Decision Making in Health Care
The looming changes in health care are a frequent topic in many meetings with health care providers. Budget cuts are not just a speculation but are a reality. Decision-making to provide quality patient care with less money is a challenge at best. Health care management decisions are made daily and these affect many patients both positively, and negatively. Texas state department budgets are continuing to become leaner, and the Medicaid population seems to be continually growing. Texas currently has an “unemployment rate of 6.4% along with an 18% statewide Medicaid population” (Kaiser State Health Facts, 2013). Although these numbers are slightly under the national average, they are daunting when broken down by total population of the state that figure comes out to about 4.488.188 people receiving Medicaid health care benefits (Kaiser State Health Facts, 2013).
Harris county clinic provides care to a large Medicaid population, and the department budget for clinic has been recently cut by 15%. This paper will describe, and examine tools to best address accountability, knowledge transfer, and a questioning organization by utilizing the six steps developed in Rundell, Martelli, Arroyo, McCurdy, Neuwirth, 2007 informed decision toolbox. The great crash or economic recession of 2008 will continue to affect budgets, and policy-making for years to come in every aspect of health care. It is not a surprise to management when the Harris county clinic becomes affected by budgetary cuts. The manager must decide what clinical service should be eliminated or introduced to best address health care needs of the dense Medicaid population.
The idea of patient care, coordinated through primary care physicians has been proposed. “Under this model, a primary care doctor is the point person for all of a patient’s medical needs, organizing care with specialists, pharmacists, and physical therapists and sharing electronic medical records with all” (Arnst, 2009). This proposed idea
Harris county clinic provides care to a large Medicaid population, and the department budget for clinic has been recently cut by 15%. This paper will describe, and examine tools to best address accountability, knowledge transfer, and a questioning organization by utilizing the six steps developed in Rundell, Martelli, Arroyo, McCurdy, Neuwirth, 2007 informed decision toolbox. The great crash or economic recession of 2008 will continue to affect budgets, and policy-making for years to come in every aspect of health care. It is not a surprise to management when the Harris county clinic becomes affected by budgetary cuts. The manager must decide what clinical service should be eliminated or introduced to best address health care needs of the dense Medicaid population.
The idea of patient care, coordinated through primary care physicians has been proposed. “Under this model, a primary care doctor is the point person for all of a patient’s medical needs, organizing care with specialists, pharmacists, and physical therapists and sharing electronic medical records with all” (Arnst, 2009). This proposed idea