Standardization as a Procedural Issue in Healthcare

Introduction

It is important to note that standardization is a major operational and procedural issue in healthcare. Two different doctors treating two patients with a similar condition can use divergent approaches. It is highly difficult to standardize work in medicine because a healthcare service delivery process depends on professional background, organizational and national policies, individual patients, and availability of resources.

Discussion

Although two patients can have almost identical ailments, there is still a vast diversity among people on a personal level. The differences can arise from the factors such as age, gender, cultural background, religion, medical history, other conditions, or prescribed medications. In addition, a doctor might have divergent education, training, or professional experience. The organization might have only a specific set of resources available for their patients, where some treatment options are inaccessible whiles others can be delivered. Lastly, the state or federal policies might allow a sufficient level of variety to treat an illness, which is skewed by an organization’s internal policies when providing an intervention.

However, the lack of standardization is detrimental because it disrupts operational and procedural workflow efficiency. Allowing all forms of approaches for the same ailment might result in some doctors choosing an ineffective method instead of a better alternative. Some level of miscommunication might take place within the context of interprofessional collaboration as well.

Conclusion

The key benefit of standardization is that powerful plans and strategies can be planned around it (Kenney, 2010). In addition, operational and procedural processes can be made more efficient since there is a clearer expectation of the number of resources, time, and professional attention needed for a particular ailment. Thus, healthcare organizations should seek to standardize the workflow as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Reference

Kenney, C. (2010). Transforming health care. CRC Press.