As healthcare dynamics change due to availability of advanced technologies, new or strange health conditions, limited qualified healthcare experts and facilities and burgeoning patient numbers, healthcare organizations are under an exceedingly increased pressure to ensure quality of healthcare is not compromised. At the same time, healthcare centers or clinics have to operate under the most sustainable and minimum healthcare costs possible and also reduce patient expenditure on healthcare. Quality assurance in the provision of healthcare has thus become an invaluable aspect of healthcare organizational operation and management in efforts to reduce costs that come with increased patient complaints concerning long waiting times, incomplete or inadequate medical information from hospital staff and limited variety of medical insurance cover options available for patients at healthcare facilities. A research by Weston and Roberts found a positive link between healthcare quality improvement strategies and patient outcomes. This paper examines examples of quality initiatives that could be applied to enhance patient satisfaction and reduce healthcare costs.
Moreover, Mayberry, Nicewander and Ballard (2006) suggest a number of initiatives enumerated under the report by the Institute of Medicine titled Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century. According to these authors, by pursuing the main aims of healthcare as brought out in that report, healthcare organizations, facilities or centers will be able to tremendously improve the quality of healthcare offered to patients and hence increase patient satisfaction levels. The values that healthcare centers ought to uphold in their healthcare services provision include patient safety, efficiency, timelines, effectiveness, patient-centeredness and equity. Under the timelines factor, healthcare organizations should come up with workflow proficiency programs that help reduce harmful and wasteful delays or waits by patients before they can be served. As a means of reducing costs of healthcare, the authors recommend efficiency in operation of healthcare facilities whereby waste of medical supplies and equipment is avoided or minimized. As to equity, the center needs to ensure that the quality of healthcare offered is accessible to all types of patients without any distinction based on gender, race or socio-economic status. The authors give Baylor Health Care System (BHCS) as an example of a hospital facility healthcare system that has embraced these qualities of healthcare and has seen improvement in outcomes in terms of cost reduction and patient satisfaction.
Further afield, concerning the potential reduction in the healthcare costs for patients, Kaplan and Porter (2011) argue that the best way out for healthcare organizations is to develop proper costing systems and procedures. Accordingly, they suggest that to avoid poor healthcare costing systems, healthcare centers and patients alike must understand and appreciate the value of health care by measuring it in terms of patient outcomes that they achieve for every dollar they expend. In order to effectively manage healthcare costs, patient outcomes and costs should be measured in such a way that they reflect or encompass the full healthcare cycle for medical conditions for which patients have been treated. Additionally, in order to appropriately measure healthcare cost, healthcare facilities should identify the patient’s medical condition, give a definition of the care delivery chain (CDVC), come up with process maps for every activity in the patient CDVC, carry out time estimates for every process and also estimate the cost involved in supplying the medical resources used on the patient, do a calculation of the capacity cost rate of each resource and lastly, calculate the cumulative patient care costs. Also, the authors recommend such healthcare cost reduction initiatives as elimination of valueless or unnecessary processes and process variations, enhance the capacity utilization capacity of all healthcare resources, improve cycle time, match clinical skills with the healthcare process and reduce or reinvent reimbursements.
As potential pay sources for my urgent care center, I would accept Medicaid and Medicare since these state-funded medical insurance schemes help reduce or cut down on healthcare costs for medical facilities and public health insurers. According to Obamacare Facts (2015), Medicaid and Medicare help hospitals to health reduce insurance costs on unpaid bills and medical debts besides encouraging less expenditure on healthcare by patients. Health canters can no longer grapple with unpaid or uncompensated medical or healthcare bills due to the fact that these schemes under the Obamacare make healthcare costs affordable. These pay sources also lead to the rise of accountable care organizations (ACOs) coming together thus enabling them to offer high quality healthcare at less expensive costs to patients.
References
Dykes, P. C., & Collins, S. A. (2013, September). Building linkages between nursing cae and improved patient outcopmes: The role of health information technology. 2013 OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 4-18. Retrieved January 22, 2016, from http://www.nursingworld.org/Nursing-Care-and-Improved-Outcomes.html
Glickman, S. W., Baggett, K. A., Krubert, C. G., Peterson, E. D., & Schulman, K. A. (2007, October). Promoting quality: the health-care organization from a management perspective. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 19(6), 341-348. doi:10.1093/intqhc/mzm047
Kaplan, R. S., & Porter, M. E. (2011). The big idea: How to solve the cost crisis in health care. Harvard Business Review Journal, 1(1), 1-18. Retrieved January 22, 2016, from https://hbr.org/2011/09/how-to-solve-the-cost-crisis-in-health-care
Mayberry, R. M., Nicewander, D. A., Qin, H., & Ballard, a. D. (2006). Improving quality and reducing inequities:A challenge in achieving best care. Proceedings (Baylor Ubiversity Medical Center) Journal, 19(2), 103-118.
Obamacare Facts, (2015). How does Obamacare control costs? Retrieved January 22, 2015, from http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-control-costs/
Weston, M., & Roberts, D. W. (2013, Septmeber 1-20). The influence of quality improvenment effects on patient outcomes and nursing work: A perspective from chief nursing officers at three large health systems . The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 1(1). Retrieved January 22, 2016, from http://www.nursingworld.org/Quality-Improvement-on-Patient-Outcomes.html
