Drawbacks in the United States Health Care System
The extent to which a health consumer is satisfied by the services offered in a health facility is determined by characteristics of the delivery system. Currently, the United States health system is inefficient due to process inefficiencies, structural barriers as well as a system failure. The factors hinder delivery of evidence-based health care at high efficiency. For example, healthcare culture hinders the delivery of care because the practicing environment is characterized including by intense competition and distrust among stakeholders. Still, consumers want high-quality services at the low out-of-pocket price while health workers want to purchase equipment at low price. The low-price culture, therefore, needs to be phased out to have a more efficient health care system (Grossmann, Goolsby, Olsen & McGinnis, 2011). Elsewhere, new diagnostic tools have increased the cost of health beyond the economic power of most consumers. In a similar manner, components of health information technology are not integrated implying consumers are paying a high price for health services. For example, lack of data standards hinders direct processing of payment forcing consumers to pay an extra processing fee. In another sphere, the health system lacks enough and comprehensive data to manage health care (Stead, Searle, Fessler, Smith & Shortliffe, 2011). For example, integration of information systems is not possible because insurance companies and health facilities lack good data. The integration arrangement would be possible if the institutions can accurately determine whether enough consumers are on board such that the business can exploit economies of scale in the long-term.
Health institutions lack a similar structure of operating. Disparities begin in the training or education stage where some are trained to treat while other are trained to manage or undertake research. For companies, their business model revolves around protecting their intellectual property rights and limiting loss. Stakeholders also devise different ways of surviving in the work environment where workers in different institutions work against each other to earn credit rather than working together. Overall, the many barriers and challenges in healthcare reflect a complex health care system as a whole.
References
Grossmann, C., Goolsby, W. A., Olsen, L., & McGinnis, J. M. (Eds.). (2011). Engineering a learning healthcare system: A look at the future: Workshop summary. National Academies Press.
Stead, W. W., Searle, J. R., Fessler, H. E., Smith, J. W., & Shortliffe, E. H. (2011). Biomedical informatics: changing what physicians need to know and how they learn. Academic Medicine, 86(4), 429-434.
