Efficiency in Health Care Systems Essay

The health care system varies from country to country although a factor they all have in common is that great measures of research are taken in order to find results and achieve a good health care system for the economy. Between Australia and japan, there are great initiatives taken to help in association to this, including economic, social and political circumstances, all influencing the way in which the countries health care system is shaped and run.

Better quality health care will affect the life expectancy rate and the expenses. Patients expect doctors and hospitals to deliver the best possible care. The major issue with the quality of health care is “medical errors result from faulty systems… not individuals” (Hughes). In order to ensure patient safety and positive outcomes, hospitals have to assess for themselves the various different aspects they need to improve on. For example, hospitals could have a shortage ranging from staff, medication, or equipment. Through universal health care, “doctors… can focus on patient care”, which will aid in improving treatments for each individual (White). Along with this, there will be more government funding to improve hospitals as a means to help patients. Countries under universal health care coverage have a better quality of care, while the “United States [is ranked] last overall” (“Right to Health Care”). These benefits of medical treatments of universal health care are vital to American

An efficient health care system is one that treats illnesses in the most cost-effective way. When a patient is given a choice between therapies, an efficient system will use the less costly of the two, other things being equal. But, as of right now the U.S. health care system, meaning, patients and their doctors do not always choose less costly therapies because they face distorted incentives. On the average, every time a patient spends a dollar on medical care, only 21 cents comes out of

A challenge that the healthcare nation is facing is to provide the quality of care that is expected and obtain low healthcare cost. Working hand in hand with the private sector and government is in hopes of improving the quality of care that each patient deserves and maintaining the cost so that research can continue. The purpose of this paper is to look into relationships between healthcare cost and quality healthcare.

Cost has different perspectives depending on whom we are speaking about. Consumers refer to cost in reference to the price of healthcare, bills to insurance or payments to doctors directly. Nationally we refer to healthcare spending as a reflection of all healthcare spending that occurs in the nation and is normally measured in a percentage of the Gross domestic product or GDP. Provider costs are seen as the cost to pay staff, buying medical equipment and capital costs for buildings and the maintenance of the buildings infrastructure (Shi & Singh, 2005).

With these outstanding evidences the Commonwealth Fund placed United States last in terms of overall health system ranking measured by different categories of access to care, equity, quality, efficiency and healthy lives compared to other developed countries. Among those rank categories, our health system is specifically placed last in access to care and efficiency. 37% of the adults in United States reported that they did not receive the recommended treatment, surgery or follow up care due to high cost. 40% of adults who had visited emergency room reported that they could have instead just visited a regular doctor if it was available. U.S. was also ranked last in infant mortality rate and amount of deaths preventable through timely access to healthcare.

What is the real and perceived performance of the U.S. health care system? Are the views different among patients, providers, payers, and policy makers? Why or why not?

Decreasing healthcare “cost” has been repeatedly debated for decades now. Despite tremendous efforts to reduce cost, the US Healthcare System is still struggling to deliver an effective and affordable level of care. Not only the cost of healthcare is higher in the U.S., there is also much waste due to unnecessary laboratory, radiology & other investigations, unwanted hospitalizations, procedures, longer hospital stay, preventable emergency room visits, and a lot of medications waste, that costs the U.S. $750 billion annually according to IOM in 2012 (Glicksman E. , 2015).

According to the World Health Organization’s ranking of the world’s health systems the United States ranks at number 37 overall and is the only wealthy industrialized nation that doesn 't have a universal healthcare system. If this is to be fixed we need to take a look at other countries systems and learn how to improve conditions. This paper is going to talk about five countries; Spain, Germany, Canada, Cuba, and the United States. These countries cover a wide variety of healthcare systems. According to most lists America has the worst health care of these countries so it should try to learn from these countries to improve itself.

The United States system of healthcare when compared with healthcare systems in the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, Switzerland, and Taiwan is far more expensive, is notably inefficient, leaves 47 million people uninsured, and forces "hundreds of thousands of people into bankruptcy," according to a PBS video "Sick Around the World." This paper compares the current U.S. healthcare system which at the moment is undergoing a difficult transition into the Affordable Care Act with the healthcare programs in the above-mentioned countries.

Australia has one of the most efficient health systems, regarded as world-class that delivers strong health outcomes (Aihw.gov.au). Efficiency refers ‘to the allocation of available resource inputs in a way that provides the best outcomes for the community’ (Efficiency in Health - Productivity Commission Research Paper, 2015). The Commission analysed the Australian healthcare system and released a report indicating that by improving the quality of care and reducing costs, this could improve the

Against a background of increasing demands on limited resources, health economics is exerting an influence on decision making at all levels of health care. Health economics seeks to facilitate decision making by offering an explicit decision making framework based on the principle of efficiency. It is not the only consideration but it is an important one and practitioners will need to have an understanding of its basic principles and how it can impact on clinical decision making.

Fixing problems that face health care in many health facilities demand a system wide set of solutions. The systems used in these facilities must be assessed and redesigned to identify factors that will aid in the achievement of the set goals. The enormous task of achieving the goals should be undertaken collaboratively by all the key stakeholders, who include, health care professionals, planners and policy makers, administrators, payers, and patients and their families. These partnerships must begin with a common understanding of the problems together with a shared commitment to cooperate and work together to eliminate the problems. With this knowledge, therefore, an action plan for redesigning the health care system can be developed and later implemented. For a successful health care service to be realized, there are various factors which should be employed and which are not found in the traditional business setting. These include unique economic processes, proper regulatory requirements and the perfect quality indicators. This creates a need for every leader within the healthcare industry to create or develop unique skill sets that will harmonize both organizational leadership and the inter-professional team development. It is, therefore, important to understand the comprehensive approach to the management of patient care and also how the concepts of team development and organizational leadership support healthcare leaders in creation of a patient-centric

It is said that a healthy nation is a wealthy nation. Healthcare is an important concern for every government as people get ill, accidents happen, emergencies arise and the health institutions are needed to diagnose, manage and treat the different types of ailments or diseases that may arise. The healthcare industry is divided into several areas in order to meet the health needs of anyone and everyone. All over the world, the healthcare structures are different to accommodate specific needs of the people in that demographic however the healthcare methodology in Third World Countries does not accommodate the needs of their respective inhabitants in comparison to First world Countries. The Rate of corruption, quality of healthcare institutions, lack of adequate, functional surveillance systems and problematic hygiene conditions are amongst the top reasons why the healthcare systems in third world countries are substandard in comparison to First world nations.

In the present scenario achieving effective and efficient health care services is an acute issue that needs an immediate attention. In developing countries this problem is mostly common as the government alone is not fully capable in undertaking different challenges to meet the heath needs of fast growing populations. There was a need to develop an