Hospital-Acquired Infections and Their Implications - Essay Example

"Hospital-Acquired Infections and Their Implications" is a good example of a paper on the health system.

Healthcare financing is an expensive undertaking, and all stakeholders in the sector work for quality, efficient, and patient-oriented care to promote patient welfare. Medical errors can significantly raise healthcare financing, making it difficult to reach the desired goals and objectives in relation to healthcare provision. Alleviating errors or significantly reducing them can adequately account for better healthcare. Finances that could be directed to improved caregiving procedures or medical undertakings are likely to be directed to cover medical errors, thereby diverging from the sole purpose they are designed to serve. Hospital Acquired Infections (HAIs) constitute such errors, presenting diverse and sometimes adverse financial implications to hospitals and healthcare facilities in general.

Financial Implications

Patient Welfare

Patients access healthcare services to promote and improve their health status. The cost of doing so is likely to exacerbate in cases of HAIs. Patients that suffer from HAIs after being hospitalized ongoing through the medical procedures that their health complications subject them to incur added costs of treatment. Hospitals and healthcare facilities also have to invest in preventative practices in relation to HAIs (Katharine, 2005). On the same note, in circumstances where HAIs-related lawsuits are filed by patients, the responsible facility might have to settle the patient’s added bills, thereby resulting in added operational costs for that facility.

Cost of Operation

Operational costs are determined by the healthcare facility’s daily undertakings. Most hospitals and facilities have to account for preventative measures in relation to HAIs, a scenario that exacerbates costs of operation as opposed to circumstances where such infections are not present. In other words, medical errors only constitute added operational costs. Financing healthcare is an expensive undertaking, and so are the likely errors that emerge from healthcare pursuits.

Sector Performance

The individual performance of a healthcare facility contributes to the total output of the industry. This means that bids to account for medical errors by an individual facility are further extended to the industry. Sources of health care finance are monitored by the industry or healthcare sector on behalf of individual healthcare providers. For this reason, financial restraints that medical errors cause to an individual provider are likely to be passed on to other players in the industry (Muralidhar & Muralidhar, 2007). This is further likely to negatively affect the performance and effectiveness of the healthcare sector in financial aspects.

Hospital Billing

Healthcare facilities bill patients based on their best-preferred payment method. Many patients hold insurance covers, while others access healthcare services on an out-of-pocket basis. Whatever the payment option is chosen, medical errors and specifically HAIs influence the affordability of healthcare services. Insurance companies are likely not to cover such infections, passing this burden to the patients. The underlying difficulties are not only patient-based but are organizational in nature on the wider scope. Medical research and studies vary on the HAIs issue, although they hold in common that such infections cause financial restrains on organizations operating in the healthcare field (Muralidhar & Muralidhar, 2007).