Health care providers - Assignment Example

? Questions and Answers Affiliation: Why is change so difficult for healthcare professionals? The basic principle that governs the objectives of health care providers is the duty and responsibility to promote people’s health. The idea is not only getting people to stay healthy, but also to maintain their good health over time (Dewar, 2009). In the light of achieving this objective, health care professionals have had difficulties embracing change. This has been rooted in the line of services offered and the nature of their profession. To start with, the demand for health care is derived rather than direct. In this regard, heath care professionals have always differed in determining what combination yields maximum benefit for health care seekers. A unique consensus lacks among these professionals, thereby constituting the difficulties therein. Consensus about a given way of having things done is fundamental in determining need for change and the extent to which change is spread across the identified practitioners. Change is by great margin characterized by an advancement of a given status or level. Health related advancements take longer to materialize and create the desired impact in the specific medical field they are tailored to. This as a result of longer time lags of research and development in health sector. On the same note, health professionals practice a rather fixed profession where most ways of doing things require that a given system, mechanism or protocol be followed. Change is an expensive affair (Dewar, 2009). The health sector is primarily financed by the government through the relevant ministries and agencies. Critical resources need to be put in place for effective realization of change. Innovativeness, creativity and inventions are key drivers of an intervention that is likely to bring about change. Health care professionals on their own cannot afford to undertake such interventions in the absence of adequate funds. On the same note, contemporary technology ought to be integrated in the process. This factor combination constitutes numerous difficulties in the context of change for and by health professionals. What are some of the ethical issues posed by information technology? Information technology has been a great boost of the current health care systems in place. Technological advancements have facilitated and aided success into various medical interventions. However, the positives attributed to information technology are not without their negative side. Ethical issues have been raised in the light of using information technology. One of the ethical concerns posed by information technology is that confidentiality for health care givers and health care seekers. A lot of information about patients and health care professionals are stored in data bases run through information technology programs (Dewar, 2009). This information is likely to be available to a number of users, even those that it does not concern. The privacy of both parties aforementioned is therefore guaranteed because of the likelihood of access by one person after the other. Computer crimes have also had their impact on the provision of health care. Hacking has become quite common, and the motives behind such acts are ill. Misuses of information stored in computers have also been of ethical concerns to the sector. Both the health care professionals have used this information for personal or for collective gains at the expense of another party. Moral obligations and codes of conduct for both caregivers and patients have been violated, thus the emergence of ethical concerns in the health system, particularly in the application and use of information technology. At some point, social security has been challenged. What are some of the issues that were unique at Hermann Healthcare System? How did leadership deal with these issues? Healthcare provision is a practice that requires pulling up adequate resources and finances for effective and efficient provision of demanded health services. The implication of this is that the quality of health care should be of the desired level, at an affordable price. This is a factor that Hermann Healthcare System intensively considered and evaluated in the light of its suitability to patients. A number of issues emerged unique to this system. One of them is that of operational efficiency. Cost and revenue are two integral factors that should be assessed and evaluated for any health system in order to determine the suitability of that particular system. Under this system, health programs proved affordable, with healthcare being adequately financed (Dewar, 2009). Revenues accrued by the system were in excess of over one billion dollars. Clinical outcomes of the system were proved to be one of the most efficient in the nation. Proper provision of services and discharge of duties and responsibilities by the system’s health practitioners aided the success characteristic of the clinical outcomes. Safety and satisfaction of patients was a major concern under this system, with the primary objective being to grant the patients a quality and cost effective care. The leadership aided the highlighted process and the realization of the identified unique issues through effective allocation of available resources and establishing human resource management policies that were in line with the system. The different care needs for patients was a driving force for the innovativeness of the leadership. In this regard, the leadership remained committed to upholding and maintaining good health for all. Why does it take longer than expected to achieve “maximum impact” of a new technology. What can be done by leadership to accelerate this process? Contemporary technological trends in the healthcare sector are tailored towards the provision of quality and cheap services to the entire population. Whatever health system adopted, need for new and advanced technology cannot be disputed (Dewar, 2009). However, the achievement of maximum impact of a new technology takes longer than expected. One of the reasons behind this is that a new technology has to be fully integrated into the healthcare systems in order to realize maximum benefits. This process is challenged since health systems are long-term tailored with little or no provisions for change. New technology would require that such systems be upgraded in order to match the requirements of that technology. This process is bound to time factor and may take longer than the scheduled time. Another reason is that health and medical interventions last for years. Technological advancements are pursued every single day. The growth and development of health related technologies is far much beyond the pace taken by health and medical interventions (Dewar, 2009). Technology developed for a given intervention may fail to achieve its purpose if that intervention fails or another better technology is developed for the same purpose. Due to these variations, the maximum benefit of a new technology is bound to be challenged by an upcoming one even before full benefits of that technology is reaped. Acceleration process by the management or leadership can take a number of forms. The leadership should evaluate the pros and cons of new technologies in order to rule out those that have upgrade aspects but lacks long-term factor benefits. The integration process should be accelerated by formulating and implementing prior policies in reforming a system that ought to accommodate a new technology. Reference Dewar, D. (2009). Essentials of Health Economics. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Read More