NR 506 Week 5: Drivers of High Performance Healthcare Systems SOLUTION
Drivers of High Performance Healthcare Systems No unread replies. No replies. Select two drivers (for example quality, cost, and access) of high performance healthcare systems and apply it to your current work situation. The application could demonstrate t
Drivers of High-Performance Healthcare Systems
A high-performance healthcare system is defined in the dimensions of quality, cost, access, equity, patient experience, and patient safety. In a high-performance healthcare system, the overarching goal of ensuring that every individual lives as long, healthy, and productive lives as possible is met (Ahluwalia et al., 2017). Besides, patients get the proper care documented to be effective for treatment, prevention, or palliation, and overuse, underuse, and misuse are absent. In these healthcare systems, patients receive coordinated care over time, with an advanced primary care practice responsible and accountable for every patient’s care. Furthermore, the care provided in high-performance healthcare systems is safe and from organizations particularly trained to minimize errors (Ahluwalia et al., 2017). Healthcare is patient-centered and provided promptly with service excellence. In addition, the systems provide patient care that is the highest value for the finances spent and is delivered efficiently. The care is also affordable from the patient’s and payer’s perspective.
Quality is a crucial driver of a high-performance healthcare system because it significantly determines patient outcomes. Quality in healthcare is a broad term that includes many aspects of patient care. Quality health care is safe, patient-centered, effective, timely, efficient, and equitable (Busse, Panteli & Quentin, 2019). Healthcare systems need to improve the quality and the value of the care provided in order to enhance patient outcomes. Ensuring high quality of patient care has greatly influenced high performance in my healthcare organization.
I currently work in a medical-surgical unit, where we take care of adult patients diagnosed with various medical and surgical conditions. High quality of patient care is promoted by using evidence-based practice (EBP) to guide patient care interventions. The use of EBP ensures that medical and nursing interventions are of high quality and based on best practice to promote the best possible patient outcomes. Quality is also promoted through effective chronic care management since a majority of elderly patients in the unit have chronic illnesses. The organization has formulated chronic disease guidelines that guide health providers in delivering quality chronic care. High-quality chronic care has been attributed to reduced hospital stays, readmission rates, morbidity, and mortality rates among patients with chronic illnesses.
The organization’s health care quality initiatives seek to improve patient safety through action plans that focus on preventing adverse drug events and healthcare-associated infections. For instance, the organization has instituted
technologies, such as computerized physician order entry, barcode medication administration, and automated dispensing, to reduce medication errors. The organization has also strived to maintain safe nurse staffing ratios to promote quality nursing care, improve patient safety, and prevent cases of missed care caused by short staffing. Besides, nurses and other health professionals are provided free training on promoting quality care and preventing hospital-acquired infections such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Furthermore, high-quality care is promoted through care coordination across sites of care, particularly when patients are transitioning from the hospital to other settings. Care coordination ensures that patients are provided with appropriate and high-quality care to reduce readmission and morbidity rates.
The cost of healthcare in our organization is generally high, and it has been rising tremendously over the years. The high cost of patient care is a major concern and is associated with disease prevalence and incidence, health services price and intensity, the rising cost of pharmaceutical drugs, advanced healthcare technology, increased health service utilization, and population aging. Approximately 50% of the increase in healthcare spending in our organizations comes from increased healthcare costs, especially inpatient hospital care for elderly patients.
The increased prevalence of chronic illnesses is responsible for the greatest increase in spending and drastic rise in patient care costs. Health conditions associated with the greatest increase in costs in the medical-surgical unit include diabetes, hypertension, low-back and neck pain, high cholesterol, urinary infections, osteoarthritis, bloodstream infection, and falls. Furthermore, ambulatory care, including outpatient hospital services and emergency room care, contributes to increased healthcare costs in the organization.
The organization and health providers can address the concern by putting a greater emphasis on primary care. This can help lower the costs of care, improve healthcare by increasing access to more appropriate services, and reduce the inequities in the population’s health (Busse et al., 2019). The organization can also tackle the issue of cost by enhancing disease management and primary care case management and expanding the use of information technology (Busse et al., 2019). Besides, it can recommend using evidence-based guidelines to determine whether a test or procedure is necessary and have all payers, including Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurers, adopt common payment methods and rates.
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References
Ahluwalia, S. C., Damberg, C. L., Silverman, M., Motala, A., & Shekelle, P. G. (2017). What defines a high-performing health care delivery system: a systematic review. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 43(9), 450-459. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjq.2017.03.010
Busse, R., Panteli, D., & Quentin, W. (2019). An introduction to healthcare quality: defining and explaining its role in health systems. Improving healthcare quality in Europe, 1.