Problems Encountered in Health Care - Essay Example

Quality remains one of the most disturbing aspects of health care in high, middle and low income countries. As most of the governments focus on growth, the growth is unmatched with an equal quality watch rendering the services less helpful to the recipients. According to a report by the world health organization, the main concerns about the expansion of healthcare, and thus the quality are that, despite the developments in the resources and expansion of health care, quality remains a serious concern (World Health Organization, 3). The second concern is that, in situations where there is the need to optimize the use of resources especially in the low income countries, there is a tendency to scale down the local strategies for quality to enable the practitioner and the constrained health providers to serve a larger population. The growth of the health sector has thus concentrated on geographical coverage and based more of their services to providing universal health at the expense of the quality. Most of the resources are focused to expansion leaving loopholes for inefficiencies and incompetence if not unprofessionalism. According to the article by the world health organization, there is a need to address the health issue from a systems perspective (World Health Organization, 3). For this research proposal, I will review previous data on the topic and develop the various problems encountered in health care, examine them in the light of the efforts to mitigate them and come up with a plan to work out the inefficiencies and ensure there is an optimal allocation of resources and optimal gains, as a result. 2) Problem Description When we look at health care in an economic perspective, health care involves the provision of services and the receipt of payment for the services (Lebrun-Harris, Lydie A., et al., 44). However, the rate with which an individual seeks health care largely depends on his/her resource endowments especially in cases where they are not covered by insurance cover and have to pay through an out-of –pocket basis. Access to health care is thus limited by the constrained resources. However, healthcare in the modern day has become more of an enterprise, and the providers are aiming at expanding more and reaping more profits for their services. This has led to the use of incompetent personnel in place of doctors, the use of low quality alternative medicine, application of procedures that undermine the patients’ health status, for better monetary rewards; among them carrying out a caesarian section where the patient can have a normal birth. This decay in quality has compromised the health care and the effects are falling heavily on unsuspecting citizens. 3) Solution Description The major solution is that there is a need for the policy makers to develop solutions that are best suited for the different conditions. Increasingly, there is an urge to contextualize the existing general knowledge and come with the evidence that would help in the health carer’s Scenario (Dabney, et. al., 86). Considerable judgment is requisite among the policy makers to ensure that the decisions that are made are highly evidence based and informed as a key stepping stone to addressing the problem. There is a need to undertake quality interventions and build process that is dynamic enough to suit the needs of the local situations, as opposed to the mountain-view scope of the problem. The new system should also take care of the arising issues and the changing time to incorporate new developments in health care and cope with higher than expected demands in the sector. Heath care has been segmented depending highly on the location (Thanh Vân France, Nguyen, et al., 9). Worth noting is the fact that healthcare in a developed country is very different from healthcare in a developing country. The policy developments that should be put in place to ensure that there is an efficient allocation of resources in the developed countries are unlike those that should be put in place in the developing countries to ensure optimal use of the limited resources (Kane, 43). There is thus s vary big different and thus the topic cannot be addressed in a holistic perspective without touching on the issue of the different countries and their different needs. In devising the solution, there is thus the need for local leadership to form a committee in charge of the program, as opposed to bringing in professionals who impose their own perceptions on an already existing situation and fill it with assumptions. 4) Implementation Plan Implementation stage is the most important step in any quality improvement strategy. For this step to effectively and efficiently take place there is the need for increased accountability and strong leadership, well set time frames as well as milestones that are well monitored (Tzelepis, Flora, et al., 23). A program steering board is an important group that will oversee the whole process and provide the necessary guideline as to what should be done at the different stages. The board also helps the implementation group retain focus and interest thus; the process is set on the run. Among the key responsibilities of the board we may have; reviewing the progress made in the various stages of the implementation and ensuring that the timetables, schedules and targets are well adhered to. Secondly, the board can redirect resources to priority areas, account for the progress made by the interested parties as well as modify the milestones and the time scheduling (Mayers, 5). The quality measure that should be applied should be agreed upon, and the health care goals set along the quality goals. Existing information sources can be very useful at this stage in monitoring progress and outcomes. The program should also incorporate a methodology that allows the system to collect new data for planning purposes. Stakeholders should be actively involved in the process of designing a new system, and should ensure that the new system is as simple as possible. Preparing the new system for scaling up is also as important when carried out alongside keeping the new evidence on review with the main purpose of modifying plans. 5) Evaluation Plan Evaluation is another essential, step in every project. It enables the implementers to understand the milestones achieved through evaluating the level of achievement with the set goals. The goals can be in terms of number of people served per day, the number of return customers in a health care, the levels of recurrence of a disease, the rate of spread on an infectious disease among the population as well as the levels of care given to the patients depending on the patient ratings (Kitson, 2). The process will be agreed upon in an earlier time, to establish how the evaluation should take place and set the objectives that should be used in the evaluation. The evaluation plan is important for the following three reasons; first, if the results are different from the expected outcomes, it gives room for early decisions. Secondly, it provides a means through which the justification on resource utilization can be grounded and thirdly, it maintains a given level of motivation and focus among the different stakeholders. For the purpose of this research, the team that will be put in place will ensure that there is effective implementation of the policies to the letter. The policy implementation will be developed within a set time frame, and the time set for every phase of the implementation. The allocation of resources shall also be lines up to be released on completion of each subsequent part. Therefore, the instructions will be clear on what should have been done and by when. Reports should also be written to ensure that every stage is reported in time and issues addressed to avoid delays in the next stage of the implementation. Rolling plans shall also be evaluated to ensure that the implementer does not roll the plans with no specified reason. 6) Dissemination Plan The dissemination plan will entail the plan that has been laid or put in place to ensure that the programmer is effective (Hospitals Get Aggressive, and Infections Plunge, 44). It will aim at bringing to the attention of the healthcare givers the need to observe on quality and adjust their goals in favor of the set priorities. The main reason as to why the program will be carried out is to ensure that the quality of healthcare is improved and thus provide a framework through which the various discussed issues can be addressed. The method will involve calling upon all stakeholders, especially the health care givers and ensuring that they adhere to the set rules that regard the administration of healthcare in the given areas (Finley, Erin P., et al., 123). Since each has its objectives and strategies, the program will ensure that there is adequate implementation of the plans of action and the evaluation of goals to monitor efficiency. The time frame required is also an integral part and necessitates the need to go as per the programmer in terms of the development of the results. 7) Review of Literature According to research by the world health organization, the authors note that there have been too many developments in science and technology and the healthcare system has been flourishing over the years to provide high quality care for all (World Health Organization, 4). However, according to the authors, the increased resources and know-how may not in themselves reflect a change in the quality of healthcare that most of the individuals expect. Rather, research has showed that health spending has doubled over the past 30 years in most of the developed countries. According to the article, it is clear that most of the developing countries will not achieve the millennium development goals owed to the fragmentation that is present in health care, insufficient financial investments in the healthcare, and poor quality of the services that are offered. According to an article by Shamliyan, Tatyana, et al., the author agree that a system based approach is a necessity to curb the looming crisis (Shamliyan, Tatyana, et al., 33). The article argues that increased nurse staffing in the different health care centers is an appropriate way to take care of the health care quality problem. However, the authors note that the increased staffing is not causal and thus, it is subject to other limitations not covered in the study. According to the research that was carried in the united states and Canada, we learn that pooled results showed that every additional RN fulltime equivalent for every patient day was positively correlated with a reduced relative risk reduction in the hospital mortality rate by 9% in the intensive care unit and 16 percent in the surgical patients (Shamliyan, Tatyana, et al., 43). According to research by Kang, Raymond, and Romana Hasnain-Wynia, the research was aimed at examining the association that exists between the hospital community and the quality of care measures (Kang, Raymond, and Romana Hasnain-Wynia, 12). The process included the quality care for people with various conditions among them heart condition, acute myocardial infarction, heart failure and pneumonia among others. Multivariate linear regressions were used and yielded the findings that hospitals that have a stronger commitment to the community orientation perform better in the three conditions and report higher experience of patient care scores, than those who have been known to demonstrate weaker community and quality care measures (Kang, Raymond, and Romana Hasnain-Wynia, 11). According to an article by the Australian commission on safety and quality in health care, patient health care that is respectful of the needs and the preferences of the clients can be referred to as patient centered health care (Furuya, et. al, 20). Research has shown further that, care that is centered on the needs of the patients improve the care experiences and creates a string public value of the services. The article embarks on the school of thought that when health care administrators, their patients, the patients and families work in the form of partnership, the safety as well as the quality of health care rises (Furuya, et. al, 20. Among these articles, the article by the world health organization better supports my ideology and proposition regard the best methods of handling the issue at hand. 8) Conclusion Health care is an area that needs increased attention especially in the face of quality. The continued deterioration in terms of the services that are provided is a deadly virus that eats up the whole system causing irreparable damage. More importantly, it is evident that a plan of action should be put in place to take care of this growing need, to embark on a system based approach that will provide an opportunity to the health care providers to restructure the health care system. There is also a big role to be played by the policy makers regard the formulation of policies that are in favor of the strategies for quality check in healthcare. Works Cited Dabney, Beverly Waller, and Tzeng Huey-Ming. "Service Quality And Patient-Centered Care." MEDSURG Nursing 22.6 (2013): 359-364. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Mar. 2014. Earp, Jo A. L, Elizabeth A. French, and Melissa B. Gilkey. Patient Advocacy for Health Care Quality: Strategies for Achieving Patient-Centered Care. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Pub, 2008. Print. Finley, Erin P., et al. "Relationship Quality And Patient-Assessed Quality Of Care In VA Primary Care Clinics: Development And Validation Of The Work Relationships Scale." Annals Of Family Medicine 11.6 (2013): 543-549. Academic Search Premier. Web. 13 Mar. 2014 Furuya, E., Dick, A., Perencevich, E. N., Pogorzelska, M., Goldmann, D., & Stone, P. W. (2011). 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