The Business Case for Quality

Decision making in today's health care organizations requires a continuous balancing act, often involving tradeoffs to meet various clinical and business needs. For decisions related to quality, it is especially important to be able to provide a sound rationale for the choices that are made.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Bring to mind a specific quality or safety challenge that might be encountered in a health care organization (choose a type of organization that is of particular interest to you).

• Review the information presented in the Learning Resources, including the "Making the Business Case for Quality Management" section on pages 128-141 in Medical Quality Management.

• Consider how and why you would suggest an organization address this challenge. Examine the following considerations, as well as others that would inform your response:

• What are the driving forces or most compelling reasons for addressing this challenge?
• How might financial constraints impact this situation?
• What other resources might be limited within the organization? How could these resource constraints influence this situation?
• What role might pay-for-performance play?
• How could the short- and long-term financial outcomes of this situation be assessed? How would the return on investment be determined?
• Who are the key stakeholders that would need to be included or considered in this decision?
• What are the expected benefits? What unanticipated consequences might occur?

Note: You may find it helpful to preview the Application Assignment and use this Discussion to inform your focus for that assignment.

Post a response to the following:

Identify the quality or safety challenge you are addressing in the first line of your posting. Briefly describe the quality or safety challenge. Explain how and why you would suggest an organization address this challenge. Present a succinct analysis of three or more business considerations that inform your response.