Top Five Elements of the Health Care System that Most Need Reform - Essay Example

? Top five elements of the health care system that most need reform Introduction For any society to enjoy smooth and highquality ways of life, delivery of quality health care services is imperative. Health care acts as the most crucial aspect in ensuring that the world at large triumphs in promoting the health and life standards of all societies. Essentially, the rise or drop of the global economy is greatly dependent on the quality of health care delivered all around the globe (HackBath & Miller, 2009). To be specific, in the United States, healthcare is stands out as the largest industry adding up to fourteen percent (14 %) growth in Gross Domestic Product, which increases by a double digit annually. However, the health care industry is highly complex, large and inefficient thus necessitating the need to come up with significant number reforms, which will play a huge role in maximizing benefits enjoyed by the United States and its citizens at large (Fiscella, 2011). In simple terms, health care reform in the United States is an Affordable Care Act that was signed into law by President Obama in March 2010 (Fiscella, 2011). It entails a policy to effect positive changes to the country’s standards of health care practices. The health care industry provides exceptional opportunities for the country’s industrial and systems engineering. Since the reformation strategy paves a great room for the industry’s output towards the society, respective stakeholders are doing their best to achieve the set out reformation goals. In this regard, Healthcare reform is expected to affect all Americans, which include the old, young, working, unemployed, single and married. Ultimately, the goal of the reform policy is to enhance the number of insured Americans. Additionally, it is aimed at increasing the quality of care while at the same time maintain stability or reduce costs that Americans face while accessing services at the care centers (Sainfort & George, 2004). This paper therefore focuses on a thorough and logical analysis of five key reform elements via an account of the United States’ health care industry. It further aims at justifying the impacts of the following health care reform elements on the current system. Health care reform elements Science and Technology It is important to acknowledge that the United States’ health care industry has made significant steps in employing technology on different areas of operation. The World Health Organization recently ranked the United States’ health care system 37th out of all countries all around the globe (Sainfort & George, 2004). However, the current US health care system has largely been left behind in crucial technological areas such genomics and sensor technologies. Genomics engrosses offering promise in diagnosis while sensor technologies refer to automated detection and monitoring (Sainfort & George, 2004). This subject requires great reform by having fully implemented software systems that address their respective requirements. It is clear that these advancements will greatly affect that current health care system in that it will take shorter time to detect a patient’s problem, along with ensuring that exact problem is taken care of at the right time. Essentially, this will play a very huge role in ascertaining that Americans have access to high quality health care services (Sainfort & George, 2004). Health care payment system The citizens of the United States of America have always been victims of huge costs charged by the Health care centers (Odier, 2010). Research indicates that, the health care industry’s main areas of concern include use of medical instruments, medical research and training. Although it has excelled in the provision of these crucial components of high quality care, the focus has been offering them at high costs to those people who can afford (Sainfort & George, 2004). Thus, reforming the payment system to a state where it is standardized to meet all user levels will ensure that higher numbers of patients are treated of chronic diseases thus lowering the mortality rate in the country. Thirty two percent, (32%) of the country’s mortality rate includes those of age 65 and above and they have been due to chronic (Sainfort & George, 2004). Therefore, through this reform, the figures will undergo a great decline (Roy, 2012). Partnership between health care providers and patients Personal connection between respective stakeholders is always very important in ensuring that quality and user focused services are delivered in health care (Roy, 2012). That is, doctors and other health care providers have to work hand in hand with patients. This will play a very huge role in capturing the exact requirements of patient. Sainfort indicates that systematic attention to patients’ need for information and behavioral change is an important element for improving patients’ outcomes and bringing in a huge impact on the current health care system (Sainfort & George, 2004). In this sense, through implementation of high quality partnership between the two, there are great chances patient outcomes will improve drastically (Odier, 2010). Conformance to health care practice guidelines Among the major requirements in the health care reformation policy is the idea of accountability where a provider should be held responsible for a particular activity that he or she implemented (HackBath & Miller, 2009). This is entails the notion of an evidence based health care provision strategy. In the current health care system, it is always very difficult to measure, monitor and analyze health outcomes in the centers since the providers do not fully conform to the policy requirements (Sainfort & George, 2004). HackBath clarifies that Medicare does not hold providers accountable for the quality of services that they provide. Thus, they are in no way made to give their best for the patients (HackBath & Miller, 2009). It is vital to note that when providers fully conform to this reform need, then, they will be much more careful with what they do to their clients. Additionally, they will always work hard to guarantee delivery of quality health care services. Therefore, implementation of this key reform need will greatly influence the current system in that very high quality services will be made available thus empowering United States’ health standards (HackBath & Miller, 2009). The role of patients on being in charge of their health records In the current system, doctors usually act in isolation or only consult other providers seen by their clients but rarely share any detailed information (Odier, 2010). This is because of the wrong doctor incentives of not trusting patients to handle their respective data, which is driven by the notion that medical records are very complex and can easily be made worse by a slight typographic error. In most cases, it falls on a patient himself or his close relative to remind about treatment follow-ups or about a drug interfering with another (Sainfort & George, 2004). Although this has always been the case, the reality is that at most times, patients have faced several challenges due to errors entered by a certain health care provider (Sainfort & George, 2004). Thus, it is important that this reform be fully implemented by closely involving the record keeping, which is by educating and transforming her to comprehend and monitor her health records (HackBath & Miller, 2009). Through this idea of patient empowerment, it will be much easier to provide relevant and high quality health care services to patients. In general, patient empowerment will play a huge role in reducing the current system errors done by providers in delivering care (HackBath & Miller, 2009). References Fiscella, K. (2011). Health Care Reform and Equity: Promise, Pitfalls, and Prescriptions. Retrieved from http://content.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/pdf25_26/pdf/2011/QMD/01Jan11/57621403.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=57621403&S=R&D=a9h&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80SeqLc4v%2BvlOLCmr0uep7JSsa%2B4SbOWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGusUuxp7dOuePfgeyx43zx HackBath, G., & Miller, M. (2009). Reforming America’s Health Care Delivery System. Retrieved from http://www.medpac.gov/documents/Hackbarth%20Statement%20SFC%20Roundtable%204%2021%20FINAL%20with%20header%20and%20footer.pdf Odier, N. (2010). The US health-care system: A proposal for reform. Retrieved from http://content.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/pdf25_26/pdf/2010/160G/01Oct10/54725719.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=54725719&S=R&D=bth&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80SeqLc4v%2BvlOLCmr0uep7JSs6y4SLWWxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGusUuxp7dOuePfgeyx43zx Sainfort, F. & George, W. (2004). Healthcare delivery Systems in the United States: Engineering Enterprise. Retrieved from http://www.isye.gatech.edu/eemag/pdfs/20042Summer.pdf Roy, A. (2012). Redeeming Obamacare: How to introduce the Affordable Care Act to free markets. Retrieved from http://content.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/pdf27_28/pdf/2012/NRV/03Dec12/83404513.pdf?T=P&P=AN&K=83404513&S=R&D=a9h&EbscoContent=dGJyMNLe80SeqLc4v%2BvlOLCmr0uep7NSrqy4Sq6WxWXS&ContentCustomer=dGJyMPGusUuxp7dOuePfgeyx43zx Read More