Question

Four basic reasons for US healthcare expenditures being so high are discussed in the Lecture notes. These are:

1. The US does not regulate the price for healthcare services – using, in most cases, a free market approach to determine prices.

2. We are getting older as a society – and age and cost go up together.

3. We are not a very healthy nation – the consequences of a number of lifestyle choices contributes to the high cost of chronic care.

4. Our overall system doesn't’t seem to work as well other healthcare systems – with all kinds of variations going on in the actual delivery of care.

Given that the money and human resources are ultimately limited, what can be done to improve the EFFICIENCY of the US healthcare system?

Please answer this question from two perspectives:

1. What should (can) senior health policy makers do to improve the efficiency of the overall healthcare system?

2. What can individual healthcare professionals do to improve the operational efficiency of their own organizations?

Also be sure to consider how you plan to overcome the practical barriers to implementing your ideas.

Answer 1

1, Senior health policymakers are advisory and consultative people for supporting decision making, health care system focus on high and rising health care costs and having a barrier in quality, safety, access, and equity. state and federal senior policymakers making regulations to reduce waste, increase efficiency in the health care system improve the value in health care. consumer get benefit from cost reduction. policymakers assess maximize potential benefit can be achieved by reducing inefficiency. senior health policy makes a contribution to performance monitoring and decision-making, improve system-level integration in care delivery. Having a partnership outside the health sector to make physician engagement in population health with flexible funding.
2, Patient-centeredness of health care delivery consider patients and family to improve the health care system. communication with the patient can improve the quality of care. Teamwork is a basic microsystem for the information environment that supports work altogether. It provides the best evidence-based care to meet the patient's needs and can deal with complex health problems. individual people in the case team responsible for making effective communication and coordination between the patient and other members in the care team. It should be a learning organization with individual skills, transferring knowledge and behavior for patient-centered care delivery. To deliver evidence-based care many barriers involve inefficiency health care delivery. It includes the absence of training, the lake of support and infrastructure. it can be prevented by presenting system thinking by the clinician, follow evidence-based medicine, clinical microsystem approach, training to care delivery. As an individual health care professionals, we should be trained one, following quality care with evidence-based patient care to lower the cost care delivery with newer technology.