Health and the promotion of good health are important to all the stakeholders who have the interest of health at heart. The population continues to promote good health and have found measures to maintain equality in appropriate health care that will benefit the society. The goals of the Electronic Health Record (HER) have been designed to create the most appropriate benefits to the persons who access health care, but these goals can be improved as they currently serve to promote health care but persons still have problems accessing health care. The measures currently in place allows patients access to care but there are still those who cannot accept the policies that are currently in place.
The first goal of the organization is to: reduce the HIM staff. This goal does not begin to help the organization as the number of persons who become ill due to illness or accidents vary on a daily basis. The problem will arise on days when the number of patients increases in the system involuntarily. If this were to happen, then the society would suffer immensely. Those persons who work in specialized care would not be present to assist in major and minor operations in the field. Of course, the large staff creates additional cost for the hospital, but the reduction in the number of staff members will reduce the quality of service at the hospital. The suggested goal that could replace this goal is: Employ voluntary HIM staff that can work on shifts and help to reduce the cost of a large staff.
The second goal: reduce the time to access health information is applicable to the organization, but there is room for improvement in this rule. There are some records that take time to evaluate and access and therefore the procedure should not be hastened. Of course, one may argue that the reduction in the timing allows for quicker service to patients, but this could also mean gathering and implementing incorrect information that can hurt the patients and the institution as well. According to Christian Munthe, the goals of public and private health providers are to provide goals that are practical and descriptive in the aims of the organization (Munthe 2008). So, if the mission of this hospital is to provide the best possible care, then there must be care in accessing health information. The suggested improvement to this goal: Prioritize the information to be accessed and delegate different persons to access different information.
The third goal speaks to the improvements to quality health care. Health literacy and quality healthcare is important to developing a sound health care system. Don Nutbeam suggests that health literacy is a new concept that helps to “describe a range of outcomes to health education and communication activities” (Nutbeam 2000: 1). Based on this notion, it is important that the organization become cognizant of the need to provide quality health care despite the additional cost that may arise. Of course, the economic crisis in the country deters a number of organizations from providing true quality health care for every person in the country. An amendment to this particular goal would be: Improve on health literacy education through advanced educational opportunities and practice new and improve health measures.
The fourth goal refers to a reduction in the duplicate and unnecessary tests. Every test is important and in many cases patients require a second test or a second opinion which leads to information that was not present in the original test. Health organizations should strive to give the best quality service to the public even if that means that the hospital must administer different tests in duplicate. No one can truly determine or assume that a test is not important because there are times when simple tests are not done early and duplicate tests are not done to verify the medical conditions of the patients. This rule should be removed from the list and could be replaced with the following rules: Duplicate tests must be administered in all instances to ensure the health and well-being of the patients.
The final rule relates to reducing the cost per case. This rule is important and should remain in effect with minor alterations. The cost of health care in the society is very high and many patients cannot afford quality health care. Therefore, health care organizations should take steps to reduce the cost of health care. The economic demands on the hospital may increase and limit the prospect of lower costs for health care, but through grants and donations we can maintain policies to reduce the cost per case. The suggested alterations to this rule would be: Reduce the cost per cases over a specific range.
In concluding, rules are important to every organization. These rules allow for the smooth operations within the organization. But, these organizations, and in particular health care providers must be careful in structuring the rules as they serve the wider diverse public. The changes in these rules are important and the personnel at the hospital should evaluate the rules each week to make an informed decision in maintaining the best interest of the society. In addition, it would be ideal to allow for patient and their family to provide regular feedback through questionnaires and informal interviews that can be carried out by voluntary staff including students who practice volunteerism. There would be no cost to the evaluations and assessment of the rules as voluntary services are not carried out for profit.
Works Cited
Munthe, C., (2008) The Goals of Public Health: An Integrated, Multidimensional Model, Public
Health Ethics (2008) 1 (1):39-52.doi: 10.1093/phe/phn006 Retrieved from http://phe.oxfordjournals.org/content/1/1/39.full 4 Mar 2016
Nutbeam, D. (2000) Health literacy as a public health goal: a challenge for contemporary health
education and communication strategies into the 21st century, Health Promot. Int. (2000) 15 (3):259-267.doi: 10.1093/heapro/15.3.259 Retrieved from https://heapro.oxfordjournals.org/content/15/3/259.full 4 Mar 2016
