Documentary Analysis: The Waiting Room

A comprehensive satellite health clinic will reduce admissions, as well as re-admissions to the current single hospital within the county. This extra resource will reduce the possibility of competitors moving into the area, specifically those from neighboring hospitals that could bring the needed services that PMH is lacking and looking to provide. Additionally, consumers feeling forced to travel out of the area for care, or those facing the potential of being transferred out of the area due to the severity of the case as a result of inadequate primary and preventative care, or lack of space will diminish through these efforts.

The documentary The Waiting Room is about a safety-net hospital located in Oakland, California. In the film, director Peter Nix follows patients, doctors, and staff throughout a typical day. Furthermore, the film displays how the staff is overworked, and how the American health care system is affecting millions of uninsured patients who try to cope with injury and disease. The film utilizes techniques from the observational mode such as long takes, crisis structure, and documenting unplanned everyday experiences to convey the cruel realities of Americans seeking hope and treatment.

At the current moment, doctors’ offices can refuse care to any uninsured person, whereas an emergency room cannot. The hospital is required by federal law to adequately screen and stabilize a patient. This is where the uninsured tend to show up for care where they tend to seek emergency care for urgent medical conditions that might not have been there due to lack of insurance. This would include the screening tests such as a colonoscopy or a mammogram for preventative care. This can delay the diagnosis of a serious complication that might have easily been taken care of through preventative services. The uninsured and underinsured are generally not as healthy as the insured counterparts. There is also lack of follow up care and medication to make sure the disease is under control. This group of

The documentary The Waiting Room, is about a safety-net hospital called Highland Hospital located in Oakland, California. In the film, director Peter Nix follows patients, doctors, and staff all throughout a typical day at the hospital. Furthermore, the film displays how the staff is overworked, and how the American health care system is affecting millions of uninsured patients who try to cope with injury and disease. The film utilizes techniques from the observational mode like: long takes, crisis structure, and everyday experiences that unfold spontaneously to transmit the cruel realities of uninsured patients who go to Highland Hospital seeking hope and treatment.

The hospital that the clinic is attached to is opening a brand new facility and has decided to expand their community support by opening a family medicine clinic that will utilize the hospital resources. The community is a wide range of working classes, low income, poor, and rural families that must travel some distance to reach health care providers. Attracting patients that need primary care and continued health care will drive referrals to the ancillary departments in the hospital. This increases revenue for the hospital.

In terms of avoidable hospital stays and service use, I found that better medical care within the hospitals results in better satisfactory by the patients and physicians, which means that patients must receive the best care and not be avoided. For example, the website helps me understand that if a primary care physician provides a diabetes patient with good quality care, then they may not need a hospital stay. This shows that not all hospital stays are avoidable, but they are preventable by providing the quality care they deserve. Another factor towards avoidable hospital stays may depend on where the patients live and where the hospitals are located. This would alter a number of people who would

The hospital should become a major player in the community it serves. This will put the hospital in a positive light with the community, and ultimately increase services provided which will increase the revenue of the hospital.

Peace Memorial Hospital is a 600-bed, independent, not-for-profit, general hospital located on the southern periphery of a major western city. It is one of six general hospitals in the city and twenty in the county. After doing much research, the Board of Directors has decided that they should open an ambulatory location in the downtown area, to be known as the Downtown Health Clinic (DHC). The clinic will have 4 major objectives: “1. To expand the hospital’s referral base, 2. To increase referrals of privately insured patients, 3. To establish a liaison with the business community by addressing employers’ specific health needs, and 4. To become self-supporting three years after opening” (Kerin

In general, the core benefit the hospital offers is health care. The tangible and intangible components of the experience that spin-off from the center may include the various departments, various personnel, equipment and supplies, etc.

“By expanding loan benefits and increasing residency programs, Open Door Community Health Centers will be able to attract a highly qualified pool of candidates to our area creating more access for healthcare, a diverse clinical experience, and incentivize providers to remain on the rural North Coast and become active community members.”

The first benefit would be standardizing care for all the patients being treated based on options that provide the best outcomes. This also means core measures will be reliable sources due to consistent procedures. EBP also results in more educated patient involvement in their care. They will be pleased to find their practitioners are going with what works, rather than historical precedence. This means they will make more educated decisions about their treatment based on what is known to work, not just what a provider tells them. The article also states how EBP makes work better for the health professionals by instilling a culture in the facility of safety and prevention, increased their job satisfaction, and there is less nurse retention. Lastly, she states how along with being cost efficient for the facility, providers are obligated to provide the best possible care; the facility also gets paid based on the delivery of care for their patients

The GLLF must be aware of what it could be sacrificing by making this change. When goods or services are no longer free, it would be logical to see a decrease in the number of recipients, because at any given rate some individuals will be prevented from opting-in (unless a policy is established that waives fees for those individuals). An additional concern is that moving away from a free clinic will render the organization ineligible for state Sovereign Immunity protection against issues of liability. Therefore, the GLLF would need to secure its own protection against lawsuits with professional liability

We reach beyond our walls to engage in partnerships that improve the education and healthcare needs of our community. We invest in the community by continually improving services and broadening our spectrum of care.

It can also position nurses to be more proactive by reaching out the patients. With the EHR there is a thing called PHR, which is Person Health Record. Patients fill in their own information and it’s stored in the computers. There is also Tethered or Connected PHR’s that are linked to specific healthcare organizations EHR system and the patient can access it through a secure portal(Jamoom, 2012). With the EHRs and PHRs patients are more active in their illness which makes them feel as if they are in control of it, which is a huge plus for providers.

One more special need is psychological help for poor people and their families. Free clinic can help people to cope with depression cause by poor quality of life and low social status. Overall, free clinic can provide sustainable support to uninsured people maintaining their physical and psychological health. Community education can make people aware about affordable healthcare preventive steps they can make to improve their health. Healthcare professionals can teach people to maintain their health at a high level and encourage healthy eating and lifestyle.