Quality Improvement in Health Care

Paper Summary:

This paper provides an overview of the Veteran's Affairs (VA) rehabilitation services structure and ties in the concepts of efficacy, effectiveness and efficiency to the way the service is run. It also portrays a balanced scorecard for the rehabilitation services and concludes by offering concepts that senior management could utilize to improve the overall quality through its implementation.

Table of Contents:
Introduction
Overview of the Rehabilitation Services offered by the VA
Efficiency, Effectiveness and Efficacy
A Balanced Scorecard of the VA's Rehabilitation Services

From the Paper:

"Finally, the available research indicates that the VA rehabilitation services system contributes well overall in providing services and managing health care resources. This rehabilitation structure appears to spread itself over the areas where other rehabilitation health care services are lacking, thus enhancing the quality of care and services provided. As long as the balanced scorecard is correctly implemented in such health care services as the VA, the stabilizing influence of a national safety net such as the VA rehabilitation services sector becomes more successful. As improvements in health care become more necessary and evident, the VA will continue to improve the standards of health care for all veterans. Future analysis of the VA rehabilitation sector in comparison to other health care systems will assist in evaluating the quality of care offered by the VA."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Department of Veterans Affairs. (2001, February). Parkinson 's disease: VA Benefits and Programs. Office of Public Affairs Media Relations, p. 1.
• Hurley, A. C., Volicer, B. J., Hanrahan, P. A., Houde, S., & Volicer, L. (1992). Assessment of discomfort in advanced Alzheimer patients. Research in Nursing & Health, 15, 369-377.
• Lee, J. "Factors Influencing Nurses' Assessment and Management of Depression Among Acutely Ill Hospitalized Elders." Office of Undergraduate Research. 2001. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 22 Jan. 2006 < http://www.unc.edu/depts/our/2001abstracts/lee.html >.
• Mitchell, S.L., Kiely, D.K., Kiel, D.P., & Lipsitz, L.A. (1996). The epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and natural history of older nursing home residents with a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. J Am Geriatr Soc 44, 394-9.
• Orange, J. B., Van Gennep, K. M., Miller, L., & Johnson, A. M. (1998). Resolution of communication breakdown in dementia of the Alzheimer's type: A longitudinal study. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 26, 120-138.

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