Types of Quality Assurance Programs in a Medical Clinic

In medical clinics, quality assurance programs are now more important than ever, because these programs help to ensure that every patient receives the highest level of care and is able to access medical service quickly and efficiently. Besides being able to access services when patients need them the most, QA programs also help to ensure that medical services will remain cost effective when patients need to access those services the most.

• Program Structure– Every medical clinic QA program is designed to be systematic and objective in all monitoring of the quality of care that is performed.


• Medical Director's Role – In the healthcare industry, most quality assurance programs or quality control programs are overseen by the medical director of that organization or facility. It’s the medical director’s job to develop new QA initiatives or deliverables that include objectives that doctors and nurses will be able to meet.


• Head of Quality Assurance– Once the medical director puts new programs or initiatives into place, it’s the head of QA’s responsibility to see that those initiatives are met and that compliance process is followed.


• Performance Standards– When a doctor's or nurse's level of care is evaluated, his or her level of performance is also reviewed as well. The doctor or nurse is given a positive or negative rating if he or she was able to meet established quality “benchmarks” or not.


• Auditing– Everything is audited in a medical clinic, including all documentation to ensure that compliance standards are followed in the documentation process. A typical audit involves grading what is being audited with a scoring or percentage system.


• Room for Improvement- Not every medical professional is graded with a positive evaluation and when this happens those individuals are given “special projects” that they will undertake for the purpose of being audited again and improving their quality score.