Accountability in Health Care

* * * * * Accountability in Health Care * Erika Denton * August 31, 2011 * HCS/475 Instructor David R. Campbell * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Accountability * Accountability in health care is important for management and legal reasons. There are different areas of accountability professional competence, legal and ethical conduct, and financial performance, adequacy of access, public health promotion, and community benefit. Accountability for professional competence is vital to the health care industry due to the significant amount of responsibility health care professionals have for other human beings lives. A health care professional must be able to accurately and effectively do the job. Accountability for legal and ethical conduct is also vital the health care industry there is a number of legal and ethical ramifications to protect patients that health care professionals must adhere to in order to protect the health care organization financially. Financial performance can rely on accountability of health care professionals providing quality care, conducting themselves ethically, and being accountable for their actions. Public health promotion and community benefit rely on health care professional’s accountability in providing accurate health care information and quality health care (Goeschel, 2011). The health care industry is also accountable for adequate access to health care since lack of access can be a life or death situation the public well being relies on accessibility of health care. * An employee’s accountability in health care can be measured by the employee understanding the organizational goal’s, the employee believes in the goals or buys in, benchmarks achieved, assessing employee feedback, and evaluating accomplishments (Iliadi, 2010). The employee’s accountability can be measured by how the employee takes ownership of their position and

References: * Goeschel, C. (2011). Defining and assigning accountability for quality care and patient safety. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 2(1), 28-35. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. * Iliadi, P. (2010). Accountability and collaborative care: How interprofessional education promotes them. Health Science Journal, 4(3), 129-135. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. * Setty, K. (2010). What you didn 't learn in medical school. Appropriate checks and balances will protect you, your employees, and your patients from financial loss. Medical Economics, 87(24), 74. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. * Studer, Q. (2011). Employee Ownership, Organizational Excellence. Health Care Registration: The Newsletter for Health Care Registration Professionals, 20(7), 7-8. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. *