What is quality? Let's begin by thinking about a particularly outstanding experience that you've had as a customer in any situation. It doesn't matter where or how long ago that experience took place. As you're thinking about that experience, reflect on the positive emotions that ensued as a result. Were you happy or relieved? Did you feel good or even great about the experience? Did you feel trust in the individual or company that provided the service? For all of us, the quality of products and services really matter when we receive great, excellent, or outstanding products and services. The result is a great, excellent, or outstanding experience. We're happy, we're delighted. At the same time, we're very frustrated or disappointed when we receive experienced poor products and services. Let's consider what the word quality means. The word quality refers to how good something is compared to other things of a similar kind. It also means the degree of excellence of something. For example, the features of a product like a car can be used to determine quality. The more luxurious features such as leather seats or a moon roof could mean higher quality and also higher prices. Quality also means free from defects inefficiencies. A protective finish could contribute to a higher quality product. When something is manufactured to exacting specifications and standards, or a program is certified to conform to strict guidelines and regulations then that product or program may be labeled as quality. Descriptors of good quality include words like superb, superior, unsurpassed, merit, select, and exceptional. Descriptors of poor quality, on the other hand, include words like inferior, substandard, unsatisfactory, and poor. Take a moment to reflect on your or family members' experience as a patient. What happened when you experienced good quality care? What happened when you experienced poor quality care? This is an excellent opportunity to record your thoughts and your digital or paper notepad. Let's listen to these patients recount their healthcare experiences and their providers discuss their approaches to health care delivery. What do you hear that speaks to the concept of receiving and delivering good quality health care. As themes emerge, add them to your notepad. Initially, I contacted Ms. Bowers because her Care Manager had noted that she needed assistance with transportation and there was also a note in the task that she was waiting to hear back from a prescription assistance program. They called up they wanted to know, did I need anything? Was there anything did I needed to get better. In the course of our conversation, I asked, '' you are back from your prescription assistance program about your insulin?'' She had and had been denied and she mentioned that she hadn't purchased any insulin for herself in over a year. She had been using samples from her physician and family members were giving her their leftover insulin. That's what I'd have to use because I couldn't get any, I couldn't afford it. My heart dropped when she told me that. Hearing from someone, I haven't filled this medication and over here and it's a medication that they need to be healthy. That's not something I can just let go off. She actually helped me get insulin for the first time. That's why I call her my little pebble because she gets to hold us up, she don't let go, she is not plain, she's not going to just do what she thinks I wanted to do. She is going to do it the way is supposed to be done. She is going to do it right. Then I'll make sure I get what I need. [ LAUGHTER ]. She tells everybody that I'm her pebble because she's like, you're not going to stop, you're not going to give up and you're going to keep calling and you're going to make sure that this really works out. [ LAUGHTER ]. I've never been called a pebble before [LAUGHTER ]. Definitely, she saved my life. I would not be here today. I don't think at all if it wasn't for her, helping me get my insulin and helping me, listening to me when nobody else would listen to me. That's a pretty rare thing in this age where people actually care about somebody else. This was incredible. I really feel like we helped Ms. Bowers. I really feel like she can help herself now and we continue to work. It hasn't really ended. I don't think that a perfect experience is something that's just done then you move on. I think that it's just the beginning. I think that it really is something that keeps going. Good thing, they manage around for me , they keep me going. Which is great. [ LAUGHTER ] I could never thank them enough for what they've done for me, especially my little pebble. Thanks honey. I was asking some questions to Humana, about somebody working with situations that I was going through with and Nikkia stepped in. I was a given a task, a social service task by Ms. Powell's Care Manager. Initially the goal was to assist her with getting compression stockings. I reached out to her just to talk about what she needed. Give her some resources and let her know how that process will work. As long as [inaudible] we got that. I can get that [inaudible]. I can look into their [inaudible] , please do because I need it. I'm going to call, I'm going to research, I'm going to dig up all the resources that I can't. I'm going to connect you with those things. It's really my mission just to make life a little bit easier. She is a concerned person and looks like she can just enter in your body. Can understand the situation more so than you think she would. She takes it in everything you and work with it. Being a health partner for life looks like someone who's calling and genuinely is concerned about you. It encompasses different areas of our lives, it doesn't just mean physical health, and maybe mental, and maybe spiritual. I'm going to assess the complete person. If you tell me that there's something else going on and I'm going to assist you with that. I really do appreciate that because I've never really had an insurance company or people to step in and surround me and let me to know that they are there for me. It's timely. Sometimes things happen and you have to normalize that because a lot of times when people are in situations they feel that it's only them. Nobody understands what they're going through. Nobody's been there, nobody's there, it's just them. I was feeling a type way that nobody cared, nobody love me, nobody showed love, unlike they were supposed to show toward me but she stepped right in, she filled it. To have the helping hand and have someone there that can guide them, that gives me so much joy to be able to do that because I'm making their life a little bit easier and referenced as something that is so meaningful. We just didn't know that it was somebody that stepped into my life and was concerned and that was right there for me. I would like Ms. Powell to know that we're here for her, that I'm here for her. Really, she is a sweetie. I love her. I'm actually currently working with her nails and other things but it's definitely been a relationship that has progressed and I like to think that it's been a perfect experience for her. It has been really a perfect experience. What were some of the positive, good quality health care patient experiences you recorded? Does your list reflect the following? Patients are treated with dignity and respect. Patients trust and feel comfortable and confident in their provider. Patients see their providers as part of their healthcare team. Patients develop long-term relationships with their providers. There's a patient-centered personal approach to medicine. If you have prior experience with specific quality of healthcare outcomes, your list might also have included quality care is getting the right care, treatment, and support when you need it at the right time. Quality care is coordinated, cost-effective, and doesn't add to health care waste and decreases redundancies. Keep your list of examples in the front of your mind and close in your heart as you build essential knowledge related to quality measures and outcomes in health care. Everyone impacts quality. Everyone has a role in advancing positive outcomes.
