Informed Decision Toolbox - Case Study Example

? Informed Decision Toolbox With low income and needy especially in accessing health care services, children, pregnant women, adults with dependent children, individuals with disabilities and 65 years old and over are considered by the government parts of the Medicaid population. In this paper, a certain country clinic declared budget cut around 15 percent, which is a case when a manager should decide effectively in order not to affect the actual quality of its health care services. The use of Informed Decision Toolbox can be potentially used in order to come up with remarkable evidences to assess the effectiveness of relying less on consultants as it is found that it would just potentially add up to administering cost. Introduction Medicaid clients are those who have low income and needy and these may involve children, pregnant women, adults with dependent children, individuals with disabilities and 65 years old and over. These individuals surely would rely on the government’s subsidy in order to meet their health care needs. It is however important to consider that as a manager of a country clinic, financial constraints is a great area of consideration prior to the actual provision of care to Medicaid clients. For instance, the department declaring a budget cut by 15 percent would substantially affect the quality of care that Medicaid clients would receive for their actual health care needs. Thus, as a manager, there are important things that need to be implemented without compromising the actual quality of health care that clients will receive even though budget constraint is substantially present. Things to do It is important to understand that reliance on consultants for instance adds up to the actual cost of clinical services for the healthcare needs of a Medicaid population. Consultant fee is part of the administrative cost in the entire US health care system. The cost of administering health care system in the US is a fundamental huge source of expense compared to other countries like Canada which in 2007 had only estimated cost of only 16.7 percent compared to 31 percent in the former (Weinberg, 2007). Thus, it would make sense not to rely so much on consultants in order to cut expense on the cost of administering the entire health care system in the US. There could be additional saving of expenses that will be incurred in doing this. In order to implement this, the use of Informed Decisions Toolbox is found to be beneficial. This toolbox helps managers to decide things based on remarkable form of evidence. This is therefore an integral component of evidence-based management. Applying this in the context of the healthcare system will substantially result to evidence-based healthcare which involves three main stages such as “producing evidence, making evidence available, and using evidence” (Gray, 2009, p.17). In other words, by making the evidence reliable, clinical services for Medicaid population will less likely to rely on consultants at some certain point. Thus, this would probably reduce the administering health care cost for the Medicaid population. At least, this would back up certain portion of amount from the total expenses to be incurred for health care needs of the Medicaid population. Tool to use Informed Decisions toolbox for assessing the accuracy of information is therefore important to be used in order to ensure the right one is obtained prior to the actual decision-making process. It is important to make sure that the information obtained is accurate so that the reliance on outside source of information may potentially decrease and it will eventually minimize the cost associated with this activity. It is always a point of this activity to come up with reliable sources of information and once this is obtained, assessment is necessary so as to create any evaluative measure that will substantially verify whether what has been obtained can be fully relied on or not. Assessment is important prior to the actual interpretation of actual information (Hitt, Ireland & Hoskisson, 2010). This creates a strong confidence that the overall information involved in the actual investigation prior to the decision-making process is highly reliable. Thus, this would eventually build a strong foundation of how the entire decision-making process should be initiated. The impact of toolbox Toolbox affects accountability, knowledge transfer, and a questioning organization. Toolbox affects these three aspects by simply emphasizing the important point of evidence-based decision making activity. Accountability, knowledge transfer and a questioning organization substantially would require the use of evidence. It is important to highlight this evidence because at some point this would increase the level of organization’s accountability, knowledge transfer and to address answers to remarkable questions prior to making the final decision. Toolbox as stated earlier would specifically help find other sources of information. This only means that a decision maker or manager would be able to obtain substantial evidence with toolbox as it specifically gives essential weight on finding significant information including its sources. As evidences are obtained, the manager may develop sufficient confidence how to decide on things. The manager therefore would be able to obtain substantial references as how to come up with the best decision for the benefit of the clients. For instance, with better decision-making output through incurring substantial evidences, the clients would be able to benefit the cost advantage especially in the context of Medicaid clients’ benefits. Even though there might be substantial cutting of budget especially in country clinics, Medicaid clients may still enjoy quality health care benefits as things may not be only decided based on a single aspect, but essential evidences are required through the use of Informed Decisions toolbox. Conclusion Medicaid clients require substantial support from the government or country clinic. Their needs regarding health care are defined according to how much they can afford in satisfying them. However, country clinics may face some financial constraints which at some point should require intense decision-making process without affecting the quality of health care services. Informed Decision Toolbox is said to provide advantages and one of them is its capability to aid the decision maker on the best things to decide by giving substantial weight on cost, and other aspects and the actual quality of health care services. References Gray, J. A. M. (2009). Evidence-based healthcare and public health: how to make decisions about health services and public health (3rd ed.). Beijing: Elsevier Health Sciences. Hitt, M. A., Ireland, D., Hoskisson, R. E. (2010), Strategic Management: Competitiveness & Globalization, Concepts (9th ed.). Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Weinberg, S. E. (2007). US Healthcare on Life Support: Resuscitating the Dying System. Haddonfield, NJ: Denisher Press. Read More