Services and Purposes of the Ventura County Health Care Agency

Many selections of healthcare plans are available for consumers to choose from to match their own personal needs, preferences and budget. The health care system is most often complex, inconsistent and costly. To maintain and improve the business, healthcare organizations are continuously innovative and evolving to meet the demands of consumers. The purpose of this paper is to discuss a case study of UnitedHealthcare Group, what they are about, their network and resource management, their view on nursing and how they satisfy their patients.

Services are provided through various health clinics, hospitals, schools, community centers, and public housing centers. In the United

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

Department of Health & Human Services, 2015). These provisions were aimed at providing new protections for health insurance consumers, lowering the cost and improving the quality of health care, and increasing access to health insurance and affordable care. While many of the ACA’s provisions had implications for community health centers, the ones that impacted them most directly were the expansion of Medicaid and availability of subsidized health insurance through exchanges and the creation of the Community Health Center Fund, which allocated $11 billion in new funding through fiscal year 2015 for operations, capital projects, and expansion of services to enable community health centers to serve an anticipated 20 million newly insured patients (National Association of Community Health Centers, n.d.; “Valley Community Healthcare,” 2015).

Kaiser Permanente addresses their patients’ needs by conducting a series of healthcare, to not just the sick, but also prevention care services. According to Implementation Strategy Report for Community Health Needs article Kaiser Permanente plans on addressing crucial health care concerns. For instance, here is a breakdown of such services they offer all across the nation:

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.

The Family Health Center is a clinic that is under the umbrella of Bear Valley Community Hospital, a small rural hospital. The hospital is located in a ski resort town in the mountains above San Bernardino County. The next closest medical facility is an approximate hour drive on curvy mountain roads. The hospital is a standalone hospital, not associated with any other hospitals or chains. Bear Valley Community Hospital provides emergency room services, has eleven acute beds and a skilled nursing facility. Bear Valley Community Hospital accepts a wide variety of insurances and sees all ages and types of patients. The Family Health Center has a variety of specialty providers, as well as family practice. They have doctors with specialties in internal medicine, family practice, obstetrics/gynecology, pain control and chiropractic services (Family Health Center, n.d.). There is a telemedicine program that currently provides psychology services through telemedicine (Family Health Center, n.d.). There are several Family Nurse Practitioners and a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (Family Health Center, n.d.). As a result they see patients from pregnancy through adulthood. The clinic sees patients of all socioeconomic levels and accepts

Hoag Hospital is an acute care, non-profit hospital located in Newport Beach, California. In addition, Hoag expanded from the main hospital to a smaller hospital in Irvine, CA, which is the location that I currently work at. The Irvine location of Hoag Hospital provides the community with an Emergency Room, Medical/ Surgical services, and a Critical Care Unit. Most recently it has been designated as a Cardiovascular Receiving Center. Hoag Hospital Irvine is an asset to this growing community as well as surrounding communities in South Orange County, California. The clientele is upper middle class with Irvine residents having a median household income of $90,585, which is well above the median income of $61,094 in the state of California (United States Census Bureau, 2015).

There are many public sector and not for profit health agencies within the United States health care system. There are health care agencies that are run by the government, Quasi-government and voluntary. The agencies that are Quasi-government are supported by the government but managed privately and there are voluntary health agencies that can be run by private or non-profit agencies, and there are also government run agencies. Government agencies are run by the government and funded through taxes or other government budget appropriations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is example of a government run agency. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the most important health agencies in the world. The

There are several healthcare access in Santa Ana such as: Latino Heath access, Access OC, Mental Health Care, Clinica San Andres, Community Health Initiative of OC, St Joseph Heritage Medical Group, Coastline Urgent Care, Tenet Health System etc.

Examples: public health nursing services; free or reduced cost vaccination programs (MN Vaccine for Children program); homecare or assisted living services; breast and cervical cancer early detection program (SAGE program), maternal and child health services for uninsured or underinsured (MN Care, IM Care, and MNsure); WIC programs and resources; critical access hospital (Grand Itasca), transportation services (Silverline Bus, Arrowhead); social workers, case works, care coordinators and community health care workers (Itasca County Health and Human Services, 2016).

The Community Health Center provides a service called Better Health Clinic that can enhance adult health and wellness by providing contraceptive services, pregnancy testing and counseling, achieving pregnancy, basic infertility services, preconception health, sexually transmitted disease services, breast cancer screening, cervical cancer screening, and other preventative health services. Social services can assist with applying for W.I.C. and ACA. They can also render assistance with adoption and stay at home programs.

Organized communication services for federal, state and local governments are provided by the Geisinger Health System Government Relations office. Their goal is to help with financial and program support for Geisinger’s mission, which is to provide quality care, community service, education and research (Geisinger Health System, 2017). Thus, this organizations Government Relations staff provides policymakers and government agencies information particular to the Geisinger Health System, and related information about the healthcare industry and reform. Many topics are available in this industry such as, access issues, rural healthcare and the most current practices for healthcare delivery. Geisinger Government Relations also provide government

Hawaii Health Systems Corporation has twelve facilities across five different islands with 1,275 licensed beds. It consists of five regions: East Hawaii, West Hawaii, Kauai, Maui and Oahu. HHSC is listed as the fourth largest health system in the country and the fourth largest on the islands, outside of Oahu (www.hhsc.org, 2014). In addition, it is the only provider of acute care on Maui and Lanai. In the West Hawaii Region, HHSC operates two facilities, Kona Community Hospital and Kohala Hospital. Kona Community Hospital, opened in 1914, operates a 94 bed acute care facility with a fully operational 24 hour Emergency Room. The East Hawaii region operates three facilities. The largest facility is located in Hilo, with Ka’u being a

IHSS is mandated by the California Medicaid State Plan to conduct periodic evaluations of services provided to California’s population of aged, blind, and/or disabled recipients. CDSS uses a Consumer Satisfaction Survey as this evaluation tool, determining to what extent the consumer’s needs are being met in regards to service hours, and to what extent the consumers feel they are able to self-direct the IHSS services they receive. CDSS has contracted with Sacramento State University to conduct the Consumer Satisfaction Survey and report their findings to CDSS for further analysis (p.5).