The Assessment Of Health Literacy Essay

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

I really enjoyed reading your post. This is a good example of how poor health literacy can have a detrimental effect on a patient’s health. In a journal article the authors stated that health literacy is a strong predictor of a person’s health status (Schwatz et al., 2013). As seen in the AMA video and in the example that given here, it is clear that health literacy has a direct effect on one’s ability to make important healthcare decisions. Your example also reminds me that fear may play a big role in health literacy and one’s ability to make healthcare decisions. Making healthcare decision for yourself at time can be a daunting task no matter the culture, level or education, of background. It is so important that providers consider

In 2013 readmission following hospital stays for AMI, CHF, COPD or pneumonia the cost for readmissions totaled $7.0 billion, which accounted for 13 percent of the cost for total readmissions in the nation (Fingar & Washington, 2015). The highest readmissions fell with HF, followed by COPD, pneumonia then AMI. Trends from 2009-2013 showed a decrease in the overall hospital Medicare readmissions by an average of 9 percent and this was from these top four diagnosis (Fingar & Washington, 2015). This information came from Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (H-CUP) which is a group of healthcare data bases. Through technological use of several software tools the data needed for this project was abstracted. This is a perfect example of using technology to improve the processes for healthcare improvement by supplying needed data for analyzing to gain the knowledge for change within the healthcare systems (Fingar & Washington, 2015).

In addition, it also measures the quality of care and patient satisfaction. In 2015, the US Secretary of HHS has announced a goal of 85 percentages of Medicare Fee for Service payments tied to quality or value. In addition, many new payment models are associated with HRRP; for instance, forthcoming Skilled Nursing Facility VBP program and Dialysis Adequacy measure , potentially specifies preventable readmission measures. As the system is moving from quantity to quality, it is beneficial to implement quality of standards to optimize future benefits for the community and Central Health as well. Currently, Central Health has higher readmission rate than national average with an overall rating of 2 out of 5. Penalties incurred due to below standard of care could strain hospital resources to utilize for the betterment of our facility. Furthermore, the incentive structure has concerned Central Health to reevaluate the mode of practice and care provided engaging healthcare providers and patients. Central Health is committed to reducing readmission rates by identifying and sharing best practices for long term benefits. Given the flexibility of penalty under the 21st Cure Act, the initial program will focus on readmission prevention within 30 days of hospital

The technologies that are offered in Mississippi include simple things as well as some of the more common items including tablets, applications and software for speech and communication. There are policies in many states that determine legal obligation to provide certain services to individuals with disabilities. Mississippi did not always have a policy for assistive technology, however currently there is a Assistive Technology Division that Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services can refer their clients to so that they can get the help and resources they may need. These items are beneficial so that individuals are able to contribute to their community and gives them a

HCAHPS survey is a patient satisfaction survey required by CMS (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service for all hospitals in the United States. HCAHPS identified the attributes of affective support, health information, and quick response as the elements of nursing care in the interaction and relationship between patient and nurse that determine patient satisfaction. High score of these elements would increase the hospital competition.

They strive for quality, accessibility, affordability, innovation, and responsiveness to all patients who receive CMS services. In 2018, the CMS used multiple analyses of measure performance trends, disparities, patient impact, and cost avoided tools. In addition to this, they used national surveys in hospital and nursing homes to evaluate the impact of the use of quality measures. The performance regarding CMS quality of patient safety, person and family engagement, care coordination, effective treatment, healthy living, and affordable care all showed tremendous improvement. According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services research showed a major decrease in the following medical areas: controlled blood pressure, diabetes control, fewer deaths following hospitalization for heart attacks, fewer unplanned readmissions, and fewer pressure ulcers among nursing home residents. Also, they reported that 9 million more patients reported a highly favorable experience with their hospital

Quality can be difficult to measure, which is what has halted the strong pursuit of quality in the past. Healthcare organizations use quality assessment to measure quality against some established standard. This includes “defining how quality is to be determined, identification of specified variables... and the collection of appropriate data to make the measurement possible (Shi, 2015, pg. 493). The Affordable Care Act set new standards and incentives for achieving quality of care. This includes offering Medicare reimbursements for hospitals with low readmission rates, and ensuring that (not-for-profit) hospitals complete a community health needs assessment (to ensure that the needs of the community are being met) and by implementing HCAHPS scores, which measures efficiency and efficacy of care using patient surveys. HCAHPS and hospital readmission good example of how quality of care can be measured in efficiency as well as

In December 2015, The Joint Commission launched a campaign seeking to reduce readmissions by providing resources for both health care providers and patients to engage patients in the discharge planning process.1,2 According to voluntarily reported data collected by The Joint Commission between January 2014 and October 2015, the major contributors to 197 sentinel events were failures in patient communication, patient education, and patient rights.2 A review of communication during the hospital discharge process found that discharge summaries often lacked information on counseling, treatments, discharge medications, test results, and follow-up plans.3

A hospital readmission is defined as one that occurs when a patient is admitted to a hospital within a specified time period after being discharged from an earlier (initial) hospitalization. For Medicare, this time period is defined as 30 days. Some of the quality care issues arise within the hospital among staff and also at home after patient discharge. Some of the highest rates of readmission within the 30 days are related to some of the following factors: complications from treatments during a hospital stay, inadequate treatment/inadequate care, coordination and follow up care at home and unexpected worsening of the disease after discharge from the hospital. Patients often face challenges with medication compliance and administration, not understanding the nature of their disease, and also where to get their questions answered once at home. The health care system has come to the conclusion that most of these issues is the leading factor in patient readmission. The most cost efficient solution to the problem of avoidable readmissions is patient education and after discharge follow up. Providing discharge instruction pamphlets to patients is not adequate enough information to yield results. Often times it is left with the patient’s belongings in a bag and never read. This gap in quality care is costing hospitals

The burden of chronic diseases in the United States claimed the lives of over 90 million Americans (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as cited in Parker & Thorson, 2009) with 2.9 trillion dollars spent on health care expenditures in 2013 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015). In the United States (U.S.) Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death, which affects over 70 million people (Thom et al. 2006). The American Heart Association (AHA), estimated one in two women and two in three men are affected by CVD (AHA as cited in McKee et al., 2011). Cardiovascular Disease In the sub-minorities like the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHOH) population are neglected and disproportionately affected. The disproportion

To assess the quality of health care it is providing Quality healthcare depends on the availability of condition data. Poor documentation, imprecise statistics, and insufficient communication can result in errors and adverse incidents. Inaccurate data intimidate patient well-being and can lead to expand costs, inefficiencies, and poor presentation. Further, mistaken or incomplete data also discourage health information exchange and obstruct clinical research, production development, and quality initiatives. The impact of poor data on care is only increased by the implementation. A consequential electronic health record ameliorates the capability for healthcare providers to enact evidence-based comprehension management and decision making for

Only 15-40 % of the population in the U.S. are health literate (Kirk et al. 2012) and 14% of the total adult population have below basic/functional literacy. Of the total adult population with basic health literacy skills, 14 % of the population are men and 16% of the population are

Health Information Technology (HIT) Medicare databases are valuable tools to extract healthcare data because they store comprehensive sources of health information. Medicare collects information on all its beneficiaries and those providers that receive payments from Medicare. The data that Medicare collects can be used to identify the variations in cost, utilization and quality. Most Medicare beneficiaries are in traditional fee-for-service (FFS), therefore, spending per beneficiary should be the same throughout the country but, it is not. Numerous studies have shown there are differences in cost and the quality of health care with Medicare beneficiaries, with the biggest spending difference being post-acute services. As explained, by the

Health literacy is defined as "The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions" (Michael K. Paasche-Orlow, 2010), the word Health literacy first appeared in 1974 in a paper which calls for “education standards for all grade school levels in USA” (Carolyn Speros, 2004) . Some recent works suggest that there is a relation between literacy, low health and premature deaths (Christina Zarcadoolas et al, 2005).