User Involvement in Health Care Service Delivery - Essay Example

? User Involvement in Health Care Service Delivery Number: Due: Introduction In order that the NHS fulfills its potential, there is an increasingly strong belief that patient's views should be sought in the design and delivery of services. Suggests patients and service users are best placed to determine decisions about health care and therefore they are not satisfied with a given service they have a right to go elsewhere to find satisfaction. There is an increasing body of evidence espousing the benefits of user involvement in healthcare delivery and planning. To this end, a succession of policy documents, guidance and research on how this may be achieved have emerged. It is therefore essential for those staff working within the NHS to have both awareness of how to involve their patients effectively and have an understanding of how it will ultimately improve patient services (Appley, Harrison & Devline 2003). Therefore it is vital for the NHS to view the users as patients (Breeze & Repper 1998). Therefore the staff within the NHS can know the illness in them. On the other hand, users can also be seen as the consumers, survivors, and the providers and all these helps the NHS staff to identify the roles and responsibilities of people with health problems and their relationship with the health care delivery services. The issue of user service in health care delivery is a new idea in the health policy and has been likened with the upcoming of the management principles in the NHS and the importance of consumer satisfaction. Definitions User Involvement In the recent days, consumers often want to have control and some form of influence over their health and the health care services. This is important for the patients who in some way find it difficult to seek their services in different “businesses” or find it harder to give out their opinion so that it can be considered by the NHS staff. Therefore user involvement in the delivery of high quality services in the health care sector entails making the services fit for every patient regarding their needs. The need would mean that all the customers would want personal care. The care is included for the traditional customers who are rarely likely to ask for personal care, and are more often discriminated. Thus there is the need of support for all the patients to make them stay healthy and satisfied and improve their health conditions. In the recent times, user involvement has become a major concern for everybody and even has raised eyebrows in the political agenda. User involvement in quality service delivery has been influenced mainly by the increase of consumers that mainly get a lot of information through the rapid growth of Internet use. The government involvement in this policy is through advising the health care sector on how to improve this service, and come up with several measures to increase the need for patient choice in health care. In the past user involvement was encouraged through documents such as The Health of the Nation (Department of Health, 1994), Working in partnership (Department of Health, 1992), and Building Bridges (Department of Health, 1991). These documents have stated it clear that the work of the health care workers solely depends on their relationship with the users of the various drugs and the staff services to them. Thus the recommendations of these documents for the future service delivery is based entirely on the user involvement (Department of Health, 1994). Another document from the government stated the need for specific measures to ensure the users are involved in the health care sector (Department of Health, 1992). User involvement brings into use different ideas. From individual decision making to a broader range of service planning and evaluation, and in the research on how this can be improved. Implications of User Involvement Advantages Even though the issue of user involvement has some difficulties in its implementation, there have been positive results that have been discovered in the radiographer’s field and imaging service delivery. It has been used in the ranking and conduction of research, involvement in staff selection, involvement in planning, education and training, management of clients in the health sector and in service delivery. Service Delivery The involvement of users in service delivery and planning in the health care sector has grown steadily in the last few years. Several studies have revealed of this scenario. For example, in most governments' agenda for health care and service delivery, that is in the NHS Plan (Department of Health, 1994), includes the improvement of the quality of services delivered to its customers, and this is often based on the principles of quality improvement and service redesign more often. The service delivery entails having a group of organizations that work together for a given period of time in a specific clinical area. The use of collaborative by the government as a method of service delivery has enabled patients to be involved and their needs are considered. Through this method the organization's needs are not the priority but to the patients. Through a survey conducted in a given country that brought into participation 37 organizations in the Mental Health Collaborative for the in-patient care discovered that the user involvement in health care had some positive effects (Department of Health 1999). In this study, users were encouraged to join the project teams as members, they were also encouraged to attend training through which they were taught in different sessions, and were involved in any work that involved service care. The involvement of patients in service delivery has brought about several changes in the processing of user problems such as the one did in documentation that has made it to be improved. Some of the changes that have been proposed by users show that they are the kind of changes that the staff would not see as of any priority and they are considered important however. The need for service delivery through the involvement of users has been viewed by the staff as a challenge to them has brought about new ideas about patient care. Although there is a need for future improvements in service delivery and increasing the user involvement in service delivery. Management In order for user service delivery involvement to bear fruit in any organization, the management ought to think about practical aspects of user involvement that might include financial and structural changes that might happen in the health organization. The need of an effective user involvement exercise might call on a review and possible changes in the already existing management structure, rather than the organization expecting the users to adapt quickly to the organization's way of working (Crawford & Aldridge 2003). The review of user involvement in an organization might also force the organization to look at their cultural environment. The health sector service delivery of any organization's culture might have several common features that include the dedication of genuine partners between the patients and the organizations and, hence the expected objectives among the two groups should be shared. This implies that all the people involved in the service delivery care that include the users and the organizations should have an equal treatment as if they are partnering in the same organization. Initially, the issue of involvement of patients in service delivery might be a problem and this would threaten the health care givers and this serve as a warning to the organizations to have the required management to address this issue so that all the involved parties can work together for the mutual benefit. It is vital to remember that every partner in the care service might bring different ideas but which are both essential and therefore effective management of the relationship between the organization and the customers depends on how the two partners mingle (Campbell 2001). The approach used by the management and its value to the patients is important to the success of user involvement policies. The management need to put their listening skills into practice and to value the people's attributes. Advantages of User Involvement in Health Care The need to involve the patients in health care service delivery has had several benefits. These include: Expert Patients The involvement of users in health care recognizes the service users as experts that have a rich understanding of health care in imaging services. Even though the experts in the imaging department might be trained, they might not be able to accomplish their services without the patient participation. Hence a medical staff might not be able to have the necessary knowledge to know the start of an illness and the patient would have this knowledge when they feel unwell and they can predict when they might feel unwell, their experience is necessary to quality service delivery and the individual packages. The prediction of patients themselves on when they might feel unwell is important to start medication at an early stage and the health professionals need to get this experience of the patients to make their jobs quite easier through concentrating on the information given by the patient (Braye 2000). User Priority The service users and the imaging department professionals often have different ideas regarding the illness. This would include the perspectives on the importance of a certain service. Users might be concerned about their poverty levels and this might not be taken into concentration without user involvement. Having serviced delivery with the help of service users more often sees the incorporation of the users' priorities. Understanding of Imaging Service The inclusion of user's knowledge about the imaging problems and the health issues gives the health experts the needed knowledge that they might not be aware of, or it would be limited. User involvement may also create new ways of thinking about the health problems. Alternative Approaches Users are able to come up with different ways to imaging services that can be used besides the existing methods. Alternative methods are important to supplement the ones that are being used by the medical staff and they help the health experts look at the health conditions in a broader way. Involvement as Therapy Through user involvement the delivery of services by the health workers has been improved, this is in specific when users cooperate with the staff, increases confidence among the staff members, raise self-esteem, and leads to the acquiring of new skills. Disadvantages Despite user involvement in service delivery being viewed as more beneficial to the quality of the services that medical staff offer, critics still think that there disadvantages accrued to this method. Emphasis has been based on consultation rather than the patients' influence or control on the kind of medicine they should receive. A variety of disadvantages are often likened as a barrier to quality service delivery through user involvement. They include limited knowledge, resistance of the users' ideas from the experts, expensive to implement, and poor representation. Limit Knowledge Having enough knowledge and information is important for any successful user involvement. Critics argue that there is a lack of information concerning, imaging services among the patients and therefore it would be a problem to involve them in service deliveries. Therefore, even though users have not been involved in service delivery, it is often articulated to lack of information on their side and it would be less significant to involve them. Expensive Most organizations find it difficult to implement this service because it is often associated with high costs that might be a burden to most health care companies. It is also a time-consuming exercise for the organization and to the service users. A survey conducted on where carried out showed that only 26% often provided the means of transport for the users, and 14% for the carers and only 30% service users were paid and only 10% of carers were paid. This clearly show that it is a problem to implement the user involvement exercise among the health staff. Poor Representation It is often a problem to find representatives that gives the full ideas of all the users of given drugs. They often represent their own problems and do not put any consideration on other groups of people. Thus finding representatives who would give general information has been a major problem for all those that carry out user involvement. Resistance Most professionals view service users as not being experts enough to give the necessary knowledge. Thus they often reject their ideas and perceive it as too little. Therefore the lack of support to the user service delivery has been a major problem. Examples of Areas of User Involvement Although there is a problem in the implementation of user involvement in service delivery, there is a variety of evidence that shows user involvement in mental and social care. Users in the mental health care have been involved in: ranking and conducting of research, they have been involved in staff selection, they have been employed as mental health workers and are being paid, they have moreover been involved in the planning and redesigning of health services. Also the users have been involved in training other users and giving them more ideas (Borril 2000). Examples of Areas that need Improvement in terms of User Involvement in Imaging Department The imaging department is one of the many service providers within cancer and clinical help services in the health sector. This department has service plans that give clearly states the goals that are specific to the department itself. Thus user involvement approach in this department has been adopted in order for these objectives to be realized. It includes “standard setting” process that covers the yearly survey for all the users. These need to be improved for the imaging department to satisfy the patients of cancer and other clinical problems in the health sector to be satisfied in terms of their services. Imaging services that include the time in which they are being offered, need to be improved and the patients must be involved in the decision on the right time for the services. Most imaging departments rely on Kodak scanners that are now used in the place of paper that used to keep patient information. The implementation of this new system was under limited user involvement and although it can save patient lives by giving the doctors an alert on the patient condition, it could be having some effects on the patient. Conclusion It is however believed that user involvement does not automatically result in high quality service delivery by an organization. This is because the organizations and users in the health care understand the issue of user involvement in service delivery in different ways. The professionals in health have different ideologies, regarding the way the users might find themselves in varied circumstances and therefore different needs. Since the implementation of user involvement in service delivery in the health care sector is an expensive undertaking, there is a need for in depth understanding to all the stakeholders on the importance of such involvement. Therefore, if the organizations and the individual persons who are the patients get to know their involvement and a better evidence of the benefits then any government would be a step ahead in its implementation. The process of involving users in service delivery in the health care sector is however in the early stages and has not been fully implemented. Most stakeholders are not being made to understand whether user involvement would lead to better service delivery or create room for improved results fro most of the users. However what has been clear is that having a variety of user involvement and control of service delivery would have some effects on the way in which the health care services are being given. In specific, there might be vital consequences for the role of health professionals, the relationship that they would have with the service users, and the way in which health service delivery is organized, and assessed. In order to realize effective results in the health care user involvement would include: Involving users in the design and service delivery to the level in which they want it to be. The government should give the required help so these people can actively be involved in service delivery. References Appley, J., Harrison, A., and Devlin, N. (2003) “What is the Real Cost of More Patient Choice?” American Institute of Planning Journal, London: Kings Fund. Borril, J. (2000) “Developments in treatment for people with Radiography experiences”. Library Journal, New York: New York. Braye, S. (2000)” Participation and involvement in social care: An overview In User Involvement and Participation in Social Care”. Research Informing Practice, pp. 9–28. London: Jessica Kingsley. Breeze, J., & Repper, J. (1998) “Struggling for control: the Care Experiences of ‘difficult’ Patients in mental health services”. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 28, 1301–1311 Campbell, P. (2001)”The role of users in radiography services in service development – Influence not power”. Radiography Bulletin, 25, 87–88. Crawford, M., & Aldr idge, T. (2003)” User involvement in the planning and delivery of mental health Service”. Health Journal, 107, 410–414. Department of Health (1991) The Patient’s Charter. London: HMSO. Department of Health (1992) The Health of the Nation. London: HMSO. Department of Health (1994) “Working in Partnership”. Report of the Review of Mental Health Nursing. London: HMSO. Department of Health (1999) The National Service Framework for Mental Health. London: Department of Health. Read More