Standardization is concerned with ensuring there is consistency and regularity in processes and that they conform to set policies. In medicine, this involves medical services that conform to pre-identified standards. For example, standardized medical services may require that all patients suffering from a similar disease receive the same care, including prescriptions.

So far, standardization has not been achieved in medicine due to factors such as the need to personalize healthcare. Standardization ignores individual differences between patients which may be as a result of personal and environmental factors. Moreover, according to Wears (2016), standard treatments provide large benefits to a small number of patients who cannot be identified in advance thus exposing the rest of the patients to unnecessary costs and potential side effects of the treatment. Also, standardization threatens patient autonomy in healthcare institutions as care services in response to a specific illness have already been decided. This means the patient has little say in their treatment affecting the quality of care and patient satisfaction. 

Despite the barriers, standardization of healthcare offers several benefits to healthcare including better documentation of healthcare processes since similar procedures are performed for similar diagnosis. Also, healthcare institutions enjoy labor savings and reduced waste since standardization makes it easier to predict the number and type of resources needed. This means there is no loss resulting from unused resources. Further, hospitals also enjoy improved efficiency and safety in healthcare. This is because standardization promotes the development of routines during which professionals’ accumulated knowledge is exploited making the processes both safe and reliable (Kaufamann, 2022). Moreover, new professionals within institutions save on time that would be spent acquiring knowledge to underpin procedures allowing the institutions to find solutions to complex issues. On the other hand, a lack of standardization deprived healthcare settings of these benefits leading to wastage of time and resources, delays in delivering healthcare, and costly services to patients.

References

Kaufamann, K. (2022, May 31). Standardizing Healthcare Terms: Challenges, Benefits, and Future. Retrieved from Perficient: https://blogs.perficient.com/2022/05/31/standardizing-healthcare-terms-challenges-benefits-future/#:~:text=The%20challenge%20behind%20standardization%20is,board%20that%20satisfy%20everyone’s%20needs.

Wears, R. L. (2016). Standardization and Its Discontents. Cognition, Technology & Work, 17(1), 89-94. doi:10.1007/s10111-014-0299-6