California was the first state to implement a fix nurse to patient ratio. They have found that it can reduce unsafe workloads. They also had the hospitals maintain an acuity classification guide. Keep records of staffing levels and determine competency and proper orientation to nurses before assigning them to patients. The one thing they did realize is that it was extremely expensive to implement because of the expense of having to hire more Registered Nurses.
As companies have tried to tighten the budgets, benefits have fallen victim. Employees who once paid little for medical care are now paying more out of pocket. It is likely that this shift has required medical providers to rely on payments from patients who may have trouble paying their share. Until recently, employers did not focus on medical insurance programs that required those covered under the plan to take any type of accountability for their health. Therefore, employers need to establish wellness programs that promote prevention instead of merely giving insurance that covers illness and disease.
But, now by increasing productivity of the staff to reduce the expense, there is no time for staff to develop a good relationship with patients. So, rather than investigating about any psychological reasons for the disease, a problem-focused physical treatment is providing for the patients. Most importantly, technology is playing a vital role in reducing the patient- health provider interactions. "Telehealth" provides most of the information about the patient. But, there is some improvement in patient care like bedside manner and psychologist's new integrated treatment method.
Another way managed care organizations control costs is by eliminating expensive doctors from their provider list. Expensive doctors are usually noticed because he/she order many more x-rays, CAT scans and laboratory procedures than normal. By using a computer managed care organization can tell how many of these costly procedures each doctor has ordered and how many patients he/she has treated. Doing away with providers who over-use these facilities saves money two ways, getting them off the list first and by making the remaining providers more aware of the problem. Some managed care organizations operate their own clinics, with staff doctors paid salary instead of fee-for-service.
Alot of studies into health inequalities rely on morality, death, and morbidity, illness, data. The results are usually presented in rates as this is less crude and it creates a more meaningful study. Poorer areas will only have small corner shops as large supermarkets won't build in areas that won't be able to afford the upkeep of the shop. This will mean there are more little corner shops with higher prices just because the shopkeepers know that they can charge higher as the community prefer not to travel to get their weekly shopping. The conditions people live in contribute to the health of a person.
There wasn’t any evidence of less staff equaling more patient falls, even when nursing hours were increased, there were still falls. The main reason for additional falls could have been increased patient load during “sick” season and patient being confused due to being medicated. Bed alarms need to be used and staff need to round more frequently. Recommendation of gathering different forms of data so that the root cause of the falls can be determined. The actions developed to improve VAP seemed to have been a major factor in reducing VAP during FY09.
The pay-for-performance in health care is a major change for this nation and has never been under taken before but the improved healthcare policies of the pay-for-performance will lower the cost of healthcare for the United States government. This program has advantages and disadvantages but those in research, advocates for healthcare, and the healthcare community can determine which program that works best. The pay-for-performance affects the healthcare providers and the patients for two main reasons. First, the providers receiving pay-for-performance effects the reimbursement but more important, for the patients the quality and efficiency in healthcare services must not suffer because of cost
I think it is sad to live in the greatest country in the world and not everyone has access to free or even affordable health care. Some people have insurance; some have government help and some work hard but can't afford insurance. When kids are sick, parents should be able to bring them to the doctor and get medicine. When elderly people need medicines, they shouldn't have to go without them because they are too expensive. I think that if we didn't have so many lawsuits in our country, doctors wouldn't have to charge so much and more people could go to the doctor when they need it.
Analytical Essay: “Healing the Hospital Hierarchy” On the day of March 16, 2013, Theresa Brown’s newspaper article entitled “Healing the Hospital Hierarchy” was published in the New York Times online newspaper. This article mostly focuses patients who do not get the procedures and treatments required because some medical professionals are more concerned about their ranking. In the article, it is explained how physicians are ranked higher and nurses are below them, even though nurses spend more time with the patients than doctors, and yet their opinion is overlooked, either because the doctor doesn’t care or the nurse is afraid to speak up. Physicians only come in for a small amount of time and because they are ranked higher than the nurses,
Amber Henson ENC 1101-1 27 Nov. 2010 How the Healthcare Reform Will Effect Physical Therapy For many people today, the cost of health care for a serious injury is so expensive that people cannot afford to pay the costs from an average income, while health care in general has risen faster than overall inflation. In today’s society, many people obtain health benefits through the workplace. People over the age of sixty-five have government programs which help out with the coverage of medical expenses. Medicare and Medicaid are not being offered in many states to help pay for the cost of physical therapy since it is not a big demand unless it is a serious injury. The new health reform bill will affect physical therapy in many negative