September Dinner Meeting – Quality Assurance in Healthcare, And Why It Matters to You

Presented by Dr. Marianne Raimondo

We have all been patients at one time or another…. Seeing our primary care physician for an annual wellness check, visiting an emergency room, moving a loved one into a nursing home or assisted living facility.  Do you ever wonder why you have long waits?  Do you ever question the competency of the clinician treating you? Do you ever worry about a possible negative outcome or complication? Do you hope and pray your loved one is treated with compassion and respect?

Is assuring Quality in healthcare any different from assuring quality in manufacturing or any other industry? How do healthcare organizations assure and improve the quality of care they provide?  This presentation will address these tough questions and track the evolution of quality assurance in healthcare. The continued challenges of healthcare quality improvement including; the low tolerance for error when dealing with human life, the balancing act of standardization when treating individual patient needs, and the difficulty of predicting outcomes recognizing unique patient conditions will be explored. The slow adoption of industrial quality frameworks in healthcare will be discussed. The current state of quality improvement approaches in healthcare will be looked at through examples of quality initiatives in various healthcare settings.

Dr. Marianne Raimondo is the Dean for the School of Business and the Director of the Health Care Administration program at Rhode Island College. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in healthcare management and policy.  She also serves as the Executive Director for the Institute for Education in Healthcare at RIC, which develops and delivers educational programs to health care organizations, behavioral health organizations and social service providers. She has been a leader in designing career ladders and apprenticeship programs to support the advancement and development of the healthcare workforce.