Medical Practice & Business


Contemporary Issues in Healthcare System


By A.S. (staff writer) , published on November 27, 2021



Medicine Telehealth Health Concerns in Healthcare System


 

Health-care systems are constantly adapting to epidemiological, demographic, and socioeconomic changes. Emerging technology, as well as political, economic, social, and environmental concerns, contribute to a complicated global health agenda.

Health concerns are becoming more essential in today's advanced society, and individuals are becoming more aware of their present health state. The public is increasingly aware of hospital treatment standards and finances. Social concerns are evolving as the world's quality of life rises. Technology has altered people's perceptions of and reactions to numerous societal concerns. Social care is intimately tied to public care, and hence discussion influences social and health care concerns.

 

FINANCIAL ISSUES

Offering inexpensive healthcare rates despite growing prices is a critical financial concern for healthcare management. Part of the reason for these growing prices is the higher cost of drugs, insurance premiums, and healthcare spending.

"Pharmaceuticals have been scrutinized by the public as a result of recurrent high price increases for essential treatments." According to statistics examined by 3 Axis Advisors, a healthcare research organization, "retail prices for 460 prescription medications are growing by an average of 5.2 percent in 2020 – more than double the predicted rate of inflation for this year."

Dealing with internal cost concerns for healthcare revenue cycle management and healthcare accounts receivable might take time away from focusing on value-centered patient care.

Implemented reformed policies in budget-making can overcome this issue. As the population increases worldwide, implementation of population control strategies will reduce health expenditures and these reforms make healthcare systems better.

 

ECONOMIC ISSUES

"Treating distinct patients grow more complex as the business of delivering healthcare becomes more complex." As a substitute than seeing a patient through a myopic lens that only allows a provider to notice an illness, physicians and their multidisciplinary teams are increasingly gathering socioeconomic information as part of the care process. "Where a patient lives, work, family status, and so on all have an impact on an individual's health, and physicians should integrate this information throughout the treatment process," writes Health Catalyst.

Disruptive technology has the promise of great advancements in healthcare management. The first is the use of medical equipment such as pulse, blood pressure, and blood sugar monitors to collect health information directly from patients. These "connected gadgets" are a component of the expanding Internet of Things (IoT).

"The worldwide internet of things (IoT) healthcare market was worth $56.1 billion in 2017 and is predicted to reach $267.6 billion by 2023, growing at a 30.2 percent CAGR during the forecast period (2018–2023)." In 2017, medical devices had the biggest market share of all components. Furthermore, according to P&S Intelligence  "wearable external devices supplied the most revenue to the market in the area of medical equipment."

Finally, providers may employ big data and artificial intelligence analytics to increase efficiency and uncover issue areas in a variety of domains. Staffing is projected to become a concern in the future, with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) projecting that the United States would suffer a physician shortfall of between 54,100 and 139,000 by 2033.

While it is feasible to accomplish more with less and to leverage solutions to these difficulties to properly employ a reduced provider pool, a large shortfall will influence the cost of obtaining care. This is especially true given the time and cost of medical education and training. To alleviate the consequences of project requirements, healthcare staffing services are provided.

"With more than 31 million workers filing unemployment claims between March 1 and May 2 as the coronavirus crisis hit the nation's economy, a new KFF analysis estimates 26.8 million people across the country would become uninsured due to loss of job-based health coverage if they don't sign up for other coverage," according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. May will be able to obtain ACA coverage through Medicaid or the Marketplace Tax Credits "

 

Healthcare and Covid-19

Although the Coronavirus has caused considerable changes in healthcare in the United States, some of these developments may be seen positively, including:

  • Telemedicine Advancement

  • HRAs will rise.

  • improved healthcare readiness

  • Increased use of nurse practitioners or physician assistants

Covid-19 causes loss worldwide economically, financially, and in other aspects. Although it was a pandemic situation worldwide, it has some positive aspects. Covid- 19 causes to made reforms in health systems, more implementation of technology in health care systems.

 

 

MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS

The convoluted healthcare system is causing a slew of problems. Cost increases, regulatory changes, code upgrades, inefficiencies, security risks, and disruptive technologies are all posing challenges for providers.

A fundamental problem is improving interoperability across unconnected providers and utilizing technology to compensate for reduced manpower and a greater emphasis on value-based care over quantity treated. This involves enhancing preventative approaches to community health management.

One intriguing cost-cutting alternative is to outsource critical functions to a reputable third-party healthcare service firm. While the healthcare business faces numerous challenges, the future is bright and developing daily.

 

To properly care for patients in the twenty-first century, a successful health professional will need to grasp information technology, utilizing its skills to organize information and access the most recent evidence. Furthermore, as patients obtain better and more information from the Internet and become more insistent on having their wishes, needs, and values fulfilled, health care providers will be called upon to expand their duties to include counselors, coaches, and partners. To provide the high levels of coordination and collaboration required for the chronically sick while addressing personnel shortages, health professionals will need to work in interdisciplinary teams, learning how to apportion responsibilities. Health workers must also understand design and quality improvement concepts to simplify and standardize procedures for improved safety and quality.

The Internet is set to be a key agent of change in the nation's healthcare system, thanks to advances in information technology. The Quality Chasm study emphasizes the need for automating clinical, financial, and administrative activities for improving quality, avoiding mistakes, increasing customer trust in the health system, and increasing efficiency (Institute of Medicine, 2001b). That paper and others, as well as William Richardson's plenary talk at the summit, suggest important areas where a communications and information technology infrastructure may significantly improve the health care system (Institute of Medicine, 2001a; National Research Council, 2000).

As a result, the revolution that has transformed practically every other part of life has not had the same impact on health care delivery (Institute of Medicine, 2001a). Most of the healthcare information is still housed in a collection of disorganized and sometimes unreadable paper records (Staggers et al., 2001; Hagland, 2001). Only a small percentage of patients have e-mail access to their caregivers.

The effectiveness of a system in responding to patient needs is determined by several factors, including facilities, supplies, state of knowledge, and information technology. However, such inputs are irrelevant unless appropriately educated professionals work within the system and constantly redesign it to adapt to ongoing and future challenges.

All these management problems can be overcome by effective management techniques by assigning jobs on a merit basis and reforming job responsibilities to health care professionals.

 

Recommendations

  • A lack of money to examine curriculum and teaching techniques, as well as the resources needed to implement necessary changes

  • In many academic institutions, there is an overemphasis on research and patient care, with little incentive to educate.

  • A shortage of faculty and faculty development to ensure that faculty are present at training sites and capable of efficiently teaching students new abilities

  • There is no coordinated monitoring across the education continuum, and responsibilities for undergraduate and graduate education are scattered. There is no integration across oversight systems, including accreditation, licensing, and certification.

  • A scarcity of visionary leaders; a lack of an evidence foundation for analyzing the effect of changes in teaching techniques or curriculum; and

  • Silo systems and long-established disciplinary divisions inside and between professions

  • In health professions education, there is an unsupportive culture and customs.

  • Curriculum overcrowding and competing expectations

  • Inadequate routes for exchanging knowledge and excellent practices

In summary, these problems have stopped the educational system from doing a better job of matching the delivery system's objectives. Leaders and managers of hospitals, health plans, and health care practices report growing skill gaps in their workforces, including technical and computer skills, critical thinking, communication, management, delegation, and supervision skills, as well as a systems perspective (Allied Health Workforce Innovations for the 21st Century Projects, 1999; Institute of Medicine, 2000; National Council for State Boards of Nursing, 2001). Recent educational program graduates report comparable skill deficiencies in their preparedness for current health care employment (Blumenthal et al., 2001; Cantor et al., 1993).

 

 

Conclusions

  • Errors, poor quality of service, and discontent among patients and health workers have resulted from bad system design.

  • Chronically sick people's needs are not being fulfilled effectively.

  • Addressing those demands necessitates the reform of care delivery systems, increased coordination and collaboration among health professionals, and a stronger focus on prevention and the behavioral determinants of health.

  • Technological breakthroughs in information technology and an enlarged knowledge base derived from clinical practice research have the potential to alter health care, but these gains have not been fully realized.

  • Patients and customers are becoming more knowledgeable about their health. As a result, a new relationship of shared decision-making between patients and health care professionals is required. Providers must also pay more attention to patients' beliefs, interests, and cultural origins.

  • Workforce shortages and the appropriate deployment of current experts must be addressed before the quality of service is jeopardized further.

  • Employers and recent alumni in health care cite gaps between how health professionals are prepared and what they are expected to do in practice, gaps that can be accredited to a variety of factors: including a lack of funding to revamp curricula and a limited focus on teaching in academic health centers.

 

 

References

•Institute of Medicine. 2000. To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System. Linda T. Kohn, editor; Janet M. Corrigan, editor; and Molla S. Donaldson, editor. , eds. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. 
•Allied Health Workforce Innovations for the 21st Century Projects. 1999. "The Hidden Health Care Workforce: Recognizing, Understanding and Improving the Allied and Auxiliary Workforce.“
•American Nurses Association/NursingWorld.Org. 2001. "On-line Health and Safety Survey: Key Findings.“




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