**A+ Work! Use this paper as a guide to help you get a great grade!

BHM320 - Management of Health Programs

Module 5 - Case

Quality Management and Accountability

The Case Assignment:

Please read the following article:

A physical examination of health care's readiness for a total quality management program: A case study by Weeks, Helms, and Ettkin. Once you have finished the article, read the following case: Quality Improvement Program Intervention. Click here

Using the information you gleaned from both articles, please discuss the following issues:

1. Provide a brief overview of the quality improvement process. Be sure to give examples and to specifically discuss what quality improvement teams are.

2. The article you read indicated that there needs to be an agreement and understanding between employees and managers for successful quality programs. Discuss this aspect of the case study (e.g. did this occur, what understanding do you think each group had, etc).

3. What steps did the manager take to implement the improvement process? What steps did he do correctly? Which ones did not work?

4. What recommendation do you think Joe made? Do you agree?

5. If you were the manager of this unit, what would you have done differently to implement the process and why?

Expectations

Assignment Expectations:

1. Be sure to conduct additional research to gather sufficient information to familiarize yourself with the facts of the case and be sure to justify/support your position.

2. Limit your responses to a maximum of three pages.

3. Please support your discussions with scholarly support (3-5 references). Be sure to properly cite all references.

4. Apply critical thinking skills the the assignment component.

5. I will grade your paper on your ability to address the assignment criteria listed above with depth and breadth of discussion. I will also critique your writing format (i.e. proper reference citations, spacing, etc.).

Your case paper will be further evaluated based on the following criteria:

Precision (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•Each question and or assignment requirement is addressed in the paper

•Accuracy of your answers, key points and supporting discussion

Clarity (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•The paper is well organized, concise, reads clearly, and it is not confusing.

Breadth (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•The paper presents appropriate breadth covering the assignment questions/requirements

Depth (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•Presents key points that lead to deeper matters and issues

•Integrates several points into coherent conclusions

Critical Thinking (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•The paper demonstrates good understanding and synthesis of the module background material

•Logically incorporates key concepts presented in the background material into the overall analyses, key points and supporting discussions

•Presents well-reasoned conclusions and position as well as convincing arguments in support of the same

Writing Mechanics

•Grammar (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•Spelling (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•Vocabulary (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

•Referencing (Excellent; Good; Average; Poor)

Additional considerations to keep in mind while working on your case assignments:

Originality and Use of directly quoted material

•The purpose of each assignment is for you to present your understanding and synthesis of the background material and key concepts. Accordingly, this must be accomplished substantially in your own words.

•Use directly quoted material sparingly and only when preserving the exact words of an author is necessary. For purposes of this course, rarely should directly quoted material represent more than 5-10 percent of your entire case paper’s content. Composing a paper patched together from mostly quoted material is not acceptable.

•Be sure to properly reference all directly quoted material and include the in-text citations. All paraphrased information also requires reference citations at the end of the paraphrased section.

Grades

•A paper that answers all assignments questions and supports the same with good key points, well supported discussions and quality references will earn a solid “B” grade.

•Please remember that “A” papers are exceptional works that go beyond just answering the questions and provide insightful answers.