clinical trials.

Proper application of the adjustment of the severity of illness help in the proper decision making in the respiratory care department. This is in terms of making right decisions at the right time. For instance, according to the level of illness, the respiratory care department is at a high burden of providing care for the patient. Decisions on how to ensure that a patient is provided with both safety and quality care are paramount. The decisions that are to be made with this reference, must be to the satisfaction of the patient and this must be made in accordance with the severity of illness.

In respiratory healthcare, adjusting for severity of illness is as well important because it forms part of recommendations in the entire department. Such is in terms of the recommendations that will ensure that there is the outstrip of the already overburdened resources in the department. The recommendations will perpetuate achievement of high-quality care for patients with respiratory disease. For instance, if the respiratory care department is being faced with severe cases of patients suffering from breathing problems, it becomes possible to come up with possible recommendations to the entire hospital of purchasing modern equipments to cater for the increasing numbers of patients.

References

Gold, R. S. (2011). Documentation strategies to support severity of illness: Ensure an accurate professional profile. Danvers, MA: HCPro.

In Kacmarek, R. M., In Stoller, J. K., In Heuer, A. J., In Chatburn, R. L., & In Kallet, R. H. (2017). Egan's fundamentals of respiratory care.

Kleinbaum, D. D. (2017). Measuring Department Performance. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/user/Downloads/chapter%204(1).pdf