With new technology, new trends, current technology, and trends frequently changing, health care has evolved processes for health policies to continuously being added, reassessed, changed, and considered in order to help improve the United States health care system. There are several phases and transitions new ideas go through before it can be implemented into policy. In health care, every health facility plus more feels when there are changes in health related issues and policies, especially patients. This country needs well-informed, attentive, publically cognizant health care leaders and staff comprehensive of health…
patients who suffer from this chronic illness. How will America deliver a standard of care to the…
With changes in healthcare such as the Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA), nurses will be playing an ever increasing role in patient centered care as healthcare moves away from acute and specialty care, and focuses more on primary care. Today the top providers of primary care are physicians (287,000), nurse practitioners (83,000), and physician assistants (23,000) (Steinwald, 2008; HRSA, 2008). The demand for advanced practice registered nurses (APRN) is expected to increase dramatically to accommodate patients seeking primary care. The IOM suggests that to prepare for this increased demand for nurse practitioners “all health care professionals should practice to the full extent of their education and training so that more patients may benefit” (IOM, 2010, p. 96). This would include standardizing the scope of practice nationwide. Across the United States, scopes of practice vary widely, inhibiting many nurses to provide the full scope…
The United States has the opportunity to transform its health care system, and nurses can and should play a fundamental role in this transformation. However, the power to improve the current regulatory, business, and organizational conditions does not rest solely with nurses; government, businesses, health care organizations, professional associations, and the insurance industry all must play a role. Working…
In 2010, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law by the United States government and is the largest health care reform since Medicare and Medicaid were established in 1965. With this new legislation, there will be a huge transformation of the health care system we know today. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) is an organization that is independent of government and provides unbiased advice used in making informed legislative decisions about health care. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), the largest philanthropy in the United States, collaborated with the IOM to evaluate and transform the nursing profession in order to provide quality, cost-effective care for the growing population in need. It is projected that 32 million Americans will receive insurance coverage with the ACA, exponentially increasing the patient load of health care providers. The IOM recognizes nursing as the largest profession in health care and states, “By virtue of its numbers and adaptive capacity, the nursing profession has the potential to effect wide ranging changes in the health care system” (Institute of Medicine, 2010). This paper will discuss how the IOM report impacts nursing education, practice in primary care, and the role of nurses as leaders.…
However, reimbursement issues are limiting the progress of APRNs to practice fully of their educational background, thus limiting “American public access to the care they want,” which is “to receive care quickly from a competent person” (Hill, 2012, p. 5). Such barriers not only limit the public’s access to care but also fragment the health care system further. This necessitates a creation of environment with a single goal in mind: patient-centered care, which can be achieved by optimizing APRNs’ role in primary care since “there are simply not enough physicians to care for an aging population” (IOM, 2011, p.112). By expanding practice, APRNs can spend more time doing what they have been for years: patient education and coordination of care, thereby leading the system towards a collaborative approach advocated by the…
Finding the Money for Healthcare Reform, written by Mark Hyman, M.D. (Hyman, 2009), provides a realistic perspective that the current healthcare reform model only focuses on lowering the cost for healthcare services and not improving the quality of health for patients. Hyman (2009) argues that if quality of health and lifestyle intervention are key focal points of healthcare reform, the burden of healthcare expense would automatically be lowered due to less chronic illness and better health outcomes (Hyman, 2009). “By improving the quality of our health and focusing on health creation and improved health outcomes, the sinking ship of healthcare can be righted, and the behaviors of physicians and healthcare institutions will shift from doing more things (volume) to doing the right things (quality)” (Hyman, 2009, p. 20).…
The U.S. devotes a much larger share of its national income to health care than any other country in the world. However, the gross over-spending has not yielded the healthiest population (OECD Health data, 2009). Our economy is continually growing at a lesser rate than healthcare spending. The need to restrain this unsustainable growth in health care costs is often overlooked in favor of reform focused on expanding access to care. Attention must be focused on restructuring the payment process with the goal of reducing costs without sacrificing quality.…
In a 2010 Federal Prevention Initiates report it is noted that one third (1/3) of all Primary Care doctors are likely to retire over the next decade giving rise to the need for Nurse Practitioners in all specialties to step into those shoes and continue providing care with more autonomy. This is a trend that is likely to gain momentum and with greater number of insured patients, insurance companies as stakeholders in the ACA initiatives are likely to encourage patients being seen by a Nurse Practitioner from a billing stand…
Identify and explain the four elements of proof necessary for a plaintiff to prove a negligence case.…
With implementation of the law, we have new opportunities to move to a health care system that focuses on increased access to primary care, improved care coordination and an emphasis on prevention and wellness—efforts nurses have focused on from the beginning. This is what the future of health care looks like, and it makes the work and expertise of America’s nurses more important than ever.…
I agree the Nursing Practice (DNP) prepares nurses with the degree to meet the increased need by providing leadership in community health centers, serving on interdisciplinary teams, and advocating for and directing future policy initiates. As primary care providers, the role of the DNP can be enhanced through the use of a primary care models that addresses the associated challenges related to increasing preventative care in the healthcare system. Although DNP are leaders, barriers need to be removed so that DNPs can provide the care they have been prepared to offer ( Lathrop & Hodnicki, 2014). Healthcare continues to change and is a life-long learning process that requires nurses to keep up with that change.…
However, there are numerous debates for and against the new changes to the healthcare industry. To be honest, I am unsure about where I tend to stand regarding the new healthcare industry changes. As a result, it seems that the healthcare costs are still going to be expensive for majority of Americans and it could be years before we determine if the changes implemented are effective. Consequently, the focus of the changes on preventive care, chronic disease management, quality of care, and reducing costs there has been a reduction in specialty care for individuals with chronic diseases and elderly patients with several comorbidities (Kuramoto, 2014). Therefore, future challenges can occur if there is no focus on specialty care due to the growing population of the elderly and/or high-risk patient profiles (Kuramoto, 2014). Overall, if some focus is set on specialty care for the high costs expenditures then clinical and costs outcomes can improve (Kuramoto, 2014). Furthermore, with focus on specialty care as well as preventive measures then the amount of hospital admissions will decrease, the readmission rate will lower, and it will lower unnecessary treatment protocols from primary care providers (Kuramoto, 2014). In addition, if Medicare, Medicaid, and other health insurance companies decide to lower the reimbursement rates too low then a…
As a country we are facing currently facing a problem based on health care. Every country has their own way of doing things, but which way makes the most sense? Statistics show that Canada’s health care system is working for them, but will it work for the United States? Ezekial J. Emanuel, Holly Dressel, and together, Karen Davis, Cathy Shoen, Katharine Shea, and Kristine Haran, all address possible solutions to this problem. While Emanuel feels that America’s system is sufficient, Dressel, Davis, Shoen, Shea, and Haran believe there are better options. These authors evaluate the different systems based on quality, cost, and accessibility.…
The structure of the U.S heath care system is certainly a topic greatly debated. Whether it is discussing the cost of health care, poor outcomes, shortages in health care workers, underutilization of other health care workers, the lack of access to care, or growing demand by consumers for health care that offers choice, quality, convenience, affordability and personalized care. It is not a secret that the United States spends more money than any other nation on health care, but only ranks 34th in the world in life expectancy and has higher mortality rates in infants than any other nation that is developed.…