Introduction
Over the years, the medical care system in the United States has encountered different challenges. These include high costs, fragmented delivery as well as poor quality services. This has led to the need of the country to focus on restructuring its health delivery system. With this objective, the house bill, affordable health care for American act, senate bill and the patient protection and affordable care act represent the much needed reform. It is expected that there will be a growth and shift in the nursing field. This is because more jobs will be accessible out in the community and fewer jobs in the acute care hospitals (Herzlinger 87). This health delivery system reform has attracted the implementation of Accountable care organizations, continuity care as well as the implementation of medical homes and nursing health nursing clinics.
Under the continuity of care healthcare should assist health care providers evaluate continuity well as well as improve communication. On the other hand, it is viewed as the relationship between a single practitioner and a patient which goes beyond the specific illness or disease. This facilitates trust, loyalty and a sense of responsibility between the two. Integrated health delivery systems reforms such as the patient centered medical homes have shown high cost saving potential and improving on the quality of the services. On the other hand, the Accountable care organizations, which are the new system of health care, focus on coordinating care across the whole continuum of health care. This means from physicians to hospitals and to other clinicians. This will help in the reduction of the fragmented care hence the control of costs as well as the outcome improvement. In this case, the health care system will focus on the health needs for consumers where the services will be delivered in convenient, familiar sites. These include schools, workplaces as well as homes. In addition to that, there will be a shift from illness orientation to a wellness and prevention one (Yih 49).
The ACO providers take the responsibility for groups of patients. In this case, the Medicare and the participating insurers offer financial rewards for the ACO that save money and hit the quality goals for these patients. Through the restructured health care delivery system, all people are assured of acquiring affordable healthcare services. The access must be affordable, acceptable as well as accessible. This can be achieved through the expansion of the availability of services. From the above, health services will be rendered at the community level by the nurses. The one by one delivery of services to the patient will ensure that the services that are offered are quality. The patient will able to deal with the nurse on a personal level. The cost will also be reduced since the patient will not have to travel to the acute hospitals to look for treatment, as well as other diagnosis (Porzsolt, Franz & Kaplan 58).
Other than that, the reform in the delivery system will require finance in order to meet its cost. In this case, the single payer mechanism will be applied since it is the desirable option. This is particular to the nursing profession. One of the significant shifts is the shift of thinking. This is from viewing the registered nurses as well as the nursing services as an expense to the system. Rather, nursing care should be recognized as a money saver by focusing on the wellness as well as the prevention of complications and critical events. Through this reform, people will need to be educated on the importance of Medicare which will be offered at the community level. In addition to that, the health services will be delivered to the patients on a direct basis at the community.
Conclusion
The reform is focusing on transforming the health delivery system into a primary care directed organization. Moreover, it will be based on the maximization of the nurse practitioners as the primary care providers. This means that most of the job opportunities in the nursing profession will be transferred from the acute hospitals to the communities.
Works Cited
Herzlinger, Regina E.. Consumer-driven health care implications for providers, payers, and policymakers. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. Print.
Porzsolt, Franz, and Robert M. Kaplan. Optimizing health improving the value of healthcare delivery. New York: Springer, 2006. Print.
Yih, Y.. Handbook of healthcare delivery systems. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011. Print.
