AMT Task 3

The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers (HCAHPS) began in 2006 with a 27 question survey that is distributed to discharged patients. This survey process was originally designed to help patients compare hospitals in their area to be able to make an informed choice for their healthcare needs. In January 2013, five additional questions were added to the survey. Beginning this year, Medicare reimbursement rates to a hospital are tied to the hospital’s patient satisfaction scores. Therefore, hospitals are continually looking for ways to improve

“Patient satisfaction is undoubtedly on the minds of hospital administrators in an increasingly consumer-driven healthcare system. With patient

There will be a need for additional catheterization labs, surgical suites and expanded cardiac rehabilitation programs. There needs to be better coordination of care to ensure timely scheduling of procedures. Education programs need to be developed emphasizing cardiac risk factors, healthy living and lifestyle modifications.

The following is a summary of advantages and disadvantages of building, buying and leasing space for the new orthopedic line at Trinity Community Hospital. Included in this summary, is the option I recommend and my basis for this choice.

Trinity Hospitals five year plan includes development of an orthopedic center, cardiovascular center and a cancer center. Task four asks for an assessment of the viability of one of these service lines. By assuming the role of the hospital CEO, I will evaluate the orthopedic center service line and present the findings to the board of directors for their approval.

With patients today using the threat of reporting low satisfaction rates in the hopes of receiving faster or higher quality care, they seem to have taken the upper hand in some of the decision making of what will take place in the healthcare world (Sullivan). But is it really the survey results that will make the drastic changes that are needed?

A powerful force for change can be created by embracing transparency. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, “transparency is a broad-scale initiative enabling consumers to compare quality and the price of health care services so they can make their own informative choices among doctors and hospitals. This initiative is laying the foundation for pooling and analyzing information about procedures, hospitals and physicians services. In order to create value driven health care, there are four steps to turn raw data into

1. Why would so many open-heart programs be launched in the face of a declining market?

Through the history of health care, the standard of care changed from protecting our patient from injury and illness to a systemic entity to make money for insurance companies. Access to services and clinical outcomes are dependent on what health insurance providers will “pay” for in a clinical or community setting; as a result, patient safety, care and satisfaction has been negatively impacted.

Where there is transparency, there is good accountability thereby reducing government deficit. “Its past time to require transparency of cost and outcomes, so consumers can make informed choices about their care. As patient – consumers increasingly transition to high-deductible plans and other models that increase their cost exposure, they will demand more transparency and information for the choices they need to make. However, simply having some awareness that not every hospital is performing equally well and consumers should be making informed choices is an important first step towards a true market-based healthcare system”(Rita Numerof

Quality measures are strategies that gauge, evaluate or compute health care processes, results, discernments, patient insight, and administrative structure. In addition, quality measures are frameworks that are connected with the capacity to deliver first-class health care and/or that are able to identify with one or more quality objectives for medicinal services. These objectives include: compelling, protected, effective, quiet focused, impartial, and opportune consideration. Quality measures can be used to measure quality improvement, public reporting, and pay-for-reporting programs specific for health care providers (CMS.gov, 2016). There are an assortment of quality measures in which health care organizations can use to determine the status of the care they are delivering. Many are appropriate, but few are chosen for this research paper. Among them are: National Health Care Surveys, Hospital IQR Programs, Scorecards, and Political, Power, and Perception/Data for Decision-making tools.

In the past 20 years, the percentage of AF-related hospitalizations has increased by 66%, which represents a significant impact for health care providers, with a total cost burden of approximately 13.5 billion Euros in Europe.170 This is mainly the consequence of increasing number of patients with cardiac diseases, coupled with the expanding segment of elderly patients and improved diagnostic tolls.186 Maglio et al. reported that over a 2-year period, an AF patient requires an average of 14 office visits, 12 outpatient visits, 2 admissions to hospital and one emergency department visit.196

Quality is one of the most essential elements of healthcare. As stated by the Agency of Health Research and Quality, “Everyday, millions of Americans receive high-quality health care that helps to maintain or restore their health and ability to function” (Agency of Health Research and Quality, 2014). Improvements have become vital to the success of health care organizations and in the Healthcare Quality Book, it is explained that quality in the U.S. healthcare system is not at the standard that it should be (Ransom, Joshi, Nash & Ransom, 2008). Although this has been a reoccurring issue, attempts to fix the insufficiency have been less successful than expected.

According to the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA, n.d.), “HEDIS [Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set] is a tool used by more than 90 percent of America’s health plans to measure performance on important dimensions of care and service” (para.1). HEDIS works by comparing all plans across an equal comparison field, as well as providing information regarding the quality of the United States’ healthcare sector. This data collection and quality improvement tool provides information to various groups involved in healthcare, such as health insurance companies, healthcare consumers, and employers who offer health insurance to employees. Not only does this tool use particular measures for health issues, such as

Hospitals and health systems in the U.S. are experiencing a remarkable transformation in their business models directed from numerous influences that are projected to ultimately turn the industry around. Pressures include providers troubled with the quantity of services they are responsible for, to providers who concentrate on presenting high-cost services that give emphasis to sustaining healthy populations (Dunn & Becker, 2013).