DQ4 2 What are common ways to measure benefits and quality of information technology in healthcare I think the most sensible way to measure the quality of IT systems in health care would be to go straight to the individuals who use the system and ask their thoughts and opinions That s exactly what restaurants and retail stores do when trying to judge the quality of their service so why not do the same for IT systems While restaurants go to the people they serve when measuring the quality of IT systems you should go to the individuals who use the systems the physicians nurses techs pharmacists etc These are the people who can tell you if the system causes problems in the delivery of care or if it enhances the delivery by assisting the HCP in his or her job If there are problems with the system that are not benefiting the goals of the organization then the people who use the system will be the ones to know exactly what happens and when the errors occur I think a lot of the time we get focused on the instructional way of measuring quality like going by the book and performing tests surveys etc Why waste time doing these things that people don t take seriously half of the time and just go straight to the source for information I think if that were the method for measuring benefits and quality of IT systems in health care many organizations would find it much cheaper and quicker to fix the problems if there are any Response 2 A central goal of health care quality improvement is to maintain what is good about the existing health care system while focusing on the areas that need improvement Improving the quality of care and reducing medical errors are priority areas for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality AHRQ There are Americans who do receive the high quality health care that helps to maintain or restore their health and the ability to function but then again there are some who do not AHRQ is working to develop and test measures of quality identify the best ways to collect compare and communicate data on quality and widely disseminate information about the most effective strategies for improving the quality of care There are also quality problems that are reflected in a wide variation in the use of health care services underuse of some services overuse of other services and misuse of services including an unacceptable level of errors