Improvement College Essays Samples For Students

One of the fundamental concepts for high performance service in the hospitality industry is the practice of continuous improvement (King and Cichy, 2006, p. 41). Continuous improvement is a concept first applied to business by Dr. W. Edwards Deming, who was aiding in rebuilding the Japanese business structure after its defeat in World War II (Bhuiyan and Baghel, 2005). Continuous improvement, also known by the Japanese word kaizen, is a business adaption of an attitude commonly found in Japanese culture, which seeks to make sure everything runs as smoothly as possible. Continuous improvement as a business philosophy describes an ...

Abstract

Supply chain activities require proper coordination and a good network of logistics that ensure prompt acquisition of materials, good control of manufacturing processes and distribution of products to dealers or retail consumers. It is important for the management of Hyundai to adopt total quality management, quality improvement, and strategic planning among other models of leadership to ensure production of quality items that meet customers’ satisfaction. Besides, having a good sales and marketing strategy is essential for sustainability of Hyundai operations. Lean Six Sigma is a concept that can be adopted and implemented in the company as an approach to ...

PART 1

INTRODUCTION
Different organizations have different policies regarding training and development of their employees. They do so to align the employees to the organizational goals and objectives. Training and development of the employees is very expensive, hence it is the first expense which the organizations cut back during the hard times. Organizations require that they assess the appropriate need for training and development and allocate their precious resources accordingly. The professional training of the employees is of two types: on job training and off job training. Methods which are used by the organizations for training are explained below (Aguinis & Kraiger, ...

Reasons for Defining Quality Care

Quality improvement (QI) entails a systematic and consistent procedure leading to improvement of health care services and health care status for a particular patient group. Quality improvement plays an important role in health service practices. Improvement of a nation’s health care is one of the major objectives of quality improvement in health services. There are myriad of principles involved in quality improvement. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), an organization’s current system is referred to as how things are currently done in health care services. Health care performance, on the other hand, can be used to ...

Operations Management for Garden Gallery

Introduction
Working for Garden Gallery (a commercial shopping centre) for three years as a Strategic Communications Expert has allowed me the opportunity to interact with all the departments in the organization and to observe the mechanisms and the processes involved in the operations management system. Likewise, while developing the internal communication flux within departments of the organization or for various processes, I had the opportunity to observe and evaluate in – depth the operations performance measurement system used in the organization. Based on my evaluation I have identified that the operations performance measurement system (meant to generate operations performance improvement) ...

The current business environment is extremely competitive, and more focus has been put on product or service quality. Quality products or services lay down a strong foundation for any successful business. Quality benefits the organization through brand loyalty; repeat purchases and positive word of mouth. A number of studies indicate that quality results to customer satisfaction; satisfied customers positively impact on loyalty, retention and repeat purchases. The studies further point that satisfied customers always share the experience with other five or six people. On the contrary, displeased customers are more like to share the displeasure with other ten people ( ...

Value Based Purchasing – Surgical Site Infection

Abstract
Value based purchasing is fast becoming popular among the US medical service providers. As value based purchasing provides incentives for better quality delivery, it seems that in the long run, the overall quality of service will go up. The majority of this improvement will happen in the areas of preventive measures. Hospital acquired condition is something that can be significantly reduced by the implementation of the benchmark preventive measure system. Surgical site infection (SSI) is one of the major contributors to HAC, accounting for a substantial number of illnesses, hundreds of thousands of death cases, and billions of ...

Chapter 7 Classroom Process Management

What are the three elements of “process management”?
Design Control Improvement (never ending)
(inputs) (such as reduce variation)
- Design
ensuring that the inputs to the process, such as materials, technology, work methods, and people are adequate, and that the process steps are well-defined, mistake-proofed, sequenced properly, lean, and understood for consistent and effective execution.
- Control
assessing whether the process performed as planned and the process output is on target.
- Improvement
continually seeking to achieve higher levels of performance in the process, such as reduced variation, higher yields, fewer defects and errors, and so on.
- ...

Introduction

Baptist Health South Florida is a world class healthcare organization based in Florida with a team of 15,000 employees and 2,200 physicians in all specialties. The organization has a reputation for quality owing to its commitments and compassion of service and clinical excellence. (Baptist Health, 2014) In that view, continuous quality improvement is crucial to keeping and enhancing the hospital’s position. Thus, the report presents an analysis of the areas that would need quality improvement and the necessary tools for data collection as well as measuring and displaying results.

Report

- Areas of potential improvement
In view ...

Improvement in Hospital Quality through services provided by Nurses

Nursing in itself is regarded to be one of the most crucial services provided to clients as the same is directly related to health. Over the years there has been increasing demands in the improvement of quality of services rendered by nurses and medical staff due to increasing complexity of health problems.
The most important factor that is related to the health care industry is the fact that the front line staff – nurses, have the most important duty to project a favorable image of the health care service providing unit. As a result of which it becomes important to ...

Relationship between continuous improvement and (a) strategic plan (b) Business plan and (c) operational objective

Relation of strategic planning to continuous improvement
According to the National Academy of Sciences (2009), strategic planning is the process of defining an organization’s future endeavours and formulating the appropriate means of achieving them. Strategic planning involves an organization incorporating elements that are necessary for continuous improvement without which there would no improvement. The elements incorporated focus on the future of the organization. Strategic planning is therefore related to the continuous improvement of an organization.

Relation of business planning to continuous improvement

Business planning is also related to continuous improvement of an organization. In business planning decisions have to be made about the organization based ...

Implications on Managing Organizational and Personal Change for Organizational Practice

Overview
In an organization where people are striving to achieve a particular goal, there exists collision of strategies instituted by individuals towards perfecting a given task. Managers and junior employees utilize the learned expertise to perform a given task, a situation that culminates in acrimony especially if either of the individual models performs dismally below expectations. Such collisions are the hindrances to change management in the organization. Change in an organization is presumed to be inevitable especially if it emanates from the looming threats from competitors or economic demands. The senior management takes the lead to instigate appropriate changes ...

Overview of the Quality Improvement Plan

The nursing shortage puts a strain on the present nursing workforce. With unfilled nursing positions on the one hand and a high demand for services on the other, innovative staffing patterns are needed to optimally manage the existing human resource in nursing to effect the best patient outcomes. In the perioperative setting, this was accomplished by permitting nurses from one surgical speciality to float to or cover for nurses in other specialties during times of shortage. However, this proved problematic because the specialisation of nurses prevented them from matching the skills needed in the areas there were floated to.
...

Facility’s Continuous Quality Improvement program

Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Oakland has continued to provide quality health care services in the state of California and other eight states across the country. It has quality assurance policies and practices that mainly touch on three major areas; processes, structures and the expected outcomes. The objective of Continuous Quality Improvement program is to ensure that there is a systematic and intentional improvement of services that result to increased positive outcomes to the patients (Gowen, McFadden, & Settaluri, 2012). The hospital provides health care services that are focused on the patients. It has quality assurance programs in the areas of ...

Introduction

Healthcare industry is increasingly facing a dynamic environment that requires constant quality improvement and management. In that respect, this report provides an overview of the need for quality management and the roles that different stakeholders play. In addition, the roles of different organizations and resources for QI are identified.

Analysis

- Purpose of quality management in the health care industry and the reason it is needed
Quality management for healthcare offers a framework that enables hospitals to organize, monitor, communicate as well as continuously improve their healthcare aspects. In addition, it is suitable given the current national healthcare environment that ...

The classic American myth of rags-to-riches can be seen in the lives of Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass. These self-made aspects of their lives can be seen in the narratives of the stories of their lives. Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass became very successful in achieving their goals. Their lives paint a clear picture of self-made individuals who fought odds in their lives and struggled to become famous and highly revered individuals in America. Even though they were separated, by time, place and circumstances, the two writers had a similar chronology of life events in their narratives. Benjamin Franklin ...

Introduction

Definitively, personal development involves all activities that improve awareness and identity of the individual. In this regard, personal development encompasses the improvement of an individual’s talents, dreams and aspirations. Centrally, personal development results in the facilitation of human capital appreciation which then enhances employability of such a person. However, personal development is not only limited to the development of the individual since it extends from self-help to assisting others in their own development. Hence, personal development extends from the individual to the development of staff at the workplace. Just as one learns a language through teachings and practice, ...

The alarming report on patient safety crisis in the United States has brought tremendous public awareness which calls for improvement in the quality of care as well as significant changes in the U.S. healthcare system. In 2001, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) launched a program called “A New Health System for the 21st Century” which focused not only on patient safety but on bridging the gap between the right health care and the actual care that people may receive. To modify the quality of care, the Institute of Medicine set the Six Aims for Improvement which served as the ...

Quality improvement process is series of steps followed by the stakeholders of an organization say a health care providing unit. The stakeholders more specifically the workers and the management take various steps with a common goal of improving and making an assurance of quality, safety and cost efficiency of health care. The first step in the process is the development of a model for rapid cycle quality improvement. Next is the identification of the implementation team. The process also involves the lean methodology which is the execution of the challenging process in addition to identification of waste and value, ...

Question 1:

Individual approaches in social ecological health promotion programs involve focusing on individual based change for health promotion. It focuses on providing individuals with information that will help them in prevention mechanisms for diseases. It also involves instilling the belief that treatment interventions will improve the health of a sick individual (Schneider, 2011). This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of using individual approaches in the larger context of social ecological health promotion programs.
There are a number of benefits associated with individual approaches in social ecological health promotion programs. To begin with, individual approaches promote the uptake of ...

Introduction

Retinopathy is a frequent complication of diabetes mellitus especially when blood sugar is poorly controlled. The retina is the part of the eye that transforms light into signals transmitted to the brain through the optic nerve (NHS UK 2013). The brain interprets the electrical signals into images corresponding to what was seen. While sufficient blood supply is needed for the retina to function optimally, chronic hyperglycaemia causes ischemia and bleeding in the retinal microvasculature leading to the formation of new capillaries meant to sustain blood circulation in the retina (Vithian & Hurel 2010). However, the new capillaries are fragile and ...

Executive Summary

The quality improvement plan will highlight St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital an autonomous nonprofit organization that has committed to improving the quality and affordability of health care in Memphis. The paper will highlight the mission, goals and objectives of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital using different quality improvement activities mentioned. The quality improvement activities help hospital generate income for the free treatment services they offer. The QI activities include the created campaigns such as ‘Partner in Hope’ and ‘Genome Project’. The initiatives have helped save more children from cancer and increase their chances of survival.
In each ...

Health care management is considered as a vital component in clinical settings. With the growing needs and demands of patients, appropriate strategies need implementation by the health care professionals. Patients who present severe life threatening conditions appear in need of great support. Here, the ultimate goal is to promote an improved patient outcome and quality of life (QOL). This task could rely on the skill and professional expertise of caregivers especially, nurses. Nurses have great potential in caring patients. They could incorporate special patient tailored strategies to improve outcomes. This description focuses on ‘nursing interventions to promote patient outcomes’.
...

Quality and performance improvement enhances a huge satisfaction to many customers. The model of improvement is simple yet powerful equipment for accelerating improvement (meisenheimer 1997). The model has turned out to be a success and hundreds of health care in many countries have used it to improve many different health care outcome and processes (medical 2006).
The model is made up of two parts: Three fundamental queries that can be addressed in any order, the plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles that implements and tests changes in a real work setting. PDSA cycle guides the test of a change to determine whether ...

1. (PC 1.1) Why should organisations spend valuable time and resources to support workplace learning opportunities?
The heart of an organization is in its people. Even the most advanced machinery and technology cannot bring a company to reach its goals and objectives without the human machinery behind it. Smart business leaders know where to invest their resources. Money spent to develop the employees in a way that makes learning opportunities emerge is money that is spent well. In the same light, Griffith (2009, p.12) claims that time, which is a most valued resource in any organization, is wisely invested ...

1. (PC 1.1) Why should organisations spend valuable time and resources to support workplace learning opportunities?
The heart of an organization is in its people. Even the most advanced machinery and technology cannot bring a company to reach its goals and objectives without the human machinery behind it. Smart business leaders know where to invest their resources. Money spent to develop the employees in a way that makes learning opportunities emerge is money that is spent well. In the same light, Griffith (2009, p.12) claims that time, which is a most valued resource in any organization, is wisely invested ...

1. Describe the Program's Quality Improvement Model

The healthcare manager interviewed is from TRICARE a US healthcare company providing healthcare programs for active and retired personnel from the military, their families, survivors and former spouses anywhere worldwide. The program is a component of the US Military Health System, bringing together resources of the military services with a supplement of civilian doctors, hospitals, medical treatment clinics, drugstores and various suppliers of medical services. This arrangement enables the company to provide high-quality health care services within the umbrella of the military organization.

In 2010, TRICARE implemented a combination of the Six Sigma and IHI approach to quality improvement.

The Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) approach to quality improvement, also known as the Rapid Cycle Change which is based on Langley’s Model for Improvement addresses three major concerns. These are: ...

1. The five factors include:
1. Staff motivation
2. Efficiency of management towards implementing changes
3. Business culture
4. Advance up-to-date machinery
5. Flexibility of workers towards changes
2. The five barriers are:
1. Inflexibility in operation
2. Human resource problems
3. Lack of co-ordination
4. Poor communication channels
5. Untrained workers
3. Supply chain consists of all parties which are involved in moving a product or a service from producer to the customer. It includes the manufacturer, material suppliers, transporters, wholesalers, retailers etc.
4. In a loosely coupled system workers will be less dependent on their superiors and ...

The conditions within the health care industry are not static but rather change along with unpredictable shifts in the local and national demographics, economy, and regulatory measures. Health care organizations must be able to navigate an ever changing landscape to remain viable. To do this, there must be willingness to implement changes in the structure, systems, processes, or culture of the organization that would enable adaptation. An organizational analysis is a useful tool in predicting successful change and adaptation in situations of chaos and complexity (Bellot, 2011). This paper is an organizational case study of the University of Pennsylvania ...

Chart audits are methods of reviewing patients’ records for determining the process of care. Chart audits evaluate medical records to determine how the medical processes are done and evaluate whether the processes can be improved. Auditing of medical charts is an important step towards the successful operation of medical processes. Chart audits are very useful for the identification of morbidity patterns, assessing complex conditions and comorbidties in patients (Duke University Medical Center, 2012).

Chart audits are carried out for many reasons. The main reason is evaluating the quality of care to find areas of improvements. Health care practitioners who ...

Declaration
This is to certify that the dissertation entitled “Gaining Strategic Advantage through Customer Value”, presented by me to the University of South Africa for the award of the degree of Master of Business Leadership is a bona fide record of research work which was carried out by me under the supervision of Dr Sidney Shipham. The contents of this dissertation in full or in parts have never been submitted to any other Institution of higher learning for the award of ...

Introduction

Official corruption regularly, exists in every nation with long haul financial stagnation: on the premise of easygoing induction, it is obvious that the degree of authority corruption in an economy is absolutely corresponded with government administrative action, and contrarily connected with the pace of long-run monetary development and advancement. At the same time relationship does not ensure causation: corruption may be a variable adding to a nation's monetary stagnation; then again, in the vicinity of long-run financial decrease the motivator to take part in degenerate exercises may well increment, and in this manner the causation may run from financial ...

The main objective of this study is to understand, evaluate and analyze the fateful sentinel event, which struck Mr. B, who was sixty- seven years old and was taken to the Emergency Department (ED) of a sixty bed rural hospital. Mr. B complained to Nurse J of rigorous pain in his hip and left leg after he lost his balance and fell after tripping over his dog. The ED physician and nurse after thorough medical check up treated Mr. B. However, within thirteen minutes of the treatment procedure, Mr. B's health started deteriorating. He was kept on ventilator and ...

The title of the article is “Electronic Health Record: Driving Evidence-Based Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections (CAUTI) Care Practices.” The lone author is a master’s prepared nurse who participated in the implementation of the quality improvement (QI) project. The article was published in the Online Journal of Issues in Nursing (OJIN) of the American Nurses Association. The ANA states that the OJIN is a peer-reviewed and scholarly publication.
The problem addressed by the article is the incidence of CAUTI coupled with the lack of documentation of the clinical evidence that served as basis for urinary catheter insertion despite the ...

Part 1: Increase in the Medicare Patient Population

This research project aims to determine the relationship between the success of Amazon coffee in Thailand and the franchising business model used. It also aims to find out the differences of marketing composition factors and psychological factors which may affect the customer behavior patterns of Amazon coffee in PTT gas station in Bangkok as well as Suratthan. Yet further, the research project will look to highlight the benefits that entrepreneurs may stand to gain as a way of improving the marketing strategies to use. Thus the research is an all-round one focusing on the product, customers and entrepreneurs.
According ...

Introduction

QI involves team work the need for all members to understand their roles and the process that is involved hence. That includes members ranging from the board, management and the medical staff. In addition, service delivery quality is dependent on several factors including external agencies and authorities as well as internal factors such as resources and structure. In that view, this report identifies roles for all involved members and defines authority and structure for implementation of QI plan focusing on service delivery for Baptist Health South Florida.
- Members’ roles and responsibilities

Board of directors

The board has three primary responsibilities including ...

Q 1: Exactly what does ISO 14000 accomplish? Your answer should be explained within 4 sentences or less.

ANS: The ISO 1400 is a verifiable environmental management system.  It tracks and manages how companies perform relating to standards, regulations and codes. Is it Really?
ANS: The ISO 14000 accomplishes tracking and managing how companies perform according to standards and regulations. This in reality is a verifiable environmental management system.
Q2: How do performance improvement practitioners know when data is transformed into useful information?  Imagine that I'm your employer and I ask you to stipulate some criteria so all of the company's performance improvement practitioners will function in a more uniform manner.
ANS: Performance improvement practitioners know when ...

1. Current U.S. Unemployment and Low Wage Rate

Thesis Statement

In the economy of the United States, the rise in wage rate is less, but unemployment is becoming high in the labor force.

Explanation in the light of Economic Concepts and Theories

Considering the article Yellen Sees Muted Inflation as Unemployment Curbs Wages from Bloomberg Businessweek, written by Jeff Kearns, The long term unemployment is constantly dominating the economy of the United States, due to which the people are facing difficulties in order to enter the job market, and this rise in unemployment is exerting downward pressure on the wages. People have to work on the lower wages due to ...

Managerial Practices

Introduction
The healthcare industry is faced with many challenges all over the world. They include healthcare expenditure, rising demand for healthcare services, and budgetary shortfalls among others. All these challenges ultimately affect the quality of healthcare provided as well as the productivity of healthcare employees. Therefore, in order to enhance quality and productivity in the healthcare industry, these challenges need to be overcome. One sure way of overcoming them is through the improvement of management practices. What this means is that the difficult challenges that face the healthcare industry can be addressed by instilling better managerial practices in healthcare ...

David Miron is one of the executive members of McBer and Company in Boston and holds a position of Vice-President while David McClelland is the chairman and founder of the same company, but works at Harvard University as a Psychology Professor. They both authored “The Impact of Achievement Motivation Training on Small Business”. In this, Miron and McClelland (1979) argued that entrepreneurial training is essential in motivating businessmen in order to facilitate them in achieving their goals and improving their level of performance. Further, Miron and McClelland (1979) claimed, “businesses managed by the trained men grew faster by a ...