ATD Talent Development and Training in Healthcare Handbook

CHAPTER 24

CLINICAL QUALITY

BEN LOCWIN

Everybody expects to receive “quality” clinical care when the time comes. But what does clinical quality really mean? And do we receive quality clinical care when we’re patients? It’s easy to say the word quality, but more difficult to get a standard answer—even from those who work in clinical care—as to what “quality” actually means.

I would argue that clinical quality is “doing the right things when nobody’s looking.” But too often clinical quality is nonexistent or goes unmeasured, and medical errors contribute to a large proportion of cases of morbidity and mortality in patients under clinical care. Quality goes beyond maintaining proper compliant documentation—it’s more about how to prevent issues. ...