Under the Obama administration, the Affordable Health Care Act has been endorsed. Many questioned the benefits that can be derived from this policy. However, the Institute of Medicine, through the American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2014: Health grades Report to the Nation, documented that performance of 4,500 hospitals and the 31 common inpatient conditions during the 2010-2012 . In the report, the IOM reported the on the compromised improvement of the quality of hospitals . Following the recession in 2008 and the widespread scarcity of health professionals because of the uncontrolled mobility of health professionals, many of the hospitals encountered a great deal of problems relating to the raising and even maintaining the quality of the healthcare delivery system. From 2010 to 2012, significant problems and inconsistencies had been documented from the projected benefits. In fact, instead of lowering the cost of health care had significantly increased. In addition, the increase in the government spending relating to health care has resulted to a significant increase in the number of people who had been negatively affected by the Affordable Health Care Act.
The government brags that with the Affordable Health Care Act, 234,252 patients should have been saved and 157,418 complication should have been avoided . Nevertheless, this is not the case that was documented by the IOM. The risk of patient dying due to complications had significantly increased by 6.8%, which is 17 times higher when patients are attended in a hospital. Considering all the projected benefits of the Affordable Health Care Act, the IOM report seems to say otherwise. While the government flaunts the significant improvement, the people do not seem to feel the effect of what is perceived to be good for the people and the healthcare delivery system .
References
Nicholas, C. (2013, October 18). American Hospital Quality Outcomes 2014: Health grades Report to the Nation. Retrieved from Health Grades, Inc.: https://d2dcgio3q2u5fb.cloudfront.net/56/90/e07df9f64a5fb741ab59924a9e0d/2013-american-hospital-quality-outcomes-2014-healthgrades-report-to-the-nation.pdf
Nickitas, D., Middaugh, D., & Aries, N. (2010). Policy And Politics For Nurses And Other Health Professionals: Advocacy and Action. Burlington, Massachusetts: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
