Planning for Accreditation at MD Anderson Center
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Planning for Accreditation at MD Anderson Center
According to Burke, Rodriguez, & Walters (2013) the University of Texas Monroe Dunaway (MD) Anderson Cancer Centre got founding on an aim of eradicating cancer and providing support for the care of cancer patients, for research, and cancer prevention. MD Anderson Centre can train specialists and students and create awareness to the public on cancer related issues, with commitment to research-driven patient care to ensure delivery of appropriate care. The MD Center has exclusive commitment to services, education, research and training on cancer patient care from its conception in 1941. The Centre has been outstanding and showing exemplary performance on cancer care in the United States with its expanded programs to cover the nation at large and concentrate on the global cancer prevention and treatment.
Braithwaite, Greenfield, Hinchcliff, Moldovan, & Pawsey (2012) argue that the institution has several accreditations for its services and cancer treatment in an inclusive manner and patient focused with the support of its research and training programs. The current competition for service delivery in healthcare domain drives setting of standards for the players in the sector to ensure quality service delivery to the public. Relevant accreditation entities ensure quality delivery of services to the public by providing the facilities, and provision of services channels meets the minimal standards set by the operatives. The internal efficiencies must make sure there is compliance with the set standards by the accreditation bodies. The accreditation process requires self-assessment to ensure that the health organization meets the standards established by the certifying authority within their performance levels and capacity.
The measure of service delivery and performance of healthcare institutions identify gaps to improve continually and gauge the ability of any healthcare organization to deliver services. MD Anderson can benefit from adopting new trends in healthcare and technology to improve healthcare service delivery within its premises and commit to continual quality improvement. Accreditation for the programs and services at the Anderson Centre helps the institution gauge its service delivery levels with the international standards and ensures it serves its purpose appropriately. Accreditation is vital for every healthcare organization to demonstrate the capacity to offer services to the public that meet set standards and serve their needs.
According to Arbhiblad & Putnam (2013), the process would present MD Anderson as a credible and reputable institution that shows commitment to quality standards and continuous compliance with the highest quality standards. Accreditation ensures that service delivery meets the needs of the public and rules set by institutions and experts. Though not mandatory, accreditation is an important part of the brand and within the relevant area of a healthcare service delivery. There are different levels of certification that a healthcare organization achieves for service quality, and gaining recognition for services is an indication of commitment by an institution to quality systems of care (Alkhenizan, & Shaw, 2011). If MD Anderson does not have appropriate planning for accreditation, they can get denial accreditation that indicates that a facility has not met the accreditation requirements.
Alkhenizan, & Shaw (2011) argue that if the facility is aware of the standards of the accrediting body, incorporate them into their processes to be part of service delivery and make necessary adjustments in the planning phase, then it will indeed gain accreditation. If the healthcare organization is at balance with the ideals set by accrediting body and make appropriate plans for adjustment and quality sustainability, then it achieves certification successfully. With accreditation planning process, an organization takes to conduct internal analysis to identify gaps for upgrading setting its policies and procedure in line with the certification requirements of the accrediting agency. With proper policies, the institution can focus on continual adjustment targeting various improvements necessary for an agency to improve and maintain service quality.
One of the major sustainability aspects of quality in healthcare organization is involving employees in the accreditation planning process and disseminating information on every progress. The moment employees show commitment to changes, the institution is set to commit to quality standards and meeting them through day-to-day activities. Staffs get support through continuous training that ensures the changes are sustainable and not only set for certification but to maintain throughout the care delivery process (Arbhiblad & Putnam, 2013). MD Anderson has been an outstanding health institution with proper service delivery programs and coordinated systems to ensure consistent quality service delivery. The continued funding of projects and appropriate analysis of data to generate information in support of decision-making helps the institution to continue performing and delivering quality service.
According to Burke, Rodriguez, & Walters (2013), the institution has a well-organized management that is well coordinated to ensure commitment to quality and efficient service delivery and compliance. The outstanding performance of the organization and recognition by regulatory agencies assure that the leadership has commitment to sustaining quality of service delivery and processes of the institution. MD Anderson has self-regulation programs and continuous audit with compulsory reporting structures that support maintenance of actual performance across the organization. MD Anderson has centers in different states, and the accreditation process can be undertaken in all the centers or single center.
Planning accreditation for all units of the institution in various states can be an uphill task, and the Institute takes on individual certification due to different policies and cases at the state level. If the Society is to be accredited as a whole, then various centers have to meet the set standards and gain approval by the accrediting agency or on alternative take to authorize every single unit until that time that every unit is covered. At the time when the other groups have gained accreditation, they can reserve intermediate certification until all the units of the society gain accreditation to achieve full accreditation (Burke, Rodriguez, & Walters, 2013). MD Anderson is an institution committed to quality through service delivery, research and training and planning for accreditation may only require a few adjustments to meet the set criteria.
According to Alkhenizan, & Shaw (2011) the accreditation process of the institution, however, requires thorough review of policies, procedures, and practices to shake off conformity and adjust to the new trends set by the accreditation standards. The organization continually engage interdisciplinary and integrated approaches in its accreditation process to establish new patterns and refining old rules to set pace that will improve the quality of service delivery. The quality of norms is universal within a similar accreditation code, and all admitted agencies have to commit to similar higher standards set by the accrediting authority. The commitment is an indication that the institutions have free will of adjusting to the measures to maintain sustainable quality and improve quality delivery to service seekers.
The top leadership of the agency can take to ensure sustainability throughout the process and programs to ensure that the reaccreditation process will be less challenging and easier to achieve. If an institution is not able to maintain commitment to set standards, then it risks de-accreditation and therefore empowering the workforce to initiate the accreditation process would benefit the system. The FACT accreditation for the school raised critical concerns on quality management program, which MD Anderson committed to throughout the process as it had planned and prepared for the course in prior, documenting every step on the way.