Kaiser Permanente Team-Based Setting

Healthcare is in a constant state of change with movements that impact rates, access and quality of care. Hospitals have become more competitive due to the rising cost of care delivery and the reduction in reimbursement from payers. This causes difficulty in delivering quality care to all patients, which is being measured by mandated patient perception surveys, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). HCAHPS scores are part of value

For the last five weeks research has been done on Kaiser Permanente, an organization that contains Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Permanente Medical Groups in eight regions. Since its inception in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has become the largest not-for-profit, integrated health care delivery system in the United States, serving 8.6 million members in eight regions: Northern and Southern California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, the Mid-Atlantic States, Ohio, and the Northwest. About three quarters of the members are in California, the organization’s birthplace. It is the largest nonprofit integrated health care delivery system in the United States. Its mission is to provide affordable, high-quality health care services to improve the health of their members and the communities they serve. For the purpose of this research, focus will be on Northern California in a randomly selected hospital.

The fact that there are broad spectrums of services available within the Kaiser Permanente network makes it easier to coordinate patient care. For example the Northern California site has implemented programs that focus on five “imperatives of personal care”, which are: patients have to have a primary care doctor, they need to be able to see that physician, patients that call have a short telephone wait, patients should receive timely appointments and have a great care experience (Commonwealth fund June 2009). Care management definitely plays a crucial role in health care. When the patients needs are met and quality care is received the result is patient satisfaction and potentially cost saving for the organization. Patients not only have to deal with health issues, many experience challenges within their environment and certain limitations depending on socioeconomic status. Therefore , coordination of patient care is key to the success of any health care delivery system.

Kaiser Permanente Southern California is a not-profit healthcare organization committed to providing quality healthcare to patients. Their mission has been focused on providing affordable health care for its community as well as making improvements in their quality of care, research, nursing education and has been renowned for adapting an informational system.

Perreault et al. (2010) noted a direct link with clients’ satisfaction with their treatment providers and substantial clinical improvements. Within the medication-assisted treatment (MAT) framework, clinical improvements are vital to patients’ well-being and overall quality of life improvements. Additionally, positive and successful outcomes are fundamental for continued funding via stakeholders, such as single-county authorities and medical insurers. This paper will first address the purpose of program evaluations. It will then examine how to evaluate the MAT treatment model, while identifying one primary goal for the MAT program evaluation. Lastly, an explanation of how data will be

Kaiser Permanente is a large health care delivery system that serves over eight million individuals across nine states, and the District of Columbia. In 1990 Kaiser Permanente developed a internet patient portal, KP Online. KP Online enabled members to make appointments, request prescription refills, seek clinical advice, obtain health care information, and interact with patients in forums.

Health care has evolved and is continuously evolving. The management of care now involves different clinicians to better assess, diagnose and cure a patient. The clinicians evolved from a general practitioner to a team now comprised of Physician’s Assistant, Nurse, License Practical Nurse and Specialists. These health care professionals now compose a team of health care providers that are essential in a patient’s over all health care. The team-based approach is a delivery system that provides a patient an all-encompassing health care delivery system. “ By practicing in a team-based care model, physicians and other

Our healthcare system needs major restructuring. Major improvements needs to begin with "all health care organizations, professional groups, and private and public purchasers should adopt as their explicit purpose to continually reduce the burden of illness, injury, and disability, and to improve the health and functioning of the people of the United States", (Crossing the ……, 2001).

West Florida Regional Medical Center (WFRMC) located on the north side of Pensacola, Florida competed strongly with sacred heart and Baptist hospitals for patients. WFRMC’s CEO John Kausch was an active member of the Total Quality Council of the Pensacola Area Chamber of Commerce (PATQC) (McLaughlin, C.P., Johnson, J.K., & Sollecito, 2012).. PATQC’s vision was to develop the Pensacola, Florida area into a total quality community by promoting productivity, quality and economic developments in all area organizations both public and private (McLaughlin, et, al., 2012). John

Kaiser Permanente (KP) was founded in California in 1945. It is one of the largest non-profit healthcare organizations in the United States, made up of three entities: the Kaiser Foundation Hospital, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and the Permanente Medical Groups. It currently serves about 9.1 members within the following states: California, Colorado, Washington DC, Maryland, Virginia, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, and Georgia. With a few exceptions, it mostly operates under a managed care model, owning the physician network and the facilities its members use to receive medical services (Fast Facts, 2013).

The current health care sector is too costly and too fragmented with a lot of variation in care even with established evidence based guidelines. Providers lack the tools, support and information they need to offer the coordinated health management that can reduce cost and improve outcomes. Primary Care Physicians are constrained in their abilities to perform any proactive care that involves avoiding Hospital or ER visits, and influencing healthy lifestyles.

Success Of Kaiser Permanente Health Care Model And The Group Health Cooperative Model Of Health Care Compared To Other Initiatives In Health Care “Kaiser Permanente is America's leading integrated health care organization. Founded in 1945, it is a nonprofit, group-practice health maintenance organization (HMO) with headquarters in Oakland, California. Kaiser Permanente serves the health care needs of members in 9 states and the District of Columbia.” Today, it encompasses Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc., Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, and the Permanente Medical Groups, as well as affiliation with Group Health Cooperative based in Seattle, Washington. Kaiser Permanente aspires to be the world leader in improving health through high-quality, affordable, integrated health care. We will be distinguished by our strong social purpose, physician responsibility for clinical care, and an enduring partnership between our Health Plan and our medical groups. Kaiser Permanente provides coverage programs for thousands of uninsured children and adults who are ineligible for existing state or private programs due to family income or immigration status. The organization also partners with community-based clinics to provide expertise, clinical guidelines, and other support for these safety-net providers. Through its research centers across the country, “Kaiser Permanente conducts more research, over 1,000 studies annually, than any other non-academic institution in the U.S.” The

It has not been easy for Baylor Scott & White Healthcare to travel this journey, as it had to align its policies to the national health care priorities and embrace a slogan STEEP to provide quality healthcare to its clients. The organization bears a high quality strategy that is well spelt out in its vision and mission. The organization has worked to ensure that all the stakeholders make quality healthcare a priority. In other words, the organization has worked hard to link performance management incentives to clinical indicators and in the end create a multidisciplinary healthcare improvement operations team that can function across all

Kaiser Permanente offers a holistic health care system by combining a nonprofit insurance plan with its own hospitals and clinics. Additionally, since the plan pays a fixed amount for medical care per member, there is a considerable financial incentive to keep people healthy and out of the hospital. Kaiser oversees, administers and provides a comprehensive care for patients, ranging from providing screening and diagnosis to filling a prescription to running a hospital where the patients undergo surgery. This strategy of integration is at least 10 percent less expensive than other providers’ services (Abelson, 2013).

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.