QUALITY, SAFETY AND COST CONSIDERATIONS1 4900: Assessment 2: Assessing the Problem: Quality, Safety and Cost Considerations Name Institution Affiliation Professor Course Number Date
QUALITY, SAFETY AND COST CONSIDERATIONS1 4900: Assessment 2: Assessing the Problem: Quality, Safety and Cost Considerations Name Institution Affiliation Professor Course Number Date
QUALITY, SAFETY AND COST CONSIDERATIONS2 Introduction Individuals with diabetes usually live with an incurable illness that demands not only drug therapy or blood glucose control but also a healthy lifestyle that requires behavioral and cultural changes. Such a situation may significantly impact the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individuals. This assessment examines how diabetes affects the quality of care, patient safety, and costs. It also analyzes how policy can impact diabetes’ effects on care quality, patient safety, and costs. Lastly, the paper describes strategies to enhance the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individuals. Impacts of the Patient Problem Impacts Care Quality, Patient Safety, and Costs As mentioned in the introduction, diabetes treatment and management requires drug therapy, glycemic level control, and lifestyle change, which can significantly impact the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the healthcare system and individuals. Before looking at how diabetes affects the quality of care, it is essential to understand this concept. According to Bombard et al. (2018), quality of care is the degree to which healthcare services enhance the likelihood of desired health outcomes. It is often characterized by safety, effectiveness, timeliness, patient-centered, efficiency, and quality. Diabetes can affect these quality aspects in various ways. Firstly, diabetes treatment often requires the use of various medications that can have adverse side effects on individuals, thus impacting the quality of care adversely. For instance, studies have associated insulin, which is the primary medication for diabetes, with adverse side effects, such as blindness and difficulty breathing (Soylar et al., 2020). According to the Diabetes Research Institute (n.d.), diabetes is the leading cause of blindness cases among adults aged 18-64 years. Data in 2019 indicated that about 11.8% of adults 18 years and above diagnosed with diabetes reported blindness or severe visual difficulty. Notably, a medication that results in other complications is unsafe and hinders the attainmen
