Health Care Continuum - Thesis Proposal Example

Health Care Continuum Thesis ment Presently, health care continuum plays an important role in the health care system with the aim of providing extensive care as well as treatment services to patients under different circumstances. In this context, the assignment intends to provide a presentation on health care continuum to a policy-making body that might use the information to allocate resources and shape regulations for long term care. II. Continuum of Care A. Long-Term Care The continuum of care relates to different types of long-term care services provided to patients based on treatments needed. Continuum of care plays a vital part in reducing the number of neonatal, maternal and child deaths that have occurred from the past few years. Continuum of care is an essential aspect during lifecycle of a human that involves infant, adolescence, pregnancy, child delivery, post-delivery period and chronic diseases among others. It is also important in the process of caregiving which comprises household services, community based services, casualty and outreach services. Continuum of care mainly emphasizes towards promoting health and fitness among patients requiring different care as well as treatment services for better promotion of health initiatives (Kerber et al., 2007). Most of the developing nations require to integrate continuum of care in the health care delivery system in order to ensure that the level of care as well as treatment facilities are extended to every patients and community as a whole with the aim of better health promotion.. In this regard, continuum of care is required to be implemented in a community with the ascertaining that the needs of patients are met in order to develop a healthy community. Subsequently, long term care might be offered to patients and individuals for need of care through the development of nursing homes, residential homes for aged individuals and development of ‘home and community based services’. Therefore, it is considered that creating continuum of care packages for providing health care services will require efficient trials in numerous health care settings along with policy support from law enforcing bodies to integrate service delivery with the continuity process. In addition, large scale investment for reinforcing the health care systems and operational facilities requires to be given utmost consideration, so that patients are provided care for long term (Kerber et al., 2007). IV. Services Provided There are different components of health care delivery, which play a huge role in influencing the services provided to patients. These components include ‘finance’, ‘insurance’, ‘delivery’ and ‘payments’ that eventually form a ‘quad-function model’(Shi & Singh, 2008). Long term care (LTC) can be referred as the set of tailored and coordinated services of health care that provide freedom to individuals with various health related problems for an prolonged stretch of time. There are different kind of LTC services which includes ‘medical care’, ‘residential services’, ‘mental health services’, ‘hospice services’ and ‘social support’ (Evashwick, 2005). Medical care. LTC services of medical care are associated with long-lasting disease and comorbidity. Medical care focuses on providing services such as continuum of care after curing patients with severe diseases in hospitals. Under medical care services, health care units emphasize clinical management for patients suffering from chronic diseases in order to avoid any kind of potential impediments. In addition, LTC settings of medical care provide hospitalization services for elder patients, as they are more prone to acute diseases (Evashwick, 2005). Residential services. The main element of LTC is supportive housing wherein people suffering from certain disabilities are provided residential services, so that they are completely free from their disability and other severe chronic diseases. For instance, collective housing or care services in multi-unit housing are provided to patients with disability in which well-being, relaxation and cleanliness is given top priority (Evashwick, 2005). Mental health services. Mental disorders such as dementia, dejection and delirium are the most common problems faced by elderly patients. Thus, mental health services of LTC provide diagnosis and cure services to patients, so that there are positive improvements among patients in terms of their mental health. Qualified professionals in outpatient as well as inpatient facilities usually provide the services (Evashwick, 2005). Hospice services. Hospice services are also known as end-of-life care services wherein specialized services are provided to patients who are lethally ill and are expected to live for less than six months. These services are one of the most important elements of LTC, as it incorporates various treatment measures such as spiritual and family support services in order to make the patients free from their discomfort and agony. In this context, services consideration is given for relieving the mental torment of patients (Evashwick, 2005). Social support. Social support involves various services such as counseling and providing assistance in order to help the patients in dealing with problems related to emotional imbalance and stress. It includes LTC services such as concrete and emotive support, so that the lives of these patients are enhanced with better management of pain (Evashwick, 2005). VI. Continuum of Care Levels Transitional care is primarily vital for patients with numerous chronic disorders and intricate therapeutic treatments, as they require moving from one health care unit to another to avail services from different physicians. Transitional care requires to be provided with high quality to older patients owing to the fact that they require utmost care for successful treatment and diagnosis of chronic diseases. Therefore, transitional care is about patients receiving health care from many physicians through frequently moving from one health care setting to another. Certain gaps have been identified in transitional care wherein patients due to insufficient education, cultural differences and limited accessibility to the required services are not ensured with continuum of care. Transitional care models can suffice the requirement of health care continuum for patients by providing community-based treatment services of transitional care, which ultimately increases the accessibility of care services. Health care units providing acute treatment services require improving the transition process in order to enhance the process in which patients are handed-off to other units for acute care. Therefore, transiting patients effectively from one level of care to another might highly contribute towards health care continuum, which will eventually enhance the quality of care provided to the patients with chronicle and other diseases (Naylor & Keating, 2008). VII. Resource Management Hospice care is one of the most important components in LTC services, which highly influence in the management of health care resources. It is considered that hospice care has induced certain developments in the health care service delivery, which makes it quite evident that it has contributed in the overall management of health care resources such as nurses and professionals. This is because health care units in terms of ‘inpatient and outpatients setting’ have efficiently applied appropriate hospice LTC services. Hospice services play a huge role in the appropriate usage of health care resources, as it mainly focuses on reducing the overall cost of healthcare resources in order to ensure that both health care providers and patients benefit from cost reduction approach. It will be worth mentioning that due to the continuous rise in ageing population, hospice care of LTC services had a huge potential of enhancing the performance of health care units that has eventually ensured that resources such as health care equipment is well-managed and used as per the service requirement. In addition, hospice care has improved the quality of service delivery provided to adult patients, which has made the health care professionals to acquire new skills and knowledge thereby ensuring in effectively managing professionals entrusted with the responsibility of providing LTC services. Hospice care service has made the allocation of health care resources quite easier, as it has instigated increased cooperation among health care professionals and family members for optimum usage of resources (Harrison et al., 2005). However, it is considered that hospice services consume an uneven portion of health care resources during the last phase of patient’s life owing to competition and complexities in recognizing residents’ terminal status, which have resulted in increased turnover rates and shortage of staff. In this regard, healthcare staff and other resources are required to be managed for better hospice care services (Hodgson, n.d.). IX. Effects and Changes Needed Hospice care services have been a conversational subject from the past few decades in terms of governmental, health care policies and service quality viewpoints. It is believed that LTC service of hospice care will be highly affected in order to meet the future and current trends of health care policy in the US. This is because health care units providing hospice care have been affected in numerous manners due to the current trend of reforms in health care policy. The effects include reduction in the reimbursement of payments provided to hospice health care professionals through cutoff of funds in Medicare. This in turn might deteriorate the services provided to patients, as the profit margin for service providers is minimal in providing hospice services (Giovanni, 2012). Thus, it has been identified that the trend of changing health care policy has adversely affected hospice LTC services. In this regard, it is considered that certain changes in the hospice LTC are required to meet the future trends of health care policy. The changes include providing patients the complete authority on the decision made for treatments they intend to avail. Advanced care directives must be formulated in health care units, so that the patients’ requirements are completely met and utmost preferences are offered to the quality of service. In addition, health care specialists must recognize that making hospice care services accessible to adult patients is the only platform for the service providers to enhance their skills and meet the changing future trends (Giovanni, 2012). References Evashwick, C. (2005). The continuum of long-term care. US: Cengage Learning. Giovanni, L. A. (2012). End-of-Life Care in the United States: Current reality and future promise – a policy review. Nursing Economics, 33 (3), 127-134. Harrison, J. P., Ford, D., & Wilson, K. (2005). The impact of hospice programs on us hospitals. Nursing Economics, 23(2),78-84. Hodgson, C. (n.d.).Cost-effectiveness of palliative care: A review of the literature. Retrieved from http://hpcintegration.ca/media/24434/TWF-Economics-report-Final.pdf Kerber, K. J., Johnson, J, Bhutta, Z. A., Okong, P., Starrs, A., & Lawn, J. E. (2007). Continuum of care for maternal, newborn, and child health: From slogan to service delivery. Lancet, 370, 1358-1369. Naylor, M., & Keating, S. A. (2008). Transitional Care: Moving patients from one care setting to another. American Journal of Nursing, 108 (9), 58-63. Shi, L. & Singh, D. A. (2008). Delivering health care in America. US: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Read More