Health Care Quality

Having access to quality healthcare is major part of one’s life however the cost of care has been on the rise over the past decades and continue to rise every day due to many situation such

Over the course of our countries history, the delivery of our health care system has tried to meet the needs of our growing and changing population. However, we somehow seem to fall short in delivering our goals of providing quality, affordable and accessible healthcare to our citizens. The history of our delivery system will show we continuously changed the delivery of our system however never mange to control cost. If we can come up with efficient ways to cut cost, the delivery of quality care will follow.

By 2001 it was brutally apparent that the U.S. Health Care system was in dire need of a reform in regards to quality and patient safety. Following two separate reports issued by The Institute of Medicine (IOM), To Err is Human (1999) and Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century(2001) the U.S. Congress requested the IOM review quality processes across multiple government funded health care programs. And understandably, “these reports described America’s healthcare system as a tangled, highly fragmented web that often wastes resources by duplicating efforts, leaving unaccountable gaps in coverage, and failing to build on the strengths of all health professionals” (Brown J., p. I – 15, 2013). Thus, the Committee on the Quality of Health Care in America released 6 aims to address key dimensions that require improvement in our health care system. These aims propose that our system needs to strive to be more Safe, Effective, Patient-Centered, Timely, Efficient, and Equitable (STEEEP). All of which were created to help overhaul our current health care system and, more importantly, narrow the quality chasm.

Despite the countless advanced in technology and the abundance of health care organization popping up all over the place, whether they are free standing clinics, hospitals, urgent cares or etc, many people still lack the ability to receive quality health care. This has become a concern throughout the world, but especially a more vocal concern for residents of the United States in the past few years. In this paper we will discuss the reasons preventing access to quality health care and how we can overcome the many obstacles that stand in our way to provide quality health care to many who lack it today.

Over the past decade, government operated and privately owned health care organizations have made improvements identifying patient disabilities, discovering alternative treatments at the patient’s discretion, identifying the cause of diseases, and discovering lifesaving cures. The current United States health care delivery system has undergone enormous changes throughout the years. People the United States utilize health care services for many reasons: to prevent disease, to prevent future illnesses, to eliminate pain, and promote a healthier lifestyle to patients. The Patient Protection and

When people think of health care, they often think up images from their own experiences in doctors' offices, clinics, and hospitals. Then there are the images of intense drama and hustling and bustling in hospitals and emergency rooms such as those presented on television and in the movies. These are all part of the health care arena, but it extends far beyond the emergency room. Health care agencies and governmental agencies mission is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of

The cost and quality of health care and access to it is one of the foremost aspirations in national health care. And the overall main aims of reforming the American health care system is to reduce costs, enhance the quality of and access to health care [1].

The triad of cost, quality, and access has impacted the development of the Affordable Care Act on many levels. The Affordable Care Act aims to improve the quality of healthcare, while maintaining the cost of health care ("Quality of care," n.d.). Under the Affordable Care Act, there is more funding for each state to assist in treating people with chronic illness. The goal is for these patient populations to have high-quality services at an affordable cost (“Quality of care,” n.d.). To ensure that quality of care is provided, the Affordable Care Act requires quality measures to be met in order for organizations to receive reimbursement. Although the United States still needs improvement in providing high quality health care that is accessible

The United States is an incredibly diverse country. This diversity possesses significant strain particularly on the healthcare system. According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality access to healthcare is defined as “the timely use of personal health services to achieve the best health outcomes” (Chapter 9 Access). Therefore, access of healthcare begins once an individual enters the system. Entry can be compromised if there are not enough necessary facilities, employees, or an individual is unable to afford care. Secondly, there needs to be sufficient facilities that offer services that are a necessity of the community.

The introduction of the Affordable health care Act was intended to ensure the availability of affordable and high quality health care for all citizens of America. Therefore, this led to the establishment of a national strategy of improving the quality of human and health services. This resulted in priorities in guiding the efforts including a strategic program of how to accomplish the project. This paper has focused on how the Affordable Care Act provides improved safety and quality of health care in the US (American Psychiatric Association, 2012). This meets the needs of communities, families, and patients by guiding care providers and paying for care services. It has incorporated data from latest healthcare delivery, scientific advances, and advances in clinical-based medicine. The Affordable Care Act will foster the effective delivery systems that work better for healthcare organizations and clinicians. It helps them collaborate and reduce their administrative burdens. Industry stakeholders developed principles that guide the Act. The enactment of this system has led to a significant improvement in healthcare outcomes and overall health of the people of America. This can also be applied in MRSA programs successfully (Tate, 2012).

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.

Some hospital trusts and health authorities consistently outperform others on different dimensions of performance. Why? There is some evidence that “management matters”, as well as the combined efforts of individual clinicians and teams. However, studies that have been conducted on the link between the organisation

Health care systems are reporting and monitoring quality of care indicator data with increasing regularity.

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.

The healthcare system has seen significant change over the past decade. This is due to improved technology, healthcare reform, and the economic crisis (Hendren, 2010). With the changes that are occurring,