The Quadruple Aim provides broad categories of goals to pursue to maintain and improve healthcare. Within each goal are many issues that, if addressed successfully, may have a positive impact on outcomes. For example, healthcare leaders are being tasked to shift from an emphasis on disease management often provided in an acute care setting to health promotion and disease prevention delivered in primary care settings. Efforts in this area can have significant positive impacts by reducing the need for primary healthcare and by reducing the stress on the healthcare system.
Changes in the industry only serve to stress what has always been true; namely, that the healthcare field has always faced significant challenges, and that goals to improve healthcare will always involve multiple stakeholders. This should not seem surprising given the circumstances. Indeed, when a growing population needs care, there are factors involved such as the demands of providing that care and the rising costs associated with healthcare. Generally, it is not surprising that the field of healthcare is an industry facing multifaceted issues that evolve over time.
In this module’s Discussion, you reviewed some healthcare issues/stressors and selected one for further review. For this Assignment, you will consider in more detail the healthcare issue/stressor you selected. You will also review research that addresses the issue/stressor and write a white paper to your organization’s leadership that addresses the issue/stressor you selected.
To Prepare:
- Review the national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the Resources and reflect on the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected for study.
- Reflect on the feedback you received from your colleagues on your Discussion post for the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected.
- Identify and review two additional scholarly resources (not included in the Resources for this module) that focus on change strategies implemented by healthcare organizations to address your selected national healthcare issue/stressor.
The Assignment (2-3 Pages):
Analysis of a Pertinent Healthcare Issue
Develop a 2 to 3 page paper, written to your organization’s leadership team, addressing your selected national healthcare issue/stressor and how it is impacting your work setting. Be sure to address the following:
- Describe the national healthcare issue/stressor you selected and its impact on your organization. Use organizational data to quantify the impact (if necessary, seek assistance from leadership or appropriate stakeholders in your organization).
- Provide a brief summary of the two articles you reviewed from outside resources on the national healthcare issue/stressor. Explain how the healthcare issue/stressor is being addressed in other organizations.
- Summarize the strategies used to address the organizational impact of national healthcare issues/stressors presented in the scholarly resources you selected. Explain how they may impact your organization both positively and negatively. Be specific and provide examples.
Here is the original national healthcare concern I presented during my first response to complete this response:
The national healthcare concern I selected for analysis is the rising cost of healthcare. Healthcare costs are rising at an alarming pace, putting serious financial strain on individuals and healthcare systems. Rapid increases in healthcare expenditure can significantly impact key economic indicators such as per capita GDP, employment, and inflation. (Martin et al., 2021). In my work setting, the rising cost of healthcare is impacting the number of resources available to provide quality care. This has reduced the number of staff, equipment, and other resources required to provide quality care. Furthermore, rising healthcare costs have increased the amount of paperwork and administrative duties that teams must complete, reducing the time that can be devoted to delivering quality care.
My health system work setting has implemented cost-cutting measures in response to rising healthcare costs. They have, for example, revised our electronic medical record system to reduce paperwork and streamline administrative processes. Electronic medical data enhance service quality, patient outcomes, and safety through better management and decreased medication errors ( Awol et al.,2020). They have also adopted a population health management system that uses data to understand their patient population’s needs better and target high-cost areas. Finally, they have adopted a bundled payment system, encouraging providers to concentrate on quality care while lowering costs.
The response to rising healthcare costs has positively affected care costs, quality of care, and patient outcomes. The cost-cutting measures put in place have helped to reduce both the total cost of care and the administrative load on staff. The population health management system allows staff to better understand their patient population’s needs and target high-cost areas (Mendoza, 2020). Bundled payments incentivize providers to concentrate on quality care while lowering expenses. Finally, the overall response to rising healthcare costs has resulted in better patient outcomes, with patients getting higher-quality care at a lower expense.
To summarize, rising healthcare costs are a significant issue in the healthcare industry. Our health system has responded by implementing several changes to help reduce costs while maintaining quality care, such as implementing an electronic medical record system to reduce paperwork and streamline administrative processes and a bundled payment system, incentivizing providers to focus on quality care while reducing costs.
References
Martin, A. B., Hartman, M., Lassman, D., Catlin, A., & National Health Expenditure Accounts Team. (2021). National Health Care Spending in 2019: Steady Growth for the Fourth Consecutive Year: Study Examines National Health Care Spending for 2019. Health Affairs, 40(1), 14–24.
Mendoza, R. L. (2020). Cost-shifting and cost-cutting as joint and mutually reinforcing strategies in the financial management of hospitals and similar healthcare organizations. Journal of Health Care Finance.
Awol, S. M., Birhanu, A. Y., Mekonnen, Z. A., Gashu, K. D., Shiferaw, A. M., Endehabtu, B. F., … & Tilahun, B. (2020). Health professionals’ readiness and associated factors to implement electronic medical record systems in four selected primary hospitals in Ethiopia. Advances in medical education and practice, 147-154.