PubMed Health⌕ Search
Home/Archive/PubMed

PubMed · 7827387

The trouble with 'quality'.

M Williams
View original source ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

Much like that elusive but sought-after commodity, beauty, quality lies to a great extent in the eye and mind of its beholder. Whilst some are content with second-hand goods, others insist that only the best will do, the judgement of what is the best being a very individual phenomenon. The mechanical aspects of quality are those things which are visible or tactile: cleanliness, completeness, adequate numbers, smiling faces, quickly answered phones. All of these may be visible and present in a unit which offers a poor quality service. Behind the smiling faces, the efficiently answered phone, may lie a philosophy of total self-centredness, a value system based on clock watching and working strictly within a job description. This person may never give that important small sacrifice which puts another's needs ahead of their own.

Explore related subjects

Efficiency, OrganizationalHumansOperating Room NursingQuality Assurance, Health CareJournal Article

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

M Williams. 1994. The trouble with 'quality'.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7827387/

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related citations

PubMed2007

Consolidations and closures: an empirical analysis of exits from the hospital industry.

This paper investigates the pre-exit characteristics of hospital mergers, acquisitions, and closures. We estimate competing risk hazard models using an 18-year national data set that spans the wave of closures in the 1980s and of mergers in the 1990s. Evidence shows that weak productivity of the hospital is a strong determinant for closures while competitive pressures are more influential in the decision to consolidate. Thus, increased market power, relative to cost reductions, appears to play a larger role in the merger decision. Our results also provide insight into possible correlations between mergers and closures.

Efficiency, Organizational↗
PubMed2007

'Wet Reads' in the age of PACS: technical and workflow considerations for a preliminary report system.

Communication between clinicians, technologists, and radiologists has become more complex, with Picture Archiving and Communication Systems (PACS) now allowing the radiologist to be removed from the physical location of the patients and the site of imaging. With these changes, effective communication becomes an ongoing challenge. Efficient communication of study interpretations has also become a priority for radiologists as they struggle to maintain relevance and provide added value to patient care when clinicians have ready access to radiology images. The purpose of this paper is to share our experience in developing and implementing the Collaborative Notification System (CNS), a communication tool used to inform referring clinicians of urgent findings-a.k.a. "wet reads." The system utilizes a system of web pages integrated into PACS for the sending and receiving of succinct messages to provide clinical information at the point of need. A second system of pager alerts provides notification of the need for such communication through a relatively unintrusive, one-way, acknowledged alert system. The CNS provides asynchronous, integrated communication for the reporting of urgent and emergent radiology findings in a complex, geographically distributed medical environment.

Efficiency, Organizational↗