Introduction
The present assessment involves the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, which is located in Dallas. The facility is an 898-bed acute-care infirmary that treats complicated medical cases in North Texas. The assessment focuses on the quality of health care offered at the facility, as well as other facilities in the country, and explores ways of improving the services.
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) observes that the U.S. health care system does not offer consistent and high-quality medical care to every citizen. Consequently, the health care system routinely fails to provide its potential benefits to all people. IOM notes that between the current health care and the health care that Americans could have lays a chasm. The gap results from a combination of several factors. In the past half-century, for example, medical science has progressed at an unprecedented rate. In tandem has emerged growing complexities in health care involving an increased requirement for aspects such as medical personnel (IOM). In the presence of such rapid changes, the country’s health care system has lacked the ability to transform knowledge into practice while applying new technology appropriately and safely (IOM).
Moreover, Americans’ health care needs have changed. The advances in medical science have allowed Americans to live longer. Consequently, the aging population has been followed by an increase in the prevalence of chronic diseases (IOM). Chronic maladies such as asthma and heart disease have become the leading cause of disability, illness, and death (IOM). However, today’s health system, particularly at the Dallas hospital, is overly devoted to addressing acute and episodic care needs. Further, there is a paucity of clinical programs with the right infrastructure for providing the full-service complement needed by patients with chronic illnesses.
The health care system is also too poorly organized to meet current challenges (IOM). The provision of care is often uncoordinated and complex, requiring steps that slow down the service while decreasing safety. The cumbersome procedures increase unaccountability, waste resources, and cause a loss of information (IOM). In addition, they fail to utilize the strengths of the health personnel charged with the provision of timely, safe, and appropriate care. In particular, organizational issues are apparent in cases involving chronic conditions.
Consequently, there is an urgent need to reinvent the health care services with the goal of providing quality care to the public. IOM has observed that the bringing of state-of-the-art care to the Americans will require a profound redesign of the health care system. The IOM’s report focuses broadly on reinventing the health care services to nurture innovation and ameliorate the delivery of care (IOM).
Aim for Improvement
Advances in health care systems must start at all levels of health care constituencies. Hence, improvements must involve groups such as the health professionals, private and public purchasers of care, state and federal policy makers, regulators, governing boards and organization managers. During the enhancement process, the parties should focus on continually reducing the burden of injury, illness, and disability. In addition, the parties should take up a shared vision of six particular goals for improvement. The aims are safety of patients, offering adequate care, providing patient-centered care, giving timely services, promoting efficiency in the provision of care, and observing equity in the provision of medical services. The present assessment, however, focuses on the patient-centered objective of melioration. The objective can improve health services by providing health care that respects the values, needs, and preferences of the patient. Further, it can ensure that patient values direct all clinical decisions.
A health care system that accomplishes significant gains in the patient-centered objective would be efficient at meeting the needs of the patients. Patients would receive care that is more reliable, safer, more responsive to patient needs, more available, and more integrated. Health personnel would also benefit through an increased satisfaction resulting from the quality care offered to the patients. In addition, the health workers would feel satisfied for performing their jobs better and for bringing greater longevity, less suffering and pain, improved health, and increased personal productivity to the patients who receive their care.
Ten Rules for Redesigning Health System
IOM established a set of ten general principles aimed at informing efforts to redesign health care services. The rules can help in achieving the patient-care objective discussed in the present research. The rules are:
1. Care utilizes continuous healing relationships. The rule implies that patients should receive care whenever they need it. Consequently, the health care personnel should be responsive at all times
2. Care is customized to the patient’s needs. The system is designed to address common needs, but also responds adequately to individual patient choices, as well as preferences.
3. Patients are given the opportunity to exercise control over the health care decisions. In addition, the system accommodates differences in the patient preferences.
4. Information flows freely while knowledge is shared. Patients should have unrestricted access to clinical knowledge and their medical information. Thus, patients and clinicians should communicate effectively and share information.
5. Decision making is based on evidence. Patients receive care that utilizes available scientific knowledge.
6. Safety is a property of health systems. Patients should feel safe from injuries induced by the care system. Reducing risk and maintaining safety prevents the occurrence of errors.
7. Transparency is crucial. The system should avail information that may help patients in making informed decisions.
8. Needs are anticipated. Thus, the care system should anticipate patient needs, instead of reacting after events have occurred.
9. Waste is decreased continuously. The system should not waste patients’ time.
10. Cooperation among the medical professionals is a priority. Institutions and Clinicians should collaborate actively and communicate effectively to ensure the appropriate exchange of information and coordination of care.
Changing the Environment
The health care services provided at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital require improvement in order to satisfy health practitioners, patients, and the public. The recent case of Ebola at the hospital may have reduced public confidence in the services offered at the infirmary. Therefore, it is crucial for the hospital to have a patient-centered objective in its effort to improve health care.
In addition, Congress should establish a Quality Innovation Fund for health care in order to initiate the process of change at the Dallas’ hospital and in other medical facilities (IOM). The Fund would help in producing a public-domain portfolio of tools, programs, and technologies that have widespread applicability. The Fund would also help in communicating the need for significant change in the health system. The projects funded should target at achieving the patient-centered aim of improvement. However, redesigning the health system will also require altering the processes and structures of the environment that surrounds health professionals and organizations. Changing the work environment should include the adequate incorporation of information technology in order to boost efficiency.
Conclusion
The environmental assessment conducted on the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital shows that the health services offered at the hospital have not satisfied the public. Nevertheless, the study has identified the patient-centered objective as the best approach to improving the services provided by the hospital. The IOM’s ten rules can be used to reinforce the efforts of achieving the patient-centered goal and, hence, improve health care at the Dallas hospital. The study, therefore, observes that there is a need to apply various measures in order to transform health care. Apart from the patient-centered aim of improvement, Congress has a special role in the transformation process. For example, it can establish a Quality Innovation Fund that would promote projects aimed at improving health services.
Works Cited
