Issues within Healthcare Organizations - Research Paper Example

?Issues Within Healthcare Organizations While health care organizations are not generally viewed within the business context, in reality they function as complex and multi-varied organizational structures. Within this area of understanding, they face many of the same internal and external elements that challenge major companies. This essay examines three of these challenges within the context of accrediting bodies, agencies, and health care organizations. The essay also considers how these issues affect a hypothetical health care organization. One of the current major concerns affecting accrediting bodies in health care organizations relate to economic restructuring in the wake of the recent financial crisis. There are a variety of concerns within this context of understanding affecting the specified health care organization. From an overarching context, health care organizations finding themselves facing overcrowding or other organizational challenges increasingly find themselves in an environment where they are required to restrict admittance procedures and develop new means of structural organization that place the organization at greater profit potential. Notably, Dorn & Becker (2009) considered the issue in terms of broader governmental responses to these economic constraints. In these contexts of understanding they indicate that, “Congress has proposed and even passed legislation aimed at encouraging healthcare organizations (including accrediting bodies) to pursue their activities with a reduced concern for legal liability” (Dorn & Becker, 2009). Further issues within this context of understanding concern the means of determining the value of varying health care accreditation features. In terms of the specific health care organization, when considering the overriding economic constraints, it’s clear that added emphasis needs to be placed on the importance of research pointing to the financial efficacy of specific accreditation procedures. Braithwaite, Westbrook, Pawsey, et. (2010) indicate that increasingly health care organizations have been looking towards cross-disciplinary research as a means of determining economic efficacy of specific accreditation elements. Ultimately, it’s clear that within recent changes in the economic structure, health care institutions must make similar changes within the organizational structure. Another major concern within health care organizations is the issue of telehealth. With the 20th century’s advancements in digital technology and information services the field of telehealth has considerably grown. One challenge is the proper policy as related to the administration of telehealth services. While teleconferencing or telepsychiatry is generally administered for individuals living in remote locations, it has also been noted to be effective in emergency situations. A growing body of research attests to an understanding of broad reaching potential of telehealth for varied population and need groups. Peddle (2007) examined major implications for the institution of telehealth facilities in Labrador, Canada. While the research specifically analyzed barriers to the implementation of telehealth in this region, the research also focused on future potentials for the technology. Among the future contexts articulated in this research is the potential implementation of telehealth to answering staffing issues. For instance, doctors would not need to be on location to aid patients allowing for the potential improvement of efficiency through the balancing of doctor and patient interaction along a community medical network. Another prominent area of telehealth potential is in the realm of chronic illnesses where patient convenience could be improved through the implementation of at home teleconferencing. One such research consideration in this context was conducted by Polisena, Tran, & Cimon (2009) who examined at home teleconferencing for diabetic patients. There research demonstrated that, “more than 180 million people worldwide have diabetes. Health-care providers can remotely deliver health services to this patient population using information and communication technology, also known as home telehealth” (Polisena, Tran, & Cimon, 2009, pg. 1). It’s theorized that in the upcoming years teleconferencing will received added infrastructure as a means of aiding populations such as individuals with diabetes. Schlata-Fairchild (2006, pg. 4) argues that while nursing responsibilities will not change (a debatable notion), nurses will need to assume increased safety measures. While medical privacy is an important consideration, nurses will need to increasingly determine the extent of the patient’s disorder and malaise and develop procedures and differentiating levels of involvement in the conference. Another major issue affecting health care agencies is the notion of ethical responsibility. Perhaps the most overriding ethical issue in the current health care climate relates to concerns of clinical ethics. Currently, clinical ethical issues are dealt with using classical ethical principles, including autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice. Still, shifts in the modern day medical environment have highlighted the limiting nature of many of these classical ethical theories, necessitating new forms of ethical approach. In terms of the hypothetical organization, new developments in technology, and new financial structures brought on by the recent recession, have brought medical providers into more direct relation with organizational financial concerns. With the pervasive risk of malpractice suits, and the need for health care agencies to increasingly restructure their organization around profit concerns, medical providers in the organization face themselves at times in conflicts of interest. While health care agencies are recognized as functioning organizations, the extent that business ethics are compatible with health care ethics is also a prominent question within this area of concern. Within the hypothetical health care organization, one such application of this concern is stakeholder theory. Stakeholder theory concerns the individuals that are affected by the organization and devises ethical constraints for these individuals. It’s believed that in implementing this approach, health care organizations can devise a business centric approach to ethics that is patient focused and morally sound. In conclusion, this essay has examined three major issues facing accrediting bodies, agencies and healthcare organizations. In these regards, issues relating to the financial concerns of accreditation, new boundaries of telehealth organization, and overarching ethical concerns relating to health care agencies has been considered. The essay has also considered how these issues affect a selected health care organization. Ultimately, it’s clear that health care institutions face a complex array of internal and external challenges that must be handled in an efficient way. References Braithwaite, J., Westbrook, J., Pawsey, M., Greenfield, D., Naylor, J., Iedema, R., & ... Gibberd, R. (2010). A prospective, multi-method, multi-disciplinary, multi- level, collaborative, social-organisational design for researching health sector accreditation [LP0560737]. BMC Health Services Research, 6113-10. Dorn, S., & Becker, K. (2009). Legal update: current issues affecting accrediting bodies. Retrieved from http://www.intelligentietesten.com/house_tree_person_drawings.htm Peddle, K. (2007). Telehealth in Context: Socio-technical Barriers to Telehealth use in Labrador, Canada. Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing, 16(6), 595-614. Polisena, J. J., Tran, K. K., Cimon, K. K., Hutton, B. B., McGill, S. S., & Palmer, K. K. (2009). Home telehealth for diabetes management: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism, 11(10), 913-930. Schlata-Fairchild, L. (Ed.). (2006). International telenursing survey. Pennsylvania: Templeton. Read More