Healthcare quality In Australia

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1.0  Introduction

            Healthcare refers to the improvement or maintenance of health through various ways such as treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of diseases by the help of health professionals (Agarwal et al., 2010). In principle, healthcare incorporates the work done in the provision of tertiary, secondary and primary care complemented by public health.  Hence, access to healthcare is unique across countries due to the influence of socio-economic conditions as well as the implemented healthcare policies. Additionally, the healthcare sector is unique about lean thinking unlike the manufacturing sector it is limited and focused primarily on the traditional fundamentals using the original tools provided by lean thinking. For that reason, the Australian government has subjected the Australian healthcare sector to various reforms characterized by the adoption of management practices imported from the cooperate world. As such, according to Collyer et al. (2015), the main reason behind the shift and the introduction of reforms is that the Australian healthcare sector is characterized by decreasing quality complemented by high costs of healthcare.

            As a result, the introduction of competition as well as management practices by the Australian government to the Australian healthcare sector aimed at evolving the healthcare system from supply-driven to demand-driven. Besides, it is significant to acknowledge that after the reform process the Australian healthcare is unique as depicted by the patients' larger freedom of choice regarding the variety of healthcare providers (Collyer et al., 2015; Agarwal et al., 2010). To further add on that, Baer (2008) asserts that patients in Australia play the most important role of critical healthcare consumers as opposed to passive healthcare receivers; subsequently, this proves to be a crucial hinge in the healthcare system that guarantees affordable quality healthcare. Hence, this paper-based essay is focused on explaining how the various management practices imported from the corporate world have been utilized in the Australian healthcare sector so that to emphasize on performance management, transparency, enhanced levels of accountability as well as protected consumer choices.

2.0  Healthcare quality management practices

Quality Insurance (QI)

            Patrick (2011) explains that QI refers to the process that maintains the quality of healthcare by consistently measuring and monitoring the suitability and effectiveness of the organizations providing healthcare services through accreditation of health plans (Patrick, 2011). And so, in Australia, much effort has been focused towards the realization of healthcare quality as an essential function of the healthcare systems through the improvement of technical sophistication of healthcare facilities as well as the complexity affecting the healthcare systems. Baer (2008) maintains that in the Australian context QI in the healthcare services is regarded as an all-important platform that guarantees accountability and responsibility as shown by policymakers as well as health professionals in both the private and public sectors. Increasingly, quality provision of healthcare services has been regarded as the consequences of proper medical education and goodwill about all the stakeholders involved.

            As far as, Australia is concerned the initiation of a system-wide focus on healthcare quality has been brought about by various factors; most conspicuously the...