Single Payer Healthcare for the United States

With rising healthcare costs being distributed predominantly on workers or their companies, the economic responsibility is placed on the very people who need it the least: the job creators. If the economic responsibility of healthcare costs was shifted to the government, the private sector job creators could have more revenue to stimulate the economy with additional jobs, better wages, and improved worker benefits. The best way to shift this cost obligation is via a single-payer healthcare system. A single-payer would make sure all citizens would be covered for all medical services, including doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug, and medical supply costs.

A nation that does not provide the opportunity, for the flourishing of health among its citizens, is inherently flawed. A country like the U.S is no exception to this assertion. The United States government should implement a single payer universal health care system. The Modern U.S health care is allowing its citizens to rack up vast amounts of medical debt, in addition, large amounts of its population to remain uninsured. The U.S lags behind an idea, which, many other countries have accepted and that is health care is a human right. A plethora of positive reasons stand behind the notion of a single payer universal health care system, like the ones in other countries. However, the system in place now, has many systemic problems that are hurting citizens, particularly the lower and middle class.

Definitions of the quality of medical care are no longer left to clinicians who decide for themselves what technical performance constitutes “good care.” What are the other dimensions of quality care and why are they important? What has changed since the days when “doctor knows best?”

Health care is a highly political topic, and the issue of whether or not to make health care, universal is at the center of the controversy (Rich & Walter, 2015). Health care is a vital component of day-to-day life, and as such it has not been left entirely in the hands of private ownership. There are regulations in place to ensure people receive quality health care at a relatively low price. Universal health care would just expand these already existing regulations while opening up health insurance to the masses. Universal health care has a role in the American Health care system, but only as a supplement to the private insurance model.

He has introduced a model of quality care based on structure, process and outcomes. Structure includes the environment in which healthcare is delivered, instruments and equipment, administrative processes and fiscal organization of the institution. Process considers how care is delivered. Outcomes include recovery, restoration of function and survival. (Harrison, 2010) Because care activities are interdependent, value for patients is often revealed only over time and is manifested in longer-term outcomes. The only way to accurately measure value, then, is to track patient outcomes and costs longitudinally (Porter,

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.

Quality measures are metrics or tools using which we can assess, quantify and measure healthcare processes, outcomes, patient perceptions, and organizational structure and/or systems which are the core areas towards achieving the ability to ensure high quality care delivery and enable providers in reaching their strategic goals pertaining to quality standards prescribed by authorities for health care. The general term quality measurement is used when addressing both measures of quality of care, defined as “care that results in desired health outcomes and is consistent with best professional practice,” (Council, National Research, 1994) and patient safety, defined as “patients will be free from unintended injury while receiving

According to Donabedian (1966), quality is defined as a “value of judgments that are applied to several aspects, properties, ingredients or dimensions of a process called medical care” (p. 167). This definition indicates that quality it is the result of standards and aims that the medical care system and the

What is quality? Quality starts with performance improvement and patient safety to do harm, the ongoing process to find different ways to improve is constant in the quality department. In healthcare, Joint Commission regulates and requires facilities to improve patient care, outcomes, and processes. Quality is monitored and or reported through a management council which include: infection control, drug utilization, medical records, risk management and a host of others. This council comes together monthly with new ideas to improve what Glenda Melton calls pain points. For instance, what does not work well, how frequent, and the impact. (lab results)

Time and again, hospitals are often called upon to improve the quality of its various health care activities in order to better serve patients and immediate communities. A quality improvement plan thus helps in the selection of high priority areas and the utilization of evidence-based practices in conducting the improvement (Berenguer et al., 2010). In view of the healthcare improvement needs of Sunlight Hospital, this paper seeks to classify and justify five measurements of quality of care in a hospital, specify the four main features in a health care organization that can be used in the design of a quality improvement plan, and suggest the salient reasons quality of care would add value and create a competitive advantage

Quality indicators enable the health care system to identify inferior care in both process or outcome and structure while enhancing quality improvement in health care (De Vos et. al, 2009, p.1).

Health care systems around the world are struggling with rising costs and unequal quality of care and many solutions like error reduction, enforcing practice guidelines and implementation of Electronic Medical Records were tried without much effect (Porter & Lee, 2013). The primary goal of any Country’s health care system is to provide high quality and cost effective care, which produces quality patient outcomes for all.

First in today’s marketplace, healthcare organizations are highly scrutinized on quality and outcomes of patient care ("Quality Measures," 2015). So this project alone will place a lot of pressure on me as this can make or break the organization future success.

The Donabedian Model of Quality by Avedis Donabedian is used to target improvements in quality (Donabedian, 2005). Donabedian identified three domains: structure, process and outcomes as the model to improve quality (Shi & Singh, 2015). Structure is the base of the issue, and directly affects process. “Structure is the foundation of the quality of health care” (Shi & Singh, 2015, p.494). The stronger the structure, the better the process flows to the outcome.

All around the world, there are a wide range of different approaches and focuses when it comes to organising health systems as, although all countries are constructed of the same three levels of care, the way in which patients flow through these different levels and how the government run and fund their health system varies widely. Ultimately, each health system aims to provide the best possible healthcare to their citizens which can be achieved by focusing on particular goals such as improving access, efficiency and quality in order to successfully measure their performance.