The Need for an Additional Home Health Care Agency in the District of Columbia - Research Paper Example

The need for an additional Home Health care agency in the District of Columbia Introduction The following is a discussion evaluating the need for an additional Home Healthcare Agency in the District of Columbia. As it stands currently, the existing Home Health Care agency in the District of Columbia are unwilling or unable to serve the district’s home health care population, especially in ward 5, 6, 7 and 8. There is no doubt that with such a population District of Columbia requires an additional home health care agency. This paper attempts to explain why there is a need for such additional home care provider while describing and documenting the process of determining such needs. In order to have an articulated analysis and evaluation, the paper focuses on an overview of home healthcare in District of Columbia currently, reasons for the need for additional home healthcare agency, needs that the additional healthcare agency is going to meet, process and rationale of the need, and a conclusion. Overview of Home Healthcare in District of Columbia Home Healthcare is one of the affordable and convenient way of providing health care services to citizens of a given state, country, or district. Through Home Healthcare services, the District of Columbia has been able to provide various health care services and facilities to both its citizens and visitors in a bid to attaining a healthy city (Benedetti 19). The Department of Health (DOH) in the District of Columbia is concerned with ensuring that the citizens as well as visitors within the region receive better healthcare services through various Home Healthcare facilities or agencies (Dchealth.dc.gov d). Healthy population is very important in ensuring overall growth and development of not only the individual citizens but also the whole district. While addressing the District of Columbia’s healthcare facilities and provisions, the District of Columbia’s State Health Plan identifies that a healthy city is a reflection of every facet of individuals’ lives ranging from their personal health to health of their friends, relatives, and neighbors. In addition, the health of the community and the environment is depicted by a healthy city. Consequently, there has been serious need to upgrade the Home Healthcare within the District in a bid to attaining a healthy city. In most instances, the goal of Home Healthcare agency within the District of Columbia is to treat illness or injuries, which might otherwise lead to more life complications. While achieving this goal such Home Health care agencies within the District of Columbia always aim at ensuring that citizens and visitors within the district have sound health that will aid in their productivity as well as that of the district (Dchealth.dc.gov a). Over the past periods the District of Columbia has experienced unacceptable increasingly high rates of mortality from infants to adults. The district has exhibited high rates of various chronic diseases that include amongst other heart diseases, cancer, HIV/AIDS, cerebrovascular diseases, homicides, diabetes, influenza, chronic lower respiratory disease, and hypertension. Most of these diseases are claiming the lives of citizens in the District of Columbia making the district to experience serious problems in growth and development. Currently, the existing Home Health Care agency in the District of Columbia are either unwilling or unable to provide efficient, effective, and up to date health care facilities in order to meet the goals of many home health cares. It is true that the District has been experiencing increasing mortality rate due to inadequate, ineffective, and inefficient health care facilities and services provided within the Home Health Care agency in the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia’s State Health Plan identified the fact that there are health disparities that lead to inequality in available opportunities for citizens within the district to access high quality and affordable health care facilities and services. Such inequality may be due to several factors such as race, ethnic groups, social and economic classes and divisions. The current population of citizens in Columbia District is approximately 617,996. Need for Additional Home Care Provider District of Columbia, like any other district or region within the USA requires adequate, effective, and efficient public goods and services amongst them health care, education, housing, and other social amenities. Currently, the district is experiencing poor health care services from Home Health Care agency which has very pathetic conditions especially within its wards 5, 6, 7, and 8. Many reasons explain the need for additional Home Health care agencies within the District. Some of these reasons include increasing mortality rates, increasing population due to high population growth, need for home based care for the increasing elderly, as well as dynamics in technology amongst others (Dchealth.dc.gov a). The following discussion attempts to establish how these reasons are calling for additional Home Health Care agencies within the District of Columbia. Increasing Mortality Rates One of the main reasons for the need for additional Home Health Care agency within the district is to reduce the increasing mortality rate especially from illnesses and injuries that can be easily mitigated. Statistically, the district is experiencing increasing mortality rate due to poor home health care facilities that can only be solved through additional Home Health Care agency. Additional Home Health care agency will provide more services in order to help reducing the high mortality rate that the district has been experiencing for the past few years. The table below provides a statistical analysis and comparison of the rate of mortality experienced in District of Columbia against the mortality rates experienced in Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8. The rates are per 100, 000 population. Table 1: Mortality Rates in District of Columbia (Department of Health, State Center for Health Statistics) Indicators District of Columbia Ward 5 Ward 6 Ward 7 Ward 8 Estimated Population 528,964 66,866 58,095 58,752 57,717 Deaths from Heart Disease 269.0 350.0 261.6 309.8 206.2 Deaths from Cancer 229.3 285.6 275.4 263.8 173.3 Deaths from HIV/AIDS 46.1 52.3 74.0 52.8 58.9 Deaths from Cerebrovascular Disease 51.0 56.8 49.9 57.9 27.7 Deaths from Homicide 45.2 53.8 68.9 85.1 71.0 Deaths from Diabetes 33.7 46.4 44.8 57.9 26.0 Deaths from Accidents & Adverse Effects 23.8 29.9 34.4 23.8 17.3 From the District of Columbia’s State Health Plan, the above diseases were identified as the seven most deadly diseases that are taking away many lives. Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 have exhibited increasing mortality rates indicating that there are poor, inadequate, ineffective, and inefficient health care services and facilities. Increasing mortality rates in this regards can only be reduced through employing more health care services and facilities within the region and the district (Dchealth.dc.gov b). The following pie chart provides an overview of the rate of mortality arising from the above mentioned seven diseases within the District of Columbia. Figure 1: Ten causes of High Mortality Rates in District of Columbia (Department of Health, State Center for Health Statistics) From the above statistics, it is obvious that Wards 5, 6, 7, and 8 and the general healthcare within the District of Columbia is wanting, inadequate, inefficient, and ineffective. The reason for increased mortality rates as described in the above statistics is due to inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the Home Health care currently present in the district. Adding more Home Health Care agencies in the district is likely to reduce the mortality rate (Dchealth.dc.gov d). Such additional Home Health care agencies will not only provide effective and efficient health services but will open up more opportunities for easier accessibility of health care facilities and services. With increased opportunities for easier accessibility Columbian citizens will be able to receive timely health care facilities and services thereby reducing the rate of mortality within the region (Alexy, Benjamin-Coleman, & Brown 235). Therefore, there is need to add more Home Health care agencies within the District of Columbia in a bid to providing increased opportunities for easier accessibility of health care facilities and services for the Columbian citizens. The following table provides more information on the health of Columbian citizens. The various indicators used in the table confirm that from the existing Home Health Care agency in Columbia District there are likely to be more deaths. Increasing mortality rates will lead to reduction in the population that helps in attaining growth and development objectives of the district, region, state, and the whole Unite States of America. Figure 2 (Department of Health, State Center for Health Statistics) Increasing Population Other than the increasing poor health in the District of Columbia calling for additional Home Health Care agencies, the other factor that calls for additional health care services and facilities is the growing populations. District of Columbia like any other region in the USA has been experiencing increasing population growth rate. Such increase in population is likely to stretch the available health care services and facilities. The following table provides a comparison of the district’s population and the population of USA (Department of Health, State Center for Health Statistics). Table 2: Statistics on District of Columbia Measurement District of Columbia USA Population, 2011 Estimates 617,996 311,591,917 Population 2010 601,723 308,745,538 Population, percent change, 2000-2010 5.2% 9.7% Population 2000 572,059 281,421,906 Persons Under 5yrs, percent, 2010 5.4% 6.5% Persons under 18yrs, percent, 2010 16.8% 24.0% Persons 65 yrs and over, percent, 2010 11.4% 13.0% Female Persons 52.8% 50.8% Male Persons 47.2% 49.2% Figure 3: Population by Ethnic Groups in Columbia District (Department of Health, State Center for Health Statistics) The above data indicates that the population of Columbia has been growing since 2000. Increasing population growth rate demands that more public goods and services be availed in order to overcome any inadequacy that a region may experience. District of Columbia has a population growth rate of approximately 5.2%, which is slightly higher than other districts in the USA. Projecting on the basis of this population growth rate there is no doubt that in the near future the population will be more that the available public goods and services especially health care facilities and services (Ellenbecker et al). Notably, overcoming such future projections inadequacy is only attainable through increasing health care facilities and services. Therefore, on the basis of population growth rate within the District of Columbia there is serious need for additional health care facilities and services (Bright 31). Through adding more Home Health Care agencies, the District of Columbia will be able to provide such additionally required health care facilities and services. Therefore, population growth rate is another factor and reason that explains the demand for additional Home Health Care agencies to help in providing additionally required health care facilities and services. Need for Home-Based Care In addition to increasing population within the District of Columbia, the elderly population has also been on the rise. Rise in the elderly population is causing further stretch on the resources of the existing Home Health Care agency (Ellenbecker et al). Consequently, this has led to poor performance of the Home Health Care agency. Elderly population within the District of Columbia is calling for customized health facilities and services, which cannot be provided by the existing Home Health care agency due to lack of adequate resources with the little being present experiencing serious stretch from other groups in the population. Like other ages of population the elderly deserves the right to receive adequate, effective, and efficient health care facilities and services Alexy, Benjamin-Coleman, & Brown 237). Since the existing Home Health care agency does not have the capacity and resources to offer the required Home-based care for the elderly, there is need to have additional Home Health Care agencies, which should be given resources and capacity to provide such services. As important as they are, the increased need for elderly home-based care has necessitated the need to have additional Home Health Care agency. Dynamisms in Technology An aspect of contemporary life that has accompanied all sects of the global economy is technology. Developments and advancements in technologies have become part of human life in all sects of the economy. Nonetheless, such developments and advancements are highly dynamic hence keep on changing from time to time (Ellenbecker et al). Provision of health care facilities and services require update technology in order to deal with many forms of diseases. Currently the technology used within the existing Home Health care agency is not only adequate but outdated (Benedetti 21). There has been serious need for updated technology within the healthcare industry in a bid to providing efficient, effective, and adequate health care services and facilities within the District of Columbia (Bright 34). The only way of attaining this demand is through development of new and better Home Health Care agencies, which are conscious about the need and impact of technology in the health care provisions. Therefore, increasing dynamisms within development and advancements in technology is demanding for additional Home Health care agencies within the District of Columbia. Impact of additional Home Health Care Agencies Having stated the reasons calling for additional Home Health Care agencies within the District of Columbia, it would be reasonable to understand the impact of such additional health care resources as this will act as a motivating factor. Health care facilities and services as identified by the District of Columbia’s State Health Plan are very vital in determining the overall health of the district, state, and the nation (Dchealth.dc.gov d). Evidently, there have been increased deaths within the District due to inadequate healthcare facilities (Ellenbecker et al). What’s more, the increasing population is causing further stretch on available health care facilities and resources. On a different perspective, there is need to have increased technology and resources that will help in solving some of the contemporary problems and illnesses. For instance, there is a contemporary issue of offering home-based care for the elderly. Additional Home Health Care agencies within the District of Columbia are likely to have significant positive impact despite the increased costs in attaining the project. Through additional Home Health care agencies, Columbian citizens will be able to have access to health facilities and services (Gundling 72). Accessibility of health care facilities and services, which is a main challenge within the whole of US, will enhance the health of Columbian citizens thereby increasing their productivity. With increased productivity, the District of Columbia is likely to experience growth and development (Dansky, Mark and Larry 331). Moreover, additional Home Health Care agencies will be conscious about contemporary problems facing the community in the District of Columbia. In this perspective, additional Home Health care agencies will have significant positive impact on the health, growth and development of the district together with its citizens. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that in order to have such additional Home Health care agencies there will be need for additional resources in terms of finance and human personnel. Notably, the involved financial and human resources requirement will be far less than the significant positive impact that the additional Home Health care agencies will bring to the district and its citizens. Conclusion Fundamentally, health is an important aspect of growth and development for individuals, institutions, communities, states, and nations amongst others. There is need for serious investment in providing health care facilities and services in a bid to enhancing health of such groups. For a long time the District of Columbia has exhibited increased mortality rates. Such mortality rates have been as a result of inadequate health care facilities and services. What’s more, the district’s population has exhibited tremendous growth rate thereby stretching available health care resources. Increasing population of the elderly has also called for the need to have home-based health care. Dynamisms in technology have also awakened the need to have health care facilities that are technological conscious. Consequently, all these have led to the need to have additional Home Health care agencies. Such Home Health Care agencies are likely to cause a positive impact on the district and its population. Works Cited Alexy Benard, Benjamin-Coleman, Rodegers, & Brown Smavile. Home health care and client outcomes. Home Healthc Nurse 2001;19: 233-9. Benedetti, Marti. "Home Health Agencies Prepare for Performance Plan." Crains Detroit Business 25.3 (2009): 15-22 Bright, Lyllod. Strategies to improve the patient safety outcome indicator: preventing or reducing falls. Home Health Nurse 2005;23(1):29-36. Cdc.gov. Behavioral risk factors surveillance system measures. Web. Accessed March 22, 2012 from http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/ Dansky, Kathryn H., Mark Milliron, and Larry, Gamm. "Understanding Hospital Referrals to Home Health Agencies." Journal of Healthcare Management 41.3 (1996): 331 Dchealth.dc.gov (a). Addressing the District of Columbia’s Health priorities: State Health Plan. Web. Accessed on March 22, 2012 from http://www.dchealth.dc.gov/doh/frames.asp?doc=/doh/lib/doh/services/administration_offices/shpda/pdf/new_2007_health_plan.pdf Dchealth.dc.gov (b). Department of Health, State Center for Health Statistics. Web. Accessed on March 22, 2012. Dchealth.dc.gov (c). Department of Health: Healthy People 2010 Plan, midcourse revisions (2000-2005). Web. Accessed on March 22, 2012. Dchealth.dc.gov (d). Reports: Center for policy, planning, and epidemiology: State Center for Health Statistics: Mortality rates for the District of Columbia. Web. Accessed on March 22, 2012 from http://www.dchealth.dc.gov/DOH/cwp/view,a,1374,q,580898,dohNav_GID,1802,dohNav,|33200|33240|.asp Ellenbecker, Carol., Samia, Linda., Cushman, Margaret., & Alster, Kristine. Chapter 13: Patient safety and quality home health care. Web. Accessed on March 22, 2012 from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/docs/EllenbeckerC_PSQHC.pdf Gundling, Richard. "Home Health Agencies should Prepare for Prospective Payment." Healthcare Financial Management 54.2 (2000): 72-3. Read More