The Issue Of Obamacare, Vaccinations, And Making Sure All Americans

In the United States alone there are 98,000 deaths per year caused by low quality health care (Ignatavicius & Workman, 2013, pg. 2). This statistic is disturbing because the errors that resulted in death were errors that were preventable. The intent of this chapter is to bring awareness to health care providers that are able to make a change in the quality of health care. In current practice patients are subjected to medication errors, preventable hospitalizations, premature death, and poor care provided due to racial, ethical, or low-income factors.

It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).

November, 1999 brought about a release of a report prepared by the prestigious National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (IOM) making medical mistakes and their magnitude of the risks to patients receiving hospital care to common public knowledge. The IOM concluded that between 44,000-98,000 deaths occur annually because of medical errors. Among a general agreement was that system deficiencies were the most important factor in the problem and not incompetent or negligent physicians and other caregivers (Sultz & Young, 2010). An excellent example of a system deficiency that leads to a crisis and sentinel event was the highly publicized overdose of Heparin to Dennis Quaid’s newborn twins in 2007.

When the Institute of Medicine came out with a report called To Err Is Human it drew a lot of attention to the media on patient safety because of the statistics that the report found. One of the big things that this report found was that "between 44,000 and 98,000 people died each year in the United States hospitals due to medical errors and adverse events" (Bonacum, 2017, p. 3). This was also one of the reasons why the Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999 passed. This act allowed research to be done using scientific evidence and report things such as effectiveness, outcomes, costs, quality, etc. in the health care field ("Healthcare Research and Quality Act of 1999," 2014). It is a good thing that the Institute of Medicine came out with this report because it made patient safety a very important issue that needed to be resolved, it was definitely an eye opener. The above number of people dying because of medical errors is surprisingly high, if I did my math correctly that’s about 122-272 people dying each day. Wow! There are other factors that

The Institute of Medicine released a report in 1999 titled To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System concerning the number of medical error related deaths. The report states that between 44,000 and 98,000 medical error related deaths occur each year in hospitals across the country (Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. S., 2000) In response to this report, the Institute of Medicine released Crossing the Quality Chasm: Health: A New Health Care System for the 21st Century that outlines six aims for the future of the healthcare system: safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, equitable (Institute of Medicine, 2001). These aims set to establish the quality of healthcare across the country. Quality is defined by the Institute of Medicine as ““the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (2001).

Medical errors in the United States has been an intense topic of interest for politicians, researchers, and the general public alike for a number of years now. Concern about medical errors grew in the US following the release of “To ERR is Human: Building a safer Health System” report issued by the Institute of Medicine (IOM). This apprehension most noticeably started during the Clinton administration; IOM released their groundbreaking report in 1999 during the Clinton administration. Results shed light on the reality of diagnostic errors and raised awareness to the public. The alarm created by IOM catapulted the matter to President Bill Clinton. According to Janet Brooks (2009) (a Canadian journalist who has completed

An audiotape was also played to see if the participant could recognize voice tone in relation to the emotional expression that was trying to be communicated. These residents were then filmed expressing different emotions and the video was then shown to 25 volunteer college students. They judged what they thought the physicians were communicating and an accuracy score was given if they were correct. Patient satisfaction was then measured via three different scales on a patient satisfaction questionnaire. Also, patients compliance to scheduled appointments was examined as well as the average number of patients a resident would see in a four-hour shift. They predicted that the physicians that scored high on the skill of understanding nonverbal communication would receive high patient satisfaction scores, as well as have larger volumes of patients in their

Although doctors’ communication competence rarely concerns patients prior to appointments, communication skills are needed to ensure a successful consultation. If a patient perceives a doctor as passive and unengaged in the appointment, frustration will inevitably result from the experience. To develop health communication skills, practitioners must excel in active listening and truly

Imagine a situation when you have a health problem and need a specialist for medical help but instead, they become the cause of the biggest health problem in your life. A question, will you ever trust the health organization again? Probably no. Healthcare facilities should create a sense of trustworthiness and safety. Patients trust their doctors to always make the right decisions instead of them without a second thought. We must remember that doctors are humans and tend to make mistakes. Usually, patients don't ask questions and everything that doctors will say they accept as the only truth. But Medical mistakes are a really serious issue in the USA. Although not always life threatening but can cause very serious health conditions. Medical mistakes are the third-largest killer of Americans right after heart disease and cancer and these mistakes result in about 400,000 deaths and cost $1 trillion annually in the United States (Zikhani, 2016).

Patient safety and quality care has not always been the main objective of our U.S. health care system. Traditionally, the idea of “quality health care” was left up to the interruption of the acting physician. Due to the specialization of medical practice knowledge about care was not widely attainable or known by the average citizen (Shi & Singh, pg. 55). In this time medical education was not backed by science and medical errors were a regular occurrence in U.S. health care (Shi et al., 2013). You may ask why is this information important and you would be shocked to know that we are all affected or may potentially be affected by the existence of medical errors. According to Dr. Martin Makary and Michael Daniel of John Hopkins University Medical School, after vigilant research (and meticulous counting) approximately 250,000 (other studies have death as high as 400,000) people die a year in the U.S. alone due to diagnostic errors by health professionals (. Quality care is categorized as one of the key concerns in health care policy and law (alongside access and cost). We will cover patient safety in reference to medical errors and the policies that are designed to keep patients safe from medical errors. The aim for this health policy analysis paper is to review the history of medical errors in the United States and the quality improvement policies we have created to relinquish the problem. We will also discuss potential new policies and laws that can be created to even better

In today's modern world with plenty of technology, it is hard to believe that we cannot figure out how to reduce Medical errors. The issue of medical error is not new in health care organizations. It has been in spot light since 1990's, when government did research on sudden increase in number of death in the hospitals. According to Lester, H., & Tritter, J. (2001), "Medical error is an actual or potential serious lapse in the standard of care provided to a patient, or harm caused to a patient through the performance of a health service or health care professional." Medical errors

People go to the hospital when they are in need of medical care when sick or physically hurt, expecting to get well and return to loved ones. Unfortunately health care is not safe in the United States. There are cases where people get worse because of an honest mistake, or because something has gone wrong in consequence of a medical error. Medical errors may be perceived as a well-organized plan that has gone wrong or even getting the opposite results of what was expected. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM) an average of 98,000 deaths are caused by medical errors in the United Stated each year, generating many methods to prevent malpractice and reduce numbers of deaths.

When one imagines the interaction between the doctor and the patient during consultation, it is common for an individual to note apparent and routinized activities. These activities include intermittent dialogue between the doctor and his/her patient, the doctor’s regular use of medical equipment (e.g., medical record, computer, etc.), and procedural tests performed on his patient such as blood pressure readings. However, it is important to recognize the significance of non-verbal communication between a doctor and his patient during medical consultation. This paper will concentrate on the doctor’s “body language” along with its implications that can lead to a positive or negative clinical outcome and patient experience.

This study seeks to investigate the non-verbal communication strategies used by doctors in doctor-patient interactions during the initial consultation in a clinical setting. Non-verbal communication can be conceptualised as any form of communication that does not use the written or spoken word. (Birdwhistell: 1990, Melirabian: 1981).It is more than just body language since it includes, use of time, space, clothing, furniture, features of the environment (temperature, lighting) how we utter words (inflection, tone, volume) and it can occur in the absence of verbal communication through symbols and physical contexts. This

Communication is defined as the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. One study states that 93% of communication is more affected by body language, attitude, and tone, leaving only 7% of the meaning and intent based on the actual words (Hughes, 2008). Communication is not just a verbal form; when the practice managers are facing difficulties communicating with physicians, they consider nonverbal communication. To avoid confrontation, critical information can be transmitted via handwritten notes, e-mails, or text messages.