The Importance Of Accountability In Healthcare

The Role of Accountability in Health and Social Care Practices

Accountability is an important issue in all sphere of business; but in case of health care, accountability plays very important role. Accountability refers to processes which are followed by an organization or an individual while justifying or taking responsibility for some work. Accountability is a fundamental part of health and social care practice. To demonstrate various legal and ethical issues in health and social care settings, accountability must be taken as a key component. Accountability enhances efficacy of service within a standard healthcare framework and it acts as an important factor which maintains safety. Healthcare authorities are bound to abide by various rules and regulations so that any form of mismanagement or accident can be averted. Management in a healthcare set up try to follow different laws made by government and other ethical issues which are essential to maintain accountability in the healthcare organization. The importance of being accountable is generally higher in a health care organization as any minor deviation from the standard operation procedures may lead to bigger issues. Therefore persons who are working in a healthcare setup always need be very careful and cautious regarding their work.

In a healthcare organization there are specific pattern of accountability. Employees must abide by specific ethical value and they must follow rules and regulation of the organization properly. Responsibility of the heal care giver or workers are high within the care settings as they are directly responsible for the welfare of patients. Any form of negligence from the side of health care professionals may give rise to larger issue. Everyone associate with the care of a patient must be equally accountable while serving their respective responsibility. Often it is seen, negligence plays a crucial role in major accidents or scandal within a healthcare setting. For example a nurse must be attentive enough to support or assist the patients all time. It is seen that nurses are getting engaged in banter among themselves and patients are not attended properly. Such behavior from a healthcare giver may create larger issues. Every profession has certain code of conducts(Hobolt,  and Tilley, 2014). Professionals In a healthcare set up also have to follow different code of ethics. The main aim of the healthcare professions are to work for the welfare of patients. Providing quality service to the patients is the highest responsibility of the healthcare providers. They have to follow all written rules in exact form so that any form of accident can be averted. People in a healthcare set up must follow a particular patter of accountability. The concept of accountability has three main components; the first among them is the loci of accountability. There are almost 11 different parties in a health care setup that can be held accountable or they can hold others accountable(Dekker, 2016). The second is domain of accountability; there are total number of six domains such as professional competence, legal and ethical conduct, and financial performance, adequacy of access, public health promotion, and community benefit(Cheng  et al. 2015). The third is proper coordination and dissemination of information to all accountable parties. All these areas must work in tandem to form a integrated structure which will result in best service to the patients.

Specific Patterns of Accountability in a Healthcare Organization

There are different areas in which health care workers must show their accountability while performing duties. It is important to be responsible enough for oneself to perform the assigned task without errors. As mentioned above, any form of deviation from basic rules or any form of errors may lead to bigger issues. Therefore every individual must perform their task following the rule book of the organization. If an individual is assigned with the responsibility to observe the condition of a particular patient, that employee must be there beside the patient throughout the duty hour. In case of any urgency that employee must inform the doctor who is treating the patient(Edward  et al. 2015). If the employee needs to go out of the roof for some work, he or she must inform any other colleague to be there with the patient. This is the best example of self accountability within a healthcare setup. Employees are mostly accountable for maintaining high ethical value such as providing best possible service to the patients and also following the laws related to healthcare practices.  

Patients and other public also must follow the rules and this is how they can become accountable. As health care organizations are noise free area, it is the responsibility of the public or patients to talk in lower voice. Also outsiders must not enter with their shoes as it may increase the chance of various infections. Also family members should not bring food from outside while entering the hospital. Chances of infection are higher when visitors enter hospital especially sensitive areas like ICU with shoes and without changing their clothes(Pham  et al.i 2016). These are major area of concern for the hospital authority as they try to resist public from doing these. Patients must be cooperative enough and they should also follow the basic rules and regulation of the hospital. Many patients are very adamant and they don’t cooperate with the nurse or doctors. Such behavior shows lack of accountability from the part of patients. Such behavior may prolong their stay at the hospital and chances of recovery also get reduced. Therefore patients and normal public must understand their responsibility well and they have to behave accordingly.

Employers are also part of the whole set up. They must go extra miles to ensure that all rules and regulations are being followed properly. Rules and regulation of each department must be there in written form hanging on the board so that employees don’t face any doubt. Monitoring is the best way to ensure all rules are being followed properly. Supervisors must be held accountable in case of failure to ensure basic rules. The accountability of the employers is to implement the laws set by government or regulatory body. Appointment of pharmacovigilance professionals is a good idea to monitor and analyze any form of mistakes from the side of health care providers. In such cases required action can be taken so that repetition of the incidents can be stopped in future(Das  et al. 2015) . Employers of the healthcare organization are largely responsible for maintain proper laws and enforcing them. Also they have to make sure that high ethical practices are being observed within the concerned health care setup. They must take initiatives to prevent records of their employees and patients as well. This is another major ethical concern. Data protection law must be followed and proper arrangement has to be in place to protect data of the activities of the healthcare organization.  Also they must communicate with the employees so that all relevant information is reached to the employees in due time. Communication helps in creating better understanding among the employees which leads to better productivity. In a health acre set up sharing information on issue like health related progress of the patients, introduction of new rules and regulation must be communicated well with all stakeholders (Holla  et al.  2015). This is how employer or management of a particular healthcare organization can become accountable.

Different Areas in Which Healthcare Workers Must Show Accountability

Professional regulators are generally government bodies and other regularity authority. They are responsible for making proper rules and laws to control the functioning of these healthcare organizations. It is important to make laws which are relevant and implementable. Laws must be scientific and those must be able to prevent all health related hazards. Also it is their responsibility to check whether the laws are being properly implemented or not. In case of failure, they must take action against the organization who failed to implement those laws or rules. In many cases it is found that regulatory authorizes don’t visit the hospitals or other healthcare organization on regular basis(Mitchell  et al.  2014). Such carelessness from their part may lead to major suffering of the patients. Therefore it is important to continue with proper vigilance mechanism.  All these are responsibility or accountability of the professional regulators of healthcare industry.

In a healthcare set up, they have to deal with many patients on daily basis. Therefore it becomes literally impossible to have information of all patients without proper record keeping procedures. Previously it was done manually and the manual process had many issues. Chances of errors were high in the manual process. With the advancement of technology all record keeping is done electronically(Byrkje?ot and Vrangbæk, 2016). This process is safe and chances of error are less. Patients are asked to fill their details or their family members do that according to the circumstances. All data related to patients are stored in computers and this information can be stored as many days as required. The importance of keeping the data is huge. But the most important thing is to keep the data in accurate form. Even after installment of computers, there are instances of manual data entry errors are found everywhere. If there is any wrong information saved regarding the health condition or medication of a particular patient, it may lead to more complication in future. Wrong information about heath condition may lead to wrong treatment and it may result in death of the patient as well. Also patient would not respond to wrong treatment and it will increase the patient’s stay at the hospital. Also medication error or prescribing error may lead to wrong treatment of the patients (Miller, 2014). Such incidents must be avoided and utmost care must be taken while inputting the record or data of the patients. Such errors may attract litigation and at the same time it will impact reputation of the organization negatively. Also data protection is a major responsibility of the healthcare organization. The data of patients’ health is a private information and it should not be shared with any third party. In case of failure to keep the data private, litigations may be initiated against the organization.

Conclusion:

Accountability is an important issue in a healthcare organization. Every organization in heath care sector must be accountable or responsible enough to work for the betterment of society and its people. All stakeholders such as employees, employers, patients, public and regulatory authorities have their particular duty and their accountability lies on performing their duties properly. In case of mistake or errors, they may face deadly consequences as the sector is working with sick people and their health. Therefore accountability plays such a crucial role in the every genre of healthcare sector.  

References

Byrkje?ot, H. and Vrangbæk, K., 2016. Dimensions of accountability in healthcare. In The Routledge Handbook to Accountability and Welfare State Reforms in Europe (pp. 119-132). Routledge.

Cheng, J.S., Tsai, W.C., Lin, C.L., Chen, L., Lang, H.C., Hsieh, H.M., Shin, S.J., Chen, T., Huang, C.T. and Hsu, C.C., 2015. Trend and factors associated with healthcare use and costs in type 2 diabetes mellitus: a decade experience of a universal health insurance program. Medical care, 53(2), pp.116-124.

Das, J., Holla, A., Mohpal, A. and Muralidharan, K., 2015. Quality and accountability in healthcare delivery: audit evidence from primary care providers in India.

Dekker, S., 2016. Just culture: Balancing safety and accountability. CRC Press.

Edward, A., Osei-Bonsu, K., Branchini, C., shah Yarghal, T., Arwal, S.H. and Naeem, A.J., 2015. Enhancing governance and health system accountability for people centered healthcare: an exploratory study of community scorecards in Afghanistan. BMC health services research, 15(1), p.299.

Hobolt, S.B. and Tilley, J., 2014. Blaming europe?: Responsibility without accountability in the European Union. Oxford University Press.

Holla, A., Das, J., Mohpal, A. and Muralidharan, K., 2015. Quality and Accountability in Healthcare Delivery: Audit Evidence from Primary Care Providers in India (No. id: 7219).

Miller, H.D., 2014. Measuring and assigning accountability for healthcare spending. Center for Healthcare Quality & Payment Reform. Retrieved from https://www. google. co. in.

Mitchell, J.I., Nicklin, W. and Macdonald, B., 2014. The accreditation Canada program: a complementary tool to promote accountability in Canadian healthcare. Healthcare Policy, 10(SP), p.150.

Pham, P.N., Vinck, P., Grace, R., Fricke, A. and VanRooyen, M., 2016. Strategic Documentation of Violence against Healthcare: Towards a Methodology for Accountability. World health & population, 16(4), pp.31-37.