...Recieved - "A" Quality of care has always been a concern in the U.S. health care system. Although great strides have been made to improve the quality of care delivered, many critics still believe that the United States has a long way to go before truly delivering uniform quality care. How would you define quality of care from the provider and patient perspectives? Why do you feel that quality can be viewed as a strength and a weakness of the U.S. health care system? Be sure to provide at least 2 reasons for this, and use properly cited references in your answer. Quality of care is basically when the right care is conducted at the right time, at a reasonable time to a specific person. Defining quality of care is much more difficult to identify from a patient’s perspective than that of a provider. Patients can sometimes be very hard to please in some cases. Depending on their cultural background and/or religion can define what quality of care are them but we are not going in that deep. What are going to be discussed are the basic perspectives of quality of care to patients and providers are and also the strengths and weaknesses are when it comes to quality of care. From a patient’s perspective, quality of care that is deemed suitable to a patient would be the experience of their appointment. There are many factors that are included within their experience. During their time with their physician, quality of care that is proficient...
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...Running head: QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PLAN PART II Quality Improvement Plan Part II Cheryl Wright University of Phoenix HCS 588 Cynthia Hughes July 16, 2012 Quality Improvement Plan Part II Quality improvement is a hospitals process to advance the quality of care and outcomes for patients using an explicit set of philosophies and procedures (Walker, 2012). This paper attempts to describe some of the areas of potential advances for quality improvement at Washington County Regional Medical Center (WCRMC) nursing unit. One principle of quality improvement is measurement, which is the collection of data to improve patient care. Using these measurements and tools can help leaders understand the direction of quality in the organization. Areas of Potential Improvement for the Organization. The areas of consideration for improvement at WCRMC are emergency room wait times and discharge instructions. Both of these improvement areas have financial and influence for the health care organization. Emergency room wait times can reduce the market share and financial stability of the health care organization. Discharge instruction if given appropriately by the nursing staff can reduce the readmission rate for WCRMC, along with financial gain and improve the satisfaction of the patient experience. These are just of couple of measures WCRMC can use to align the mission of the organization and the commitment of improving performance. There are several models and tools...
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...Important Attributes Of Quality Health Care: Consumer Perspectives - Brief Article IMPORTANT ATTRIBUTES OF QUALITY HEALTH CARE: CONSUMER PERSPECTIVES M H Oermann, T Templine Journal of Nursing Scholarship Vol 32 no 2 (1998) 167-172 Personnel at contemporary health care agencies are identifying patient outcomes to evaluate services and patient care. This research focuses on consumer perspectives of high quality health care. Consumer perspectives or expectations have been found to be based on demographic characteristics, health care experiences, and specific concerns related to consumers' unique health problems. Further, patients evaluate their experiences by comparing their expectations to actual events. Satisfaction occurs when events match expectations. The purpose of this research was to allow consumers to identify important attributes of quality health and nursing care and to examine the relationship of consumer perspectives to health status and selected demographic variables. Method and sample. This exploratory study examined a convenience sample of 239 health care consumers, of which 50% were recruited from homes in neighborhoods of a large metropolitan area (ie, urban and suburban) in the Midwest, and 50% were recruited from waiting rooms of clinics in the same neighborhoods. These participants included 149 women (63.1%) and 87 men (36.9%). These gender totals equal 236, whereas previously stated the sample size was 239. This discrepancy was not addressed in the article...
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...Running Head: CUTURALLY COMPETENT CARE Introduction Globalization has changed the way we live. The population demographic of United States is changing at a fast pace as every year people from different cultural and ethnic background are immigrating to the United States. By 2020, the number of ethnic minority in the United States will grow up to 35%. Immigration is an ongoing process and has brought a variety of culture and knowledge to the United States. The diversity of population is affecting the healthcare delivery system in the country. Nurses play a major role in the delivery of healthcare. Nurses are the direct caregivers to patients and spend maximum time with the patients and their family. “As the demographic composition of Western industrialized countries continues to diversify, the need for nurses to practice with cultural competence becomes essential” (Canales & Barbara, 2001, p. 103). Culturally Competent care Culturally competent care values diversity and respect individual differences regardless of one’s own race, beliefs, and cultural background. Culture can be defined as beliefs, values, customs and lifeway of a group of people that influence their choices in choosing health care practices. These behaviors are primarily learned in the family and are transmitted in the family. Culture is mostly unconscious and has strong influence on health practices. Subcultures, ethnic groups differ from the dominant culture and may have...
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...Grade Recieved - "A" Identify a nonprofit health care organization and a for-profit health care organization of your choosing. Answer the following: Summarize the types of services provided, clientele served, and provider groups involved. Compare and contrast the strengths and weaknesses of each organization from patient, provider, administrator, and third-party payer perspectives. Provide at least 2 suggestions for each organization to minimize the identified weaknesses. Summarize which organization you would rather be part of, using rationale. Abstract There are many differences that for-profit and not-for-profit organizations have between one another. Research has been conducted on one not-for-profit organization (VA hospital) in a for-profit organization (Baptist Medical Center) and the strengths and weaknesses from a provider’s and patient’s perspective in which organization would be a better choice to be part of. Not-for-profit hospitals are recognized for their charitable intentions. Not-for-profit hospitals have a habit of being larger and also have a tendency to be training hospitals. The earnings that not-for-profit hospitals receive are reinvested to enhance the quality care that is offered at these hospitals. Their earnings are also invested into community programs, which in turn can provide little to no fee to those individuals who are considered to be low income families and also maybe uninsured for the services of these programs. The purpose...
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...Measuring Quality Quality monitoring is becoming an accepted method for purchasers, patients, and providers to evaluate the value of health care expenditures. Important advances in the science of quality measurement have occurred over the past decade, but many challenges remain to be addressed so that quality monitoring may realize its potential as counter force to the demands of cost containment. The structure of the U.S. Health care system is changing rapidly, primarily in response to concerns about the increased costs of health services. Many of these changes create disruptions in the way health care professionals are allowed to provide care and the way in which patients may seek care. Although these disruptions may inconvenience clinicians and patients in the short run, ultimately we want to know the longer-term effect of these new strategies on the health of the population. Quality assessment offers one method for evaluating the impact of changes in the organization and financing of health services on health. If there were a precise relationship between price and quality, we would only need to know how to translate premium prices and other charges into quality units. However, because there is no such direct relationship, a separate set of quality measures is essential (Soumerai, Avorn, Ross-Degnan, & Gortmaker, 1987). Expanding the information available on quality requires the development of valid measurement tools and routine access to the right data. The Institute...
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...Health care provider and faith diversity Diana Nguyen Grand Canyon University HLT-310V Spirituality in Health Care Andre Mooney May 11, 2013 Health care provider and faith diversity Abstract: Spiritual healing is defined as the practice of laying on of hand or of distant healing ((Brown, 1998, p. 171). Spiritual healing is a term known to many. However, it means different things and affects different ways to different people depending on their religion backgrounds and beliefs. Within three diverse faiths that are less well-known than the mainstream faith such as Shintoism, Buddhism, and Baha'i, the author will compare the philosophy of providing care from the perspective of each of these three faiths with that of the Christian perspective and the author own personal perspective. Shintoism Shintoism is the religious beliefs and practices of Japan. According to Shouler, Shinto is an optimistic faith in believing that all humans are fundamentally good and evil is caused by evil spirits. It is a form of animism and involves the worship of kami which mean “sacred spirit”. Shinto is created by combining two works: “Shin” means God or spirit and “to” means way or path. Shinto beliefs are in the mysterious creating and harmonizing power of kami and in the truthful way of kami. The kami began as the mysterious forces of nature associated primarily with permanent features in the landscape, such as unusual mountains, rocky cliffs, caves, springs, trees and stones("Shinto...
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...ideas, thoughts, feelings, etc., to someone else” (Merriam-Webster, 2013). Without effective forms of communication, considerable missteps and mistakes can occur. This rings true for communication in relation to the health care industry. Proper communication in the health care industry only helps to advance the quality of health care as a whole. One of the most important aspects of communication lies in the ability for each individual to be able to listen. This is the fundamental base that allows for positive or negative information and opinions to be relayed to the respective personnel and in turn improves their understanding of the situation. Enhancing communication strategies within any health care setting helps to aid the patient and provider relationship. There are some basic elements of communication that need to be considered by an individual working in the health care realm in order to have the greatest effective communication possible in most situations. At its most elementary level, five elements of communication are recognized and they are as follows: the sender, the message, the channel, the receiver, and last, the feedback. These rudimentary elements help to achieve the prime amount of communication between the patient and the provider. It is all dependent upon the individuals themselves to provide the elements necessary. This process of communication is also relatable to interdependence on one another. Athena duPre, author of Communicating about...
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...Value-Based Purchasing to Address Failing Markets University of South Florida The healthcare industry, specifically the patients receiving care, have been subjected to a service based industry where they must pay increasing costs for services and customer service has essentially taken a back seat. The implementation of Value-Based Purchasing (VBP), as outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), has now addressed this concern. The move from a prospective payment industry to a value based industry is to benefit the patient while holding providers accountable for usage of procedures and tests, and providing increasingly higher quality of care to their patients. Due to the high volume and high expenditures specifically in hospitals, there is a new type of approach being taken when it comes to patient care in acute care settings. The prospective payment system (PPS) was established in the 1980’s in conjunction with Medicare’s Diagnostic Related Groups (DRG) system. This was established due to the rising costs of to the social security administration (Mayes, 2006). During this time hospitals were placed under pressure to accept the new payment system and structure due to an exponential rise in Medicare expenditures. To give perspective on the growth of expenditures to Medicare enrollees, in 1972 Medicare had approximately 21 million enrollees and expenditures approximated $7 billion dollars. In 1982, Medicare enrollees amounted to 30 million and expenditures...
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...components include access, cost, and quality. Access to healthcare is the ability to obtain healthcare services in a timely manner when one needs it. Cost refers to many things in healthcare. It depends upon the individual, national, or provider’s perspective of costs. Quality is the desired healthcare outcomes of an individual or the healthcare outcomes of the population. Access to mental health services is a major issue in the United States. Children are greatly affected by this and often fall through the cracks in the system. Less than half of all children receive the mental health services they need. The Affordable Care Act initiated by President Obama is setting strides to improve the availability of mental health services within communities. This law requires that all health insurance providers cover mental health services. Congress has also increased funding to improve access of child mental health services. Improvements with access include, but are not limited to, integrating primary care physicians with mental health providers and the expansion of child mental health services. These improvements will educate primary care physicians on the available mental health services in their surrounding communities, allowing them to refer their patients as needed while providing a continuum of care. The expansion of child mental health services will decrease the time it takes for a patient to be seen and the travel time required for a patient to get to the facility. The...
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...mental illness who seek treatment solely through a primary care physician raises question for concern. Many healthcare facilities and organizations are working on a plan to integrate diverse professions into one comprehensive medical model home to optimize effective patient-centered care outcomes. The goal is to reduce costs, expand the healthcare teams knowledge base while improving patient outcomes. How can the core competency of teamwork and collaboration impact the healthcare delivery system? How can we treat older adults that are more likely to seek and accept psychological services in primary care verses specialty mental health care settings? What are the challenges healthcare providers are facing that impede collaboration? There are many obstacles to face and barriers to cross before health care providers can work together more efficiently to achieve a higher level of teamwork and collaboration. Teamwork & Collaboration in Health Care Teamwork and collaboration among health care providers allows each profession to function competently within their own scope of practice as part of the interdisciplinary team to collaborate on shared goals, respect different views, communicate measureable processes for a positive effective outcome, and expand our knowledge base while providing patient-centered care. The IOM stated that: “An inter-disciplinary /inter-professional team is composed of members from different professions and occupations with varied and specialized...
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... HCS/490 Health Care Consumer-Trends and Marketing 5/6/13 Yvette Thompson Electronic medical records are digital records of a patient’s medical information. This is helpful because if the patient has to go to another physician for some reason then his or her medical information can easily be transferred over without any issues. EMRs help to decrease the amount of paperwork that a patient has to deal with when visiting a physician’s office. It also helps the patient because it is a secure way to protect the private medical information that he or she discloses to the health care providers. EMRs are just as useful for the health care providers. Health care providers do not have to worry with paperwork as well. Easily transferable and easy to get to helps make the job of health care providers much easier. It has always been the duty of the physician to keep their patients’ confidences. Basically what this means is that the physician does not have the right to release any medical information given by the patient or discovered by a physician in connection with the treatment of a patient (“Patient Confidentiality”, 2013). In general, AMA’s Code of Medical Ethics states that the information disclosed to a physician during the course of the patient-physician relationship is confidential to the utmost degree, (“Patient Confidentiality”, 2013). A physician’s ethical duty to maintain patient confidentiality serves a purpose which allows patients to feel free to make...
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...University Organizational Leadership and Interprofesional Team Development Patient Family Centered Care Organization Practice Setting Currently I have the privilege to work for the largest Not-for-Profit healthcare system in Texas. Memorial Hermann Health System is more than a hospital system, we are designed to be a healthcare delivery model, incorporating affiliated physicians with care delivery hospitals, effortlessly working together with one goal in mind, the goal of advancing health. By setting our focus on evidence based medicine, the constant pursuit of healthcare quality, and patient safety, Memorial Hermann Health System has been recognized as a national and regional leader in quality healthcare. As an integrated healthcare system, Memorial Hermann has surrounded the city of Houston with 12 acute care hospitals, three heart and vascular hospitals, a neuroscience institute, two sports medicine institute locations, a chemical dependency treatment center, a home health agency, a retirement community, a nursing home, several surgical, and cancer centers. Working in conjunction with our physician network Memorial Hermann also offers local employers with health solutions and health benefits through its wholly owned insurance company. (Memorial Hermann Houston Hospital, Institutes & Centers, n.d.) Within this vary large framework of a healthcare system, I work within one of our acute care hospitals, Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital, located in the Houston suburb of...
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...Introduction Palliative care (PC) provides a better comprehensive health care for patients with cancer and their families. Supportive care, pain management and symptom control at the end of life are valuable and common services provided by the PC team (World Health Organization [WHO], 2002). However, there are many challenges and barriers for PC in developing countries such as: health care and public literacy about PC, opioid phobia, policies and regulations to access and prescribe opioid, limited resources and adequate education and training (Bingley & Clark, 2009). The presence of these problems plays a major role in providing suitable and accessible symptom management for many oncology patients. In Saudi Arabia, between 2007 and 2011,...
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...Health care quality is essential when it comes to providing care. Health care quality is defined as "the degree to which health services for individuals or populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and consistent with current professional knowledge" (McConnell, 2012 p. 26). However, a patient's perspective about the quality of care is vital. A patient's view about the quality of care includes a clear understanding of their treatment, relief of symptoms, access to health care, the appropriate treatment, exceptional communication, responsiveness and empathy, how to improve their health status, and the prevention of medical injury. These are important factors that may help reduce medical errors and improve quality. According to studies, when it comes to safety and risk of medical errors, "the U.S. indicates a significant level of awareness of safety issues among the general population" (Vincent & Coulter, 2002)....
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