The Transformation Of The U.s. Healthcare System

In a healthcare world that operates on stringent budgets and margins, we begin to see the need for a higher capacity healthcare delivery system. This in turn puts pressure on the healthcare organizations to ensure higher standards of patient care, and compliance with the reform provisions. However, these are the harsh realities of today’s healthcare environment, a setting in which value does not always equal quality. The use of technology can help to amend some of this by providing higher capacity care without compromising quality; this can be done with the use of such technology as electronic health records (EHRs). This paper will aim to address how EHRs influence healthcare today by expanding upon topics such as funding sources, reimbursement methods, economic factors, socioeconomic factors, business influences, and cost containment.

This case analysis of Stanford’s Hospital and Clinics (SHC) electronic medical record (EMR) system implementation will focus on how the healthcare organization focused on resolving a problem to meet regulatory pressures and responded to an opportunity to create operational efficiency, by capitalizing on the use of information technology to help reduce costs. We will discuss the organization’s IT problems, opportunities, and the alternatives available to address each. We will summarize an analysis of potential alternatives including the organization’s EMR system of choice and conclude with a recommendation to the Board on how to rollout the new system.

As Americans we should all be afforded access to healthcare. Access to healthcare is an individual right according to the human rights amendment. The human right to health guarantees a system of health protection for all. The human right to health means that everyone has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, which includes access to all medical services, sanitation, adequate food, decent housing, healthy working conditions and a clean environment (What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care, 2015). However there are strengths and weaknesses to every healthcare system and the U.S. Healthcare system is not exempt. I plan to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the U. S. Healthcare system (What is the Human Right to Health and Health Care, 2015).

The first characteristic of the US health care system is that there is no central governing agency which allows for little integration and coordination. While the government has a great influence on the health care system, the system is mostly controlled through private hands. The system is financed publically and privately creating a variety of payments and delivery unlike centrally controlled healthcare systems in other developed countries. The US system is more complex and less manageable than centrally controlled health care systems, which makes it more expensive. The second characteristic of the US health care system is that it is technology driven and focuses on acute care. With more usage of high technology,

2. Here, the research shows that in many situations, healthcare professionals are urged to conduct unnecessary tests and procedures in order to rack up the bill for insurance claims to then

Primary care is the backbone of many industrialized nations, but is the US one of them? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The US lags behind such developed nations in its accessibility of primary care by a huge difference. The United States healthcare system fails to ensure the timely preventative and primary care for its residents. The current estimates indicate that there is merely one physician for every 2,500 patients. Not only Medicare beneficiaries, but also privately insured adults struggle in accessing the right primary care physician at the right time. Moreover, maldistribution of physicians only exacerbates the problem, especially for those residing in health professional shortage areas (HPSA).15 Approximately, sixty-five million Americans live in designated primary care shortage areas.13 Such underserved population faces higher disease and death rates and health disparities that then result in higher rates of hospitalizations and emergency department visits—in other words, expensive medical bills.21 More governmental control on the geographic location of primary care physicians can be a first-step to fixing the shortage problem.

Is cost shifting fair in the name of being “my brothers’ keeper” or is it unacceptable to take from the haves and in turn, giving it to the have-nots. It sounds unfair; however, this is a common trend in the United States healthcare system. According to Cambridge dictionary, cost shifting is “a situation in which the price of one product or service is higher than it should be, in order to pay for losses on another product or service for which the price is too low.” The cost shifting trend affects patients with health insurance by compensating for the financial loss hospitals incur when services are provided to those without insurance.

When it comes to the U.S. healthcare system, there are two sides of the argument. Some Americans may argue that the U.S. healthcare system is the best in the world given the many state-of-the-art healthcare facilities and innovative and advanced medical technology available, and there are those who argue that it is too costly and inefficient on many different levels (Chua, 2006). Despite the large amount of spending invested on their healthcare system, the U.S. consistently underperforms on most indicators of performance compared to other countries (Davis, Stremikis, Squires, & Schoen, 2014). Healthcare costs such as doctor visits, hospital stays, and prescription drugs are more expensive in the U.S. than any other country in the world.

It has only been within the last five years that health information management (HIM) has experienced exponential changes, due to the healthcare reform. The electronic health record (EHR) is connected to health information exchanges and other systems of interoperability. The timely completion of charts, coding and release of information (ROI) has become much more efficient with the electronic record. Traditional HIM functions will just be transformed and will always be an integral part of successful patient care. Professionals must be flexible and willing to adapt and even generate change. As Health Information Technology continues to evolve, so will the roles

The US health care system is can be difficult to understand since “many parts of the system are run by hundreds of individual organizations, including the government, nonprofit, and for profit enterprises (Understanding the US Healthcare system, 2015). Breaking down the US health care system into different parts will make it easier to understand, while showing the pros and cons, and how it impacts the role of nurses. Formally, I will do the same to Norway’s health care system and spot the similarities or differences with how each one is being run.

Has the introduction of the Affordable Care Act “Obama Care” made the Health Care System in the United States better or worse? Please provide evidence, statistics, information, argument to support your answer. In your answer, please address the following issues in the Health Care System of the United States:

Over the past few years the healthcare field has seen many changes in tools and technologies. These new tools have impacted the performance of organizations, and advancements in managerial controls. One of the major changes came after the passing of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act by Congress. HITECH caused a shift in the way healthcare keeps track of patient’s personal health information (PHI) by increasing incentives for providers to implement electronic health records (EHR). The EHR system is then managed by upper leadership teams such as: Director of Quality Improvement and Risk Management (DQI), Chief Operations Officer (COO),

The United States healthcare system is unique when compared with that of other developed nations. Shi and Singh (2015) describe 10 different characteristics of the United States system, as well as, several external factors that assert some pressure on the healthcare delivery system. In this discussion, we will focus on access to health care, as one of the characteristics, and information technology as the external force. I will then review what effect the Affordable Care Act of 2010 had on these issues.

The United States Health Care System has developed and evolved over the past three millennia. The health care system can be broken down into three major components: medical education and training for professionals, the financing of health care, and the government’s role in the delivery of health care. All of these work together to create an efficient health care system that maximizes quality of health. The progression of medical education in the United States has led to reform, the establishment of health insurance benefitted many consumers, and the government created many programs to allow more American’s access to affordable health care.

Electronic health records (EHR’s) have many advantages, but there are plenty of disadvantages. EHR’s were created to manage the many aspects of healthcare information. Medical professionals use them daily and most would feel lost without it. Healthcare organizations were encouraged to adopt EHR’s in 2009 due to the fact that a bill passed known as The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). “The HITECH Act outlines criteria to achieve “meaningful use” of certified electronic records. These criteria must be met in order for providers to receive financial incentives to promote adoption of EHRs as an integral part of their daily practice”, (Conrad, Hanson, Hasenau & Stocker-Schneider, 2012).