According to World Health Organization requires medical facilities to offer quality, reliable, and affordable medical services; to attain the above requirement, medical facilities need to continually advance their quality management approach. This paper discusses future trends in medical quality management.
The world is facing fast development in technology, medical facilities are adopting the technology fast to enhance their efficiency. In the future it is expected that electronic and technological medical components will continue to be adopted in the medical field. The areas that the advanced technology equipment will address include improvement of portability and miniaturization, safety, data security, quality, connectivity, and reliability.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) system is another system that medical facilities are expected to adopt. The system is expected to improve monitoring of medical services offered by rural medical facilities; such a policy will improve provision of quality across the board. Laser surgery is advancing fast; in the future it is expected that there will be surgery using the internet. According to the expected advancement doctors/physicians/experts in a certain area will be able to operate patients who are not physically at their disposal. They will be able to operate patients in medical facilities in other countries. When such technology comes into play the cost of medication will be reduced but quality enhanced (Wolf, Bradle & Nelson, 2005).
World increasing literate population is another area that the medial field will address; medical facilities will in the future involve home caregivers and communities to care for their patients. When using this trend, the facilities will be training home caretakers on how to manage their patients. The method is likely to reduce admission of patients thus reducing medical costs and improve quality.
Communication among medical experts in different countries is crucial for the improvement of medical care services; in the future it is expected that there will be mechanisms to communicate among them. The experts will adopt information sharing among them using systems like health information-management system (HIMS).
The concept of “doctor without borders” is expected to move a notch higher in the future. Certification of medical practitioners will be centralized that a professional can work in different countries without the need to register with the countries regulating body. When such policies are adopted, there will be more access to medical services.
In the future, traditional medicine is expected to be integrated in modern medical services industry; when integrated physicians will work with traditional doctors to improve their delivery. Rural areas, especially in developing countries have continued to use traditional medication; however the quality and dosage used in the areas fail to meet international quality standards (Kraemer, 2003).
Leadership in the medical care services is expected to adopt new strategic management approaches to reduce medical errors and improve patients’ safety. In contemporary management systems is focusing on improvement of processes efficiency, reliability, and is enhancing quality measurement initiatives using policies like total quality management (T.Q.M.) and value addition method. Although most of these policies had been adopted in profit making organizations (businesses) they are likely to be adopted in the medical industry as they will improve processes quality and efficiency.
Although research has been used in the medical field, the quality improvement strategy is likely to continually be used to seek solutions to future medical issues. With globalization and guidance of international organizations like World Health Organization (WHO) research will be conducted in more than one country to improve its results (Tan, 2010).
References
Kraemer, H. (2003). Keeping it Simple, Health Forum Journal, 46(3), 16-20.
Tan, J. (2010) Adaptive Health Management Information Systems. New York: Wisely.
Wolf, G., Bradle, J. & Nelson, G. (2005). Bridging the Strategic Leadership Gap: A Model Program for Transformational Change, Journal of Nursing Administration, (35) 2, 54-60.