Product Cost Structure For Healthcare

In order to eliminate the inefficiencies witnessed in many public and private hospitals that serve a number of patients, an integrated approach to handling the daily workload is necessary. There is need for all departments within the hospital to work closely together in ensuring more effective and efficient service deliveries. In this paper, a planned change is going to be carried out involving designing a new system that incorporates all the departments within the hospital. This includes the surgery department, pediatrics department, dentistry department, nursing department, pharmacy departments, laboratory and testing department, X-ray and Physiotherapy departments, Equipment maintenance and Engineering department, Information Technology

The high cost of healthcare continues to rise and many in the United States are optimistic for health information technology to reduce and improve our current situation. Health IT encompasses a broad array of new technologies designed to manage and share health-related information. When properly implemented, these systems can help coordinate patient care, reduce medical errors, and improve administrative efficiency. Therefore, implementing a Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) will help the National Health Information Network (NHIN) achieve their goals in improving quality of care for the citizens of the United States. Thus, in order for the health IT to deliver on its promise, several obstacles must be overcome.

The digital platform is structured around two pillars: firstly, Healthify must ensure the highest standard of privacy and security in handling sensitive health information. Secondly, since the aim of doc.com is to unify all of Canada’s health care providers under one platform, Healthify must ensure redundancy, data safety, and extremely minimal down time. Should a problem similar to that affecting the Phoenix payroll software occur, the healthcare system would be crippled. In order for it to be effective, stakeholders must be confident in doc.com’s performance. Given that doc.com will handle vast amounts of personal information, the platform will be closed. Open sourcing can be beneficial for certain pieces of software,

A powerful IT infrastructure is necessary to advance healthcare quality. Among countless other advantages, an effective IT infrastructure generates accurate and accessible performance data, allowing monitoring of results. However, Hill absorbed the cost to physicians which encouraged their physicians to adapt to the new system. Similarly, they made sure the system was user friendly which lessened frustration and resistance.

Grand Hospital incorporated currently uses a proprietary healthcare information system that includes a patient portal, electronic medical records, computerized physician order entry, imaging, laboratory and pharmacy. Grand Hospital’s leadership is investigating creative resolutions to improve current physician service coverage, including ICU, radiology, and behavioral health via the implementation of telemedicine into the current system. (Wagner, Lee, & Glaser, 2013)

Anita Ground also stresses on the huge importance of this planning stage by using a concept of system life cycle. It consists of feasibility study, analysis, design, programming, implementation, and lastly maintenance (Ground, 2011, VA TMS training material). The analysis phase in particular would coincide with what the author Yoshihashi is presenting in figuring out office strategy and researching EHR options. Identification of stakeholders and system requirement would play a critical role in EHR adoption (Ground, 2011). Stakeholders would include patients, family, clinicians, billing, registration, and coding as well as the external users such as Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Bottom line is that the new system being purchased would need to provide meaningful use to the clinic based on the current certification standards.

An information technology strategic plan developed by Langley Mason Health (LMH) aimed to empower health care consumers and healthcare workers to change data into information to expand services of the clinics as well as electronic medical records. However, there are insufficient funds for equipment, technology and routine maintenance for its facilities (Wager, Lee, & Glaser, 2009). The hospital planned to construct several satellite locations and there are limited funds left yearly to spend on technology implementation and to purchase equipment. The LMH system had a delay in fully going live with computerized prescribers order entry (CPOE) because of many foreseen complications during the development (Wager, Lee & Glaser, 2009). While the issue of CPOE implementation is being resolved, pharmacy and nursing department is looking at the purchase of smart IV pump that will spend roughly half of the budget for the fiscal year. This paper discusses the case study about LMH, different views how LMH should proceed and how to mediate the two different views.

The main reason institutions are switching to the new technology of exchanging health information is specifically to reduce costs and help improve health care quality. In this case study that is what San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center wanted exactly, to effortlessly exchange patient’s medical information. San Luis Valley Regional Medical Center which is a rural hospital in Alamosa Colorado is one of the many hospitals and providers that can benefit from this change. In 2004 AHRQ signed a contract to the University of Colorado Health and sciences Center, which later on developed a point-of-care inquiry system for four healthcare organizations in the Denver region. The system allowed emergency room clinicians within the four locations to exchange medical data. They were able to sufficiently and rapidly retrieve and send patient medical histories, x-rays, medication lists, and all problem lists. The AHRQ contract also help started the development of the

Containing ninety participants, 36% of the respondents were hospital CIOs and I.T. executives, 19% from integrated delivery systems headquarters, 19% from group practices, and 27% from other facilities. Survey results pertained to patient health records, electronic health record (EHR) certification, and other IT issues in healthcare. According to the survey, “81% of respondents said their I.T. budgets will grow, with the most common prediction being growth of 5% to 10%. Implementing electronic health records was the No. 1 software investment priority for the coming year for hospitals, integrated delivery systems and group practices alike.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) Interestingly, despite the economy at the time showing signs of a recession, “the vast majority of health care organizations expect their information technology budgets to grow during the next fiscal year, and this growth is driven primarily by a need to improve access to information for clinicians, the survey shows.” (CIOs Predict Future Trends, n.d) This improved access to information can be applied to patients as well, as the push towards cloud storage and record/test results access alleviates the need to wait, call, and require record searches from the physician’s staff. On the subject of streamlining access to the implementation to patient EHRs, 19% of

The Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) records would not be possible without the followers’ establishments that subsidize information to HCUP. Many of these organizations have websites to recite their information or provide statistics based on their state data. Pennsylvania is my state, and it is one of these states that participates in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP). The name of the Pennsylvania state contact person and contact information is

The benefit of technology in healthcare can help improve quality of care and reduce adverse events. Kaiser Permanente invested in an electronic medical system to increase positive clinical outcomes. Implementation of the health information system would have three system functions. The first objective was to reduce operating cost by improving staff efficiency, reduce patient’s number of hospital days, and reduce adverse drug events and increase preferred prescription adherence. The second objective was to increase revenue which was accomplished by improving appropriate billed charges, improving coding accuracy for Medicare risk, and increase collections. Decreasing capital expenditures was the final function which was achieved by decreasing

There are various levels and types of integration, such as hospitals merging with hospitals and physicians aligning with physicians and hospitals and physicians affiliating. Additional services such as home health care, long-term care facilities, pharmacies, and more can be added to result in a continuum of care. A fully integrated delivery system is one that unites a financing group with all providers. The system is built on a foundation of primary care, and all facets of it operate under capitation, so everyone involved shares risk. The strategy of integrated delivery systems is to coordinate the seamless delivery of high-quality healthcare services over the continuum of care. There are the benefits of having information systems integrated

These two groups’ involvement in the project are minimal. The patients should be informed about the project by their physicians and the support staff (Patient Portal Increases Communication Between Patients and Providers, 2011). Patients should be encouraged to provide feedback to the staff at BVCHC about their experience using the system. Their feedback should then be considered when analyzing possible adjustments to the system. Some of their expectations are to have faster and more direct access to their physicians as opposed to calling into the call center to have their medical questions answered. In addition, they also expect to have electronic access to their health records and test results through the patient portal (Patient Portal Increases Communication Between Patients and Providers, 2011). The call center, on the other hand, has a very minor stake in the project. They should be informed about the project by their management team. Feedback from this team should be encouraged in order to see if the project’s expectation of minimizing patient calls to this department have been

Horizontal integration is the expanding of a company through increasing the service to create a stronger and more enhanced company that provides the same service. Vertical integration is when a company owned individual providers create or operates the distribution themselves. In order to provide the best healthcare service, healthcare facilities needs to offer a network of providers with a wide range of healthcare service. The term integration delivery system (IDC), “is a network of organizations that provides or arranges to provide a coordinated continuum of services to a defined population” (Shi& Singh, pg. 366). The goal for healthcare organization is to provide high quality and efficiency of care with cost reduction for healthcare aimed toward the patient population. This goal is not only a great benefit for an organization but for patient and also for healthcare services providers.

Technological advancement and innovations have prompted companies like CVS to redesign their workflow spaces and workflow to accommodate their newly developed minute clinics or specialty clinics. The newly developed clinics which are currently providing faster, affordable, quality healthcare to the CVS customers has greatly enhanced the profitability of the company within the market.