Summary: Integrating Clinical Care

Integrated Care Collaboration maintains a health information exchange called the ICare system. Through this system Integrated Care Collaboration has worked towards identifying needs of Central Texas and improving healthcare access to those who need it. Integrated Care collaboration has been nationally recognized and has been accredited with the the Texas Health Information Exchange Accreditation Program (TXHIEAP) and the Direct Trusted Agent Accreditation Program (DTAAP). Both accreditation programs are dedicated to ensuring proper use of HIEs and compliance with federal and state laws as well as HIPAA. Texas Health Information Exchange Accreditation program focuses on proper exchange of patient information while Direct Trusted Agent Accreditation Program is geared toward recognizing excellence in data processing and transactions

Communication is key to effective healthcare practices. According to American Journal Of Critical Care (2014), Patient-centered care starts with “effective communication, being empathetic and available, avoiding personal prejudges, and listening therapeutically are integral parts of patient-centered care” (Riley, White, Graham, Alexandrov, 2014, p. 320). This will improve communication; promote patient involvement in care, which creates a positive relationship with the healthcare provider and medical team. This results in improved adherence to treatment plan. Clinical practice guidelines need to be implemented for the patient and family members to be able to be involved in informed decision-making regarding healthcare needs. The fundamental core of nursing is to have a partnership with the patient and their family regarding the patient’s outcome.

Clinical integration is the overall purpose of an integrated physician model. Clinical integration provides an opportunity to coordinate services through centralized scheduling, electronic health records, clinical pathways, management of chronic diseases, and innovative quality improvement programs (Harrison, 2016). This needs to be a major factor in the planning process. When you have the capability and access to an patients care plan because of greater resources and having all of the necessary silos to provide such care, well then it becomes a much smoother process and as a result this can play a factor into timely care and quality of care, as well it can contribute to cost reducing factors such as outpatient care. The electronic health records allow each silo to have access to treatments and testing that has already been done, this further improves quality, timely, and costly care. The clinical pathways allow creating a standardized care plan for patients that over time become more effective and efficient. The management of chronic diseases before clinical integration could be very costly and painful, requiring the patient to see multiple facilities and doctors with limited communication between the different facilities. With success in clinical integration these patients can have easy access to their providers and information because it would all be tied together, it can reduce the stress of knowing everything themselves because the information would already be

Central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSI) are serious problems that affect each hospital in the United States. While CLABSI rates have decreased, they have not been eradicated. The amount that CLABSI has decreased has slowed substantially, and CLABSI continues to affect negatively affect patients. With the use of middle-range nursing theories such as The Synergy Model, CLABSI rates can be decreased in hospitals everywhere.

Interoperability is the way information is shared across an organization. Sharing information across all avenues of health care is imperative to quality patient care. Coordination between all members of the health care team can occur through a congruent system, eliminating unnecessary phone calls and paper work that take away from patient care. The sharing of information electronically reduces the likelihood that files could be lost or stolen which creates a liability for all those involved in the care of the patient.

Throughout this assignment I will Identity and critique relevant policies, values, theories and evidence underpinning Integrated care teams. I will reflect on major implications identified for service users and for the role and practice of social work. I will look at a framework for anti- oppressive practice of which would inform my intervention.

Vertically integrated health care system that I have chosen is the Veterans Administration (VA) it's accountable for a large patient population for military veterans. As stated, The Veterans Health Administration is America’s largest integrated health care system with over 1,700 sites of care, serving 8.76 million Veterans each year (VA.GOV). The services that's provided to veterans is health care, rehabilitation, employment, education, home loan guaranties, and life insurance coverage. VA control costs by buying in bulk and control costs by engaging in a deep, single-source relationship with each patient. The Assistant Secretary for Management oversees all resource requirements, development and implementation of agency performance measures,

Strengths and Weaknesses for Integrated Treatment In a perfect world, integrated treatment approaches for all clients is a thorough, thoughtful, and positive approach to the overall recovery of the individual, especially for those with co-occurring disorders. Currently, through my professional work as a drug and alcohol case manager, both site and field-based, I see the strengths as a collaborative and integrated approach to treatment for these individuals, including a variety of programs and professionals, ranging from drug and alcohol treatment providers, mental health counselors, psychiatrists, and certified recovery and peer specialists. Van Wormer and Davis (2018) highlighted the evidence-based Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) approach

In Clinical Integration in Strategic Planning “providers can track the patient across the continuum, coordinate care across the continuum and make sure the patient is getting the most appropriate care in the most appropriate environment” (Karash & Larson, 2016). It is needed to simplify the direction/coordination of patient care through any circumstances, providers, sceneries, and time in order to attain care that is harmless, appropriate. effectual, well – organized, reasonable and patient-focused. In addition, clinical integration also develops the partnership with the physician, an administrator developing the partnership with the team. Clinical integration starts from the top board of

The common goal amongst all healthcare disciplines is for optimal patient outcome. In order for such a goal to be achieved, all healthcare disciplines must integrate interventions/treatment plans and work collectively to provide continuous care. The usual health care members consists of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, respiratory/physical therapists, dieticians and social workers to name a few. Integrating care helps reduce redundancies, lower costs, allow for universal language, and an ability to share information. At the current moment, new technology such as universal EMR systems like EPIC and Cerner for examples, provides for better access to charts so that patients can receive

An integrated care pathway is a structured multidisciplinary synopsis of anticipated care, placed within a set timeline, to aid a patient with a specific condition or set of symptoms to move progressively through a clinical experience to positive outcomes, It is one of the main tools used to manage the quality in healthcare concerning the standardisation of care processes and therefore promotes organised and efficient patient care based on evidence based practice. (British Medical Journal, 1998). In this essay I aim to justify a patient pathway of care with reference to national and local agendas. I will analyse the assessment strategies utilised in the pathway from a bio-psycho-social perspective with reference to contemporary evidence and provide examples from clinical practice where assessment of the patient of the pathway impacts upon the care planning process.

Brailer (2005) acknowledges that a sizeable number of citizens receive treatment from multiple providers at a time. Interoperability is a gateway for many business ventures in healthcare to accommodate for patients being admitted in multiple provider organizations. All healthcare professionals, especially managers, must communicate effectively. A good example of interoperability is transformation of electronic medical records, or recruiting physician specialists to operate on a specific procedure (Hellberg & Gronlund, 2013).

In health care, patients’ lives are in the hands of the health care practitioners, health care organizations, insurance companies, and to some degree, even health care technology. The growth and future implications of evidence-based medicine (EBM) through improvement of technology in health care are important today, because health care practitioners and organizations want to ultimately decrease cost, improve quality of care, and increase access to health care (Glandon, Smaltz, & Slovensky, 2014, p. 28). One way to achieve these goals is through the implementation and improvement of EBM and interoperability which will enhance the efficiency of work production resulting in these positive outcomes. According to Glandon, Smaltz, and Slovensky (2014), EBM is an “information management and learning strategy that seeks to integrate clinical expertise with the best evidence available to make effective clinical decisions that will ultimately improve patient care,” (p. 6). “Interoperability is the ability of different information and communications technology systems and software applications to communicate, to exchange data accurately, effectively, and consistently, and to use information that has been exchanged,” (Iroju, Soriyan, Gambo, & Olaleke, 2013, para. 1). Without interoperability and EBM, fundamental data and information such as patient records cannot be easily shared across and within enterprises having a direct impact on the quality of care. It

The first quality initiative that could increase patient satisfaction and potentially reduce healthcare cost is the national data warehouse. According to Brennan, Cafarella, Kocot, McKethan, Morrison, Nguyen, Shepard & Williams II (2009), “this type of quality analysis needs to be valuable to both payers and consumers. For payers, quality analysis helps them potentially understand payment mechanisms, quality providers, regional differences and medical management techniques. For consumers, there is a better understanding of practice and potentially cost differences of providers. So, the primary purpose for creating a national data warehouse will be to develop key quality measures that all parties can agree on.” The second quality initiative that could increase patient satisfaction and potentially reduce healthcare cost is creating one common contract between all health plans and providers (Brennan et al., 2009). According to Brennan et al., (2009), “to accomplish this, a national group comprised of government personnel and knowledgeable provider contractors from the health plans will set national guidelines. Regional contracting groups will be entirely made up of current health plan contractors and will do the local contracting under

Having a single view of the patient and their treatment and recovery plan is invaluable in ascertaining which are the most and least effective tactics in treatment. The 360-degree view of the patient and the many processes supporting them is crucial for increasing the accuracy, effectiveness and performance of treatment programs over time (Blakeman, 1985). Computerized management systems are critical for organizing, analyzing and translating the massive amount of data captured on patients, treatment and recovery processes, and the use of supporting IT systems to optimize patient health and organizational provider performance (Peshek, Cubera, Gleespen, 2010). The ability to aggregate and intelligently use all available data, information, patient-based and process-generated data to deliver higher levels of quality care is possible when computerized management systems are used throughout healthcare organizations.