Health care provision is a critical aspect for the growth of the nation. Quality and efficient system ensure that timely and convenient medical care is given to the people. The plan has to be formulated that incorporates the concerned parties in the field of health care provision services. These include the physicians and financial advisors to provide guidance on better payment plans. Once the plan has been created, several aspects that determine the success of the plan must be clearly stated, and necessary measures taken to ensure that they are achieved.
Difference between Patient Centered Medical Home and Health Management Organization
The need to improve services and health condition of people in society has helped develop better ways to achieve this goal. Patient Centered Medical Home is one of the development. It involves a situation where a patient has a specific health care provider and works hand in hand with other specialist such as cardiologists, dermatologists, and pharmacists to see to it that one's health is maintained well, and follow-up is done (Rittenhouse, Thom & Schmittdiel, 2010). The personal health care person has the record of a patient and does regular checking of the patient to ensure that the records are updated continuously. The plan also has the advantage of including financial professionals and planners who provide help in things such as covering medical costs. A major challenge in this type of plan is the workforce availability and knowledge. To be able to specifically handle many patients, more professionals in medicine are needed which is a problem that can be overclocked by recruiting and training more personnel.
On the other hand, Health Management Organisation refers to the situation where members in society can voluntarily make agreed payment that can be monthly or annually and receive health care service from professionals who have formed a group. The payment fee made is inclusive of hospitalization if necessary for a certain patient. Advantage of this type of plan is that it focuses much on preventive measures as it tries to minimise cost of treatment and extreme cases such as hospitalisation. Professionals who have specialised in different fields of medicine form the organisation giving them the diversity of handling different health care issues and problems. However, this type of plan has a limitation. Quality of service offered can be compromised in a case where patients number increases so much making it hard for the physicians to properly handle the patients. If such a situation happens, efficiency is highly reduced as the patients will sometimes have to wait for long to see the physicians.
Health IT contribution for success
For the success of Patient Centered Medical Home, service provision to the society should be excellent and for this to be achieved several things need to be included in the system. Health information technology is the first and crucial aspect. Communication between the patient and the personal health provider is vital for the delivery of quality services (Institute of Medicine, 2012). A good communication system will improve services as the patient will have the ability to contact a physician at any time in case of inquiries or if the caregiver wants to change certain prescription. It also helps when the physician wants to conduct some urgent tests on the patient and, therefore requires physical presence of the patient (Stewart, Miller & Jaen, 2010). Aspect of IT also comes in when sharing of files and details about a particular patient among the physicians. Different specialists handle a particular patient and instead of carrying out fresh tests every time a certain specialist wants details about the patient, files on the already performed tests can be shared making it easier, efficient, and convenient to the patient.
Workforce development contribution
Workforce development is another aspect that determines the success of this plan. It involves plans to increase the number and knowledge of professionals providing health care services to the people. In the case where one physician attends to many patients within a short period, the quality of service offered becomes substandard. Less time is spent with a patient reducing the ability of the physician to understand the patient well. The main objective of the plan is to have a personal health care provider attending to a patient and one who can be easily available. If the system faces a shortage of workers and one physician is expected to handle more than a reasonable number of patients, then efficiency in terms of availability and follow-up activities by the personal caregiver fails.
The other aspect in workforce development is knowledge improvement of the professional. Regular training and encouraging research among the caregivers is crucial for the success of the plan. Performing regular training will help provide good health care services to the patient with the confidence that one is sure of what to do in the varying health care problems (Stange & Miller, 2010). Confidence of the patient is increased knowing that the caregiver is well equipped with knowledge concerning health. Updating of the staff on the current technology application is imperative. It helps improve the efficiency in terms of diagnosing a disease, administration of drugs and helps saves time as improved technology makes running such processes easier and faster.
Payment reforms contribution
Success of the Patient Centered Medical Home is also determined by the payment methods. It refers to both the payment strategies used to pay the physicians and the one used by the patients to pay for the services. One of the methods available is the fee-for-service model. It involves payment by the patient after just receiving the service from a physician at an agreed fee. Advantage of using this type of payment model is that it reduces paperwork and procedures after services have been offered to the people. However, the method tends to create a bad perspective that the major concern of the physicians in the organisation is money that should not be the case. Therefore, a good payment plan should be one that does not strain the service providers or the patients. Provision of credit cards to be used by patients after several visits is a better plan as the company does the deduction of the money on a monthly basis or regular basis depending on the agreement. Provision of incentives to the physicians in different aspects can also help a great deal in motivating them to improve quality of service offered.
conclusion
In conclusion, the health status of individuals in society and nation as a whole is vital for economic development. A plan such as the Patient Centered Medical Home helps provide a solution to various challenges faced in the health care. Time management, safety, and continuous assessment of the patient are some of the things that can be achieved through application of such method. Although efficient, the plan requires more experts in the field of medicine to provide quality services to the community.
References
Rittenhouse, D. R., Thom, D. H. & Schmittdiel, J. A. (2010). Developing a Policy-Relevant Research Agenda for the Patient-Centered Medical Home: a Focus on Outcomes. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 25 (6), 593-600. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2869424/pdf/11606_2010_Article_1 289.p df (Retrieved 2/07/2014)
Stewart, E. E., Nutting, P. A., Crabtree, B. F., Stange, K. C., Miller, W. L. & Jaen, C. R. (2010). Implementing the Patient-Centered Medical Home: Observation and Description of the National Demonstration Project. Annals of Family Medicine, 8 (1), S21-32. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885725/pdf/0080021.pdf (Retrieve d 2/7/2014)
Stange, K. C., Miller, W. L., Nutting, P. A., Crabtree, B. F., Stewart, E. E. & Jaen, C. R. (2010). Context for Understanding the National Demonstration Project and the Patient-Centered Medical Home. Annals of Family Medicine, 8 (1), S2-8. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2885730/pdf/0080002.pdf (Retrieve d 2/7/2014)
Stecher, B. M., Kirby, S. N., & Rand Education (Institute). (2011). Organizational improvement and accountability: Lessons for education from other sectors. Santa Monica, CA: Rand Corp.
