The Grant for The Medical Health Program - Admission/Application Essay Example

Grant Application College: Grant Application Executive Summary The Tennessee Speak for Women Prenatal Healthcare Program is an innovative response to the problem of high mortality rate in Tennessee. The program requests for $7, 706, million to fund a center-pregnancy program that will assess, educate and support pregnant women in a group setting. The program aims at providing cost effective approach to streamline prenatal care to ease the congestion in public hospitals and to provide prenatal care access for women who cannot afford to pay insurance policies. Through this program, it is possible to improve service delivery, eliminate the health and death risk for women and their children and delivery and case of premature death that underpin the high mortality rate at birth in Tennessee. The project will save the prenatal costs for women by 50% and $44.3 million used in public hospitals to provide individualized prenatal care. On this ground, this project should be funded to improve the community service and to protect the women and children during pregnancy. Introduction Tennessee Speak for the Mother Healthcare Services is an organization that aims at providing efficient prenatal care healthcare services to mothers in an integrative approach. The program aims at providing health promotion, risk assessment, psychological and medical intervention measures towards the improvement of prenatal care services. The Tennessee Speak for the Mother Healthcare program is requesting for $7,706, 000 to fund a two and half years pilot program that seeks to improve prenatal care in Tennessee. The program aims at implementing Centre Pregnancy method of prenatal care that targets vulnerable groups in the society. The organization aims at providing cost effective medical care that economically disadvantaged groups can afford (Fitzpatrick, 2004). The Medicaid health program has failed to provide efficient prenatal care owing to the tedious registration process and the long queues that are evident in these hospitals. Providing a group prenatal care support program, it will be possible to achieve high birth weight, long gestational period, desirable birth outcomes and reduced mortality rate through a cost-effective approach. Strong (2000) asserts that group prenatal care has benefits that surmount the limitations of the individual prenatal care. Since the organization has provided prenatal care services for over 30 years in Tennessee, it has the capacity to support this project in the long run. If granted, the project will help to save about $44.3 million Medicaid’s expenditure on prenatal. The program represents the commitment of the Tennessee Speak for Women Healthcare Services program to remain innovative in defining effective strategies toward modest community healthcare. Program Goals Statistics show that in 2012 in Tennessee, 18.1% of child deaths occurred due to lack of insurance coverage, 9.1% due to preterm birth while 23.7% resulted due to smoking at the time of pregnancy. The Tennessee speak for women prenatal health care program aims at reducing the mortality at birth and reducing the cost of prenatal care to an affordable level for those who cannot afford the Medicaid insurance (Lauck, 2000). The program will implement a center-pregnancy program in a group setting to allow women with the similar expected delivery dates to be handled together right from 4 weeks after conception. The centre-pregnancy approach provides an innovative way to assess, educate and support women during the time of pregnancy. The program is expected to improve the weight of child at birth by about 29 grams, reduce the mortality at birth by 5% in Tennessee and provide prenatal care for over 2000 women per year. The group setting will focus on reducing the cost of service by about 50% as compared to individualized care. This will ensure that those who cannot afford the Medicaid insurance can access prenatal care at a lower cost. In addition, this will reduce the long queues in the public hospitals that limit the quality of prenatal services in these health units. The project treats the issue of prenatal care as an emergency issue in Tennessee and seeks to provide an amicable solution to this problem in less than two and a half years. The project contributes to the March of Dimes and the Association of State and Territorial Health officials’ commitment to reduce the preterm birth rate by 8% by the year 2014. Description In Tennessee, the infant mortality rates and the mortality rates are high as compared to other states in the United States. Statistics show that the high mortality at birth is as a result of preterm birth, uninsured women and Women smoking at the time of pregnancy. In 2012, 18.1% of child deaths occurred due to lack of insurance coverage, 9.1% due to preterm birth while 23.7% resulted due to smoking at the time of pregnancy. Over the years, it is evident that there has been little improvement in the mortality at birth and this can be associated with shortage of innovative health care programs (Handler, Kennelly & Peacock, 2011). Fig. Statistics of Mortality at birth contribution in the Tennessee The March of Dimes and the Association of State and Territorial Health officials are committed to reducing the preterm birth rate by 8% by the year 2014 (March Dimes, 2012). These organizations are willing to fund any bodies that are geared to provide innovative approaches to reducing preterm birth. The Tennessee Speak for Women Healthcare Program aims at supporting any effort to provide innovative prenatal care that will contribute to the strategic goals of reducing the preterm birth in this state. Many health professionals have recommended the use of Center pregnancy approach in providing efficient prenatal care in the society. According to Burge (2013) Centering Pregnancy approach combines assessment, education and support for prenatal care in a group setting. The assessment function will be directed at observing the various aspects of poor maternal behaviour that may expose women to health risk during their pregnancy period. This way it is possible to take care of women who have risky behaviour such as smoking during pregnancy. The education function provides education on the best practices, diet, exercises that are recommendable during all stages of pregnancy. Finally, the support function ensures that there is response to any emergencies that may arise during this period. In a group setting, about 10 women with similar due dates are grouped together and receive attention from specialized professional. This group setting is known to save about 50% of cost as compared to individualized prenatal care. This makes it affordable for those who cannot access Medicaid insurance cover or afford expensive private hospitals. The above literature survey points out that the Center-Pregnancy approach is the best strategy to reduce death rate at birth and to increase the child weight at birth and the health of the mother. In a group setting, it is possible to provide mow price prenatal services that even those who have no insurance coverage can access. In addition, this program would reduce the long queues in the public prenatal units which have reduced the effectiveness of these programs. In a group setting, it is possible to nurture expected behaviour during pregnancy among women and to prevent the risk of premature birth that is the major cause of high death rate at birth in Tennessee. This program is a commitment is an innovative approach to support the strategy of the March of Dimes and the Association of State and Territorial Health officials are committed to reducing the preterm birth rate by 8% by the year 2014. if this project is funded, it is expected that the mortality at birth will decrease by over 5% in Tennessee. Budget Justification To implement this project, Speak for Women program will require a 10 roomed health care unit for service delivery. The structures will cost about $3.4 million to construct and complete with installation of all necessary facilities. The medical equipment will be purchased at a cost of about $4 million to equip the healthcare unit. As per the current salary manuals, hiring a physician would require about an annual salary of about $201, 000 if the project is implemented within the next five years (Weimer, 2009). To salary expenses for nurse will be $105, 000 annually. Summing up, the budget is supposed to reach at $7.706 million, which accounts for all expenses and all the other overheads. Since this program will provide service to over 2000 women per year, it is expected that it will be cheaper compared to the Medicaid program. Statistics show that on average a woman spends over $0.05 million over avoidable complications (Weimer, 2009). This amounts to about $100 million which will be saved by taking a preventive action to reduce avoidable complication in women. On the other hand, this program will help to save over $44.3 million that pregnant women spend in securing public insurance policies in Tennessee. A close analysis on this budget presents a cost effective approach for women to acquire effective prenatal care. Women who cannot afford insurance policies will have an opportunity to access modest healthcare. Secondly, those who opt for this program will save over 50% of their expenditures during pregnancy as the individualized prenatal care is quite expensive than the group oriented prenatal care (Weimer, 2009). This program can be regenerated with the next two and a half years, hence promising a quick solution to the problem of high death rate at birth in Tennessee. Summary Notably, the high mortality rate at birth in Tennessee is an urgent issue that needs an innovative approach to prenatal care provision. The lives and health of children and mothers is at stake due to lack high rate of premature births, lack of insurance cover and risky behaviour during the pregnancy period. The Tennessee Speak for Mother Prenatal health care program is an innovative approach to curb this problem. Over time, the Medicaid health programs have scored low in the provision of prenatal care in pregnant women. The program aims at providing a centre-pregnancy program that assesses, educates and supports women at all the stages of pregnancy. The benefits of this program includes the avoidance of premature birth, reduction of risky behaviour during pregnancy, increase in gestation period, increase in baby weight and ultimate reduction in the death mortality rate at birth. The project is committed to the plan of the government to reduce the mortality rate within by 8% by the year 2014. By using a group setting, the program will help women in groups of 10 comprising of women who have similar due dates. This will foster an integrative healthcare approach that is cost efficient and that nurture health behaviour among pregnant women. This will help to save the spending of pregnant women during this critical period. The program is requesting $7.706 to fund its pilot project, which if successful will be regenerated within a period of two and a half years. This will help to save over $44.3 million which is spent on individualized care in the public prenatal units. The project is expected to serve over 2000 women per year and to reduce the mortality rate at birth by over 5%. Notably, this will be an innovative program to provide efficient prenatal care in economically limited society. References Burge, D., (2013). William Beaumont Army Medical Center pregnancy Programs Group Approach Heralded. retrieved from:< http://www.elpasotimes.com/communities/ci_ 23504223/pregnancy-programs-group-approach-heralded> Fitzpatrick, J. J., Villarruel, A. M., & Porter, C. P. (2004). Eliminating health disparities among racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. New York: Springer Pub. Co. Handler, A., Kennelly, J., & Peacock, N. R. (2011). Reducing racial/ethnic disparities in reproductive and perinatal outcomes: The evidence from population-based interventions. New York: Springer. Lauck, M. A. (2000). Disparities in gaining access to prenatal care: Low-income Mexican American womens social resource management. March Dimes, 2012. Premature Birth Report Cards. retrieved from: < https://www.marchofdimes.com/peristats/pdflib/998/TN.pdf> Strong, T. H. (2000). Expecting trouble: What expectant parents should know about prenatal care in America. New York: New York University Press. Weimer, D., (2009). Cost-benefit Analysis and Public Policy. John Wiley & Sons Inc. Read More