Healthcare Quality Initiative Paper
For many people both in medical and non-medical world, Health care quality initiative represents a huge undertaking in developing and improving the overall quality of care. Medicare system offers a perfect avenue to enhance the quality of care offered by professionals. In explanation, Medicare is a social insurance program that caters for both the financial and wellbeing of the elderly sick and disabled persons under 65. Included in this category are individuals at the end stage of renal disease. This Medicare system program is financed chiefly by the premiums, taxes and revenue from the federal government. It is divided into two components – part A and part B.
Medicare part A cuts through home health agencies to medical facilities based services while Medicare part B is solely concerned with outpatient services. Under the Medicare System, pay-for-performance (p4p) quality initiative plays a very pivotal role in enhancing the quality of care delivered by professionals and clinicians to beneficiaries. It provides a drastic shift on the quality of care provided by allowing the outcome of the treatment to affect the claims paid to the care provider rather than the traditional ways in which the health services and procedures provided to the patient determined the amount paid to the provider. Pay for performance advocates for the right care wherein the right care is defined by the Institute of Medicine as the type of care that is patient-centered, equitable, efficient, timely and safe.
Under the pay for performance initiative, the quality of the care delivered by clinicians and other health care providers depends to a greater extent on the organizational structural capability of the systems under which the providers operate. This in turn influence the quality of the treatment process delivered in which the best care provider is paid more. P4p Medicare payment system seeks to ensure independent heath care services independent of the beneficiaries attributes such as gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status and even geographical location.
In medical health care provision, screening forms an important component in health diagnosis and treatment of diseases. According to Wilson and Jungner (1968), it involves use of laboratory tests in a special procedure to diagnose unrecognized diseases in individuals and the population as a whole. Screening interventions are mostly designed to reduce and eliminate mortality and frequency of transmission of the diagnosed disease through early detection. In combating the spread and severity of the unrecognized disease, screening tests provides a set of characteristics that indicates the expected results in both positive and negative patients of the disease under investigation. In so doing, it assists in designing the best possible approach in providing the right and best health care to patients.
Health screening tests are used in both private and community health because they assist in early disease detection, intervention and management. This facilitates both active and pro-active measures to lower mortality rates and suffering associated with the disease. The primary characteristics of screening employed in health care quality initiative include: the health condition should be an important health problem; facilities for diagnosis and treatment of the disease should be available; and, the test should be acceptable to the individual and community as a whole (Wilson and Jungner, 1968).
Atlanta Medical Center (2014) defines quality measure as ‘medical information obtained from patient records’ that depicts how well hospitals and medical centers treat their patients. It is given as a rate or percentage. These measures are important in enabling patients compare performance of hospitals, and choose the appropriate one that matches their needs. Atlanta Medical Centre is rated based on four major aspects: heart attack care, heart failure care, pneumonia care, and surgical care.
Heart attack occurs when blood and oxygen fail to reach the heart due to blockage of one or more of the heart’s arteries. Atlanta medical center has timely heart attack care. For example, it takes less than thirty minutes for patients showing signs of a possible heart attack to obtain drugs that disintegrate blood clots (Medicare.gov, 2014). In addition, such patients are also given ‘fibrinolytic medication within thirty minutes’ of arrival, and ‘PCI within ninety minutes of arrival’ (Medicare.gov, 2014).
Heart failure occurs when the heart loses its pumping power. Heart failure care is rated on the basis of ‘discharge instructions given to patients, assessment of left ventricular systolic function, and whether patients are given an ACE inhibitor (Medicare.gov, 2014). Atlanta Medical Center scores highly in these aspects, obtaining 96%, 100% and 100% respectively. These scores are higher than the national average score.
Pneumonia is a lung disease that causes breathing problems. Pneumonia care is rated on the basis of ‘timely performance of initial emergency room blood culture before administration of the first antibiotics’ and issuance of the right initial antibiotics (Medicare.gov, 2014). The hospital scores highly in these aspects, garnering 99% and 98% respectively. These scores are at par with the national average scores, making it one of the best hospitals in Atlanta.
Surgical care is measured by the capacity of hospitals in preventing complications resulting from particular surgeries such as cardiac and vascular surgeries, and the timeliness of surgeries that are performed (Medicare.gov, 2014). Atlanta Medical Center scores above the industry average in both these areas, making it a viable hospital for such life threatening cases. For example, it scores 100% for treating such patients within 24 hours to aid in preventing blood clots, which is above the national average of 98% (Medicare.gov, 2014).
Works Cited
Wilson, J.M., & Jungnes, G. (1968). The Principles and Practices of Screening for disease. Public Health Papers no. 34. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization.
Medicare.gov. (2014). Compare Hospitals. Retrieved from: http://www.medicare.gov/hospitalcompare/compare.html.
Atlanta Medical Center. (2014). Retrieved from: http://www.atlantamedcenter.com
