From Health Care with Love

"CLINICAL GOVERNANCE, PATIENT SAFETY, AND EQUALITY IN HEALTH CARE"

Patients are the consumers which have their own rights; be it on medications, treatments, safety, and so on. In this post, I'll share my understandings based on the notes I made on how much the Health System is set up in rolling the red carpet for the patients:)

Quoting from Prof. dr. Laksono Trisnantoro when he conducted our practical session about SYSTEM THINKING, "Every complex things have system which followed by subsystems that strengthening it". For Health System, Clinical Governance is one system which works by maintaining and improving the quality of patient care. One of the best examples for its implementation is the national quality standards in delivering care: clinical guidelines based on evidence.

Clinical Governance to which I can simplified is a vehicle that takes us from a problem to solution:

Problem -----> Clinical Governance -----> Solution

The strategies employed to achieve quality and excellence, are those of teamwork, leadership, ownership and communication. All key skills to utilize when attempting to bring about changes to health care and more particularly in shared care services.

There are 4 main pillars in Clinical Governance based on the lecture given by Prof. dr. Adi Utarini: Consumer value, Clinical risk management, and Professional Development and Management, and Clinical Performance and Evaluation. Some other sources I found give out 7 main pillars, and even 11, but as to go through those, the fundamental pillars are actually the same.

Clinical performance and evaluations help to reach the target through Clinical Indicators which measure those, such as AHRQ, WHO-PATH, or ACHS.

Aim of Clinical Indicator:

2 types of clinical indicators:

 

Sounds too wide, isn't it? But well, indicators come in level, hence narrowing the aspect of management, therefore, more effective initiatives :)

  

All health care providers, both institutional and individual, must make every effort to ensure that every person who seeks their medical care is offered competent, sincere, and equal treatment options.

With all these, the aims are managed to be reached or at least, very close :)

• Ensuring appropriate access and high quality
•  Provide the best care for all patients
•  Protect patients from unexpected risk 

As the aims are reached, it directly or indirectly protects and leads to patient's equality. Patient's equality is fact that all the people have the right to receive health services. You can read my post about WHO declaration (Health for all by the year 2000) in the topic og GLOBAL HEALTH SYSTEM, discussing about patient's equality in global aspect:) As you can see in Indonesia for example, in every level of the country- district --> provincial --> national;  there are health system facilities, care, and regulations being provided thoroughly.

All of all, when clinical Governance works, it allows us to make the service changes or improvements that we want to see happen. It's not only improving the quality of care for the patients, but also provides a better experience for us. This in fact, supports the equality of utilization, distributing according to need, equality of access, and equality of health which by far, enables the strong EQUITY IN HEALTH CARE:)

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References:

• "Quality Framework, Clinical Governance, and Patient Safety": Lecture by Prof. dr. Adi Utarini, M. Sc., MPH., Ph.D
•  Substance Misuse Management in General Practice (SMMGP): Clinical Governance 
• Engaging the Elements of Clinical Governance