Healthcare and the Quality of Human Life - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal Purpose/Rationale The purpose of this research focuses on PCMH in view of transforming healthcare provisions in terms of affordability and quality services. Background Healthcare defines the quality of human life. In fact, in all aspects, it is a fundamental human right. Every person should be accorded quality healthcare. Objectively, the research proposal focuses on the transformations that are applicable to the health care systems. In specific, the research focuses on PCMH (Patient Centered Medical Homes) in terms of relative costs and improved quality of health accorded to patients. The facilities have been fronted to be cheaper and more valued in quality management in health care facilities. Patient centered medical homes are institutions that offer health care services in a manner similar to primary care centers. The establishments offer essential health care services to their valued clientele most of whom subscribe for family health maintenance and therefore pay periodical visits to the facilities. In urgent cases, the facilities customize emergency response services some of which may include the practitioners rushing to the premises of their clients or the clients rushed to the facilities where they receive effective customized and urgent services. In severe cases when the patients are under acute attacks, they are admitted into the boarding facilities where they are adequately diagnosed, treated and discharged only upon full recovery (Rouse & Cortese, 2010). Such centers are not common in the society today but social homes that take care of the elderly and weak in society operate in similar manner. However, these centers purely busy themselves with the provision of health cars services and not the provision of social security. Unlike in the social homes, their clients pay for their services they therefore do not discriminate on patients based on their age as is the case in the social homes. Patient centered homes operate in a manner similar to homes for the old in that patients subscribe for their service after which the centers offer customized services based on the unique requirements of the client. The centers are fully-fledged facilities incorporating boarding facilities, the centers therefore offer both in and outpatient services for their clients. The main different between these homes and the normal hospital is that the homes track their clients over a period depending on the specifications of the clients. More often, they offer services similar to those offered by family doctors only that unlike family doctors, they have fully equipped facilities capable handling any medical, furthermore, at the centers a patient id attended to by a variety of doctors depending on the level of his medical complications. The centers are developed with the key objective of serving their patients; they attach more importance on the convenience of their clients and would therefore customize services to fit the demands of the clients. In some very strange cases, the doctors from such facilities carry out treatment and monitoring of their patients from their respective homes. The nature of the structure of these facilities and the type of services they render to their clientele may make them a little more expensive than the conventional hospitals. However, taking into consideration the type and quality of services they offer, the centers therefore become cost effective and analytically cheaper compared to hospitals and other health facilities. The idea of patient centered medical homes is still new to the American society. Most people are used to the conventional hospitals and other health facilities. However, those in existence record continued increase in clientele base, among the most familiar of these centers across the country include Community Care of North Carolina and the Rhode Island Chronic Care Sustainability Initiative (CSI-RI). The facilities target the public and to ensure continuity of business, the carry out extensive advertisement of their services on a number of the available media. Literature Background Health service is a basic human right, it is the principle behind human life, situations present themselves that may otherwise jeopardize the enjoyment of this fundamental human right, at such times, fast, and effective medical attention is advisable. Immediate medical response helps intervene on life threatening situations; medical practitioners through their profound prowess thereafter diagnose and treat their patients possibly reversing the threat posed by the disease and other pathogens against them. (Feldman Alexander, 2012). Health receives are delivered in hospitals and dispensaries among other conventional facilities rendering such services. Additionally, there are a number of cases that call for over the counter self drug administration, such factor have led to the creation of chemists which should be visited only in accordance to the doctor’s advise or the prescription of a qualified pharmacist (O'Carroll, 2002) Health facilities including hospitals, dispensaries and even chemist pride themselves in saving lives, to effectively do this, such facilities need to be conveniently located to offer timely services to urgent situations. This explains the roadside placements of most hospitals and dispensaries. Additionally, the structuring of health facilities follows a strict layout that enables free and convenient movement of people in and out of the facilities. The facilities are well aerated and spacious enough to quell the spread of any contagious disease that can possibly break out in the facilities (Alexander, 2010). Health is a basic human right, nobody can possibly stay out of hospital forever, the economy of every country largely depends ion the health of its population. The cost of receiving such services must therefore be affordable by the public. The affordability must however not interfere with the quality of the medical services offered by the health facility. Quality health service is very costly and is never affordable to a majority of citizens. This explains the increasing health covers that citizens seek in an attempt to insure themselves from the health related costs incase of an eventuality. The quality of service should however resonate on the price charged by the service providers (Ricci & Kyle, 2009). The need for fast effective medical services led to the creation of patient centered medical homes. these are facilities that seek to offer quality health services very conveniently and at cost effective prices. Their services are quality oriented and seek to counter the conventional means of service provision. These facilities borrow much of their organizational structure and service dispensation from the failures or pitfalls of the conventional health facilities (Fogel & Woods, 2008). They offer comprehensive medical services most of which are synonymous to those offered in hospital and other facilities only that they carry out an effective customer analysis by maintaining a detailed client history. This makes their services detailed and more effective than those offered by the hospital do. The facilities offer their services on a subscription basis, these results in the facilities admitting into their list only those clients they can comfortable manage by offering them quality and cost effective services. The benefits of PCMH have been fronted through many studies. Rouse and Cortese (2010) asserts that the model is beneficial. For instance, it was highlighted from studies conducted on selected projects that are well suited for multi-state Medicare. These were demonstration projects, which registered considerable success. In addition, Feldman and Alexander (2012) laud the model as being interactive with the customer in a great way. Research Design The research is both a descriptive and an exploratory. The researcher seeks to bring to the fore the operations of these facilities and their structure. In doing this, the researcher describes the facts about these facilities as they are. Descriptive researches are less expensive and less time consuming to conduct. However, this particular research will include an analysis of the market and the possible future for the business. The exploratory aspect of the study begins with the analysis of the functionality of the business and studying the differences that exist between such homes and the conventional health service providers such as hospitals and dispensaries. In doing this the research, centers on the costs involved in the treatment of patients in these facilities and compares the cost effectiveness of these facilities against the other conventional health facilities. An effective exploration on the internal structuring of the facilities will reveal the managerial and operational differences that mark the differences between such facilities from their conventional counterparts. Such finding will therefore be possible useful in developing plans for service improvements in the conventional health facilities. Data collection is the key in the research process; the research will therefore employ multiple data collection methods. Interviews provide basic information on the research questions, during an interview, the researcher finds time to adequately seek clarifications on the issues as raised by the respondent. The research will therefore employ the use of interviews on larger percentage of data collection. Additionally, the research will employ the use of observations, exploratory research find most of its data from the observations made by the researcher. The researcher must therefore make accurate observations and report the facts as they appear. Observing the structure of the facilities and their daily operations makes one identify the differences in the structure with the conventional facilities thereby allowing room for personal opinions deduced from the observations (Chatterjee & Hevner, 2010). The different data collection methods complement one another, to ensure efficacy of any of the two, the research will further employ the use of questionnaires. Questionnaires are not very different from interviews only that they are convenient, as the researcher will easily mail some to his unavailable respondent who will thereafter mail them filled questionnaires back to the researcher. This saves time and is very convenient. The questions in the questionnaires would be both open and closed ended depending on the unique requirement of the researcher and the ability of the respondent to reply. Besides these, the research will focus on previous work to gain access to secondary information regarding the topical subject. Data analysis The data collected would be evaluated to present results which would be interpreted to provide recommendations to the study. Besides, this should conform to the research hypothesis which seeks to ascertain the benefits of PCMH in terms of transforming the current health care system. The process of data analysis would be quantitative since it would involve statistical analysis like doing ANOVAS and aggregated means or medians. References Alexander, L. L. (2010). New dimensions in women's health. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Chatterjee, S., & Hevner, A. (2010). Design Research in Information Systems: Theory and Practice. Berlin: Springer US. Feldman, H. R., & Alexander, G. R. (2012). Nursing leadership: A concise encyclopedia. New York: Springer. Fogel, C. I., & Woods, N. F. (2008). Women's health care in advanced practice nursing. New York: Springer Pub. O'Carroll, P. W. (2002). Public health informatics and information systems. New York: Springer. Ricci, S. S., & Kyle, T. (2009). Maternity and pediatric nursing. Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Rouse, W. B., & Cortese, D. A. (2010). Engineering the system of healthcare delivery. Amsterdam: IOS Press. Read More