Quality, Safety, and Costs in Healthcare
NR 505 DeVry Week 7 Discussion Latest
Quality, Safety, and Costs (graded)
Class, this week I would like for you to think about a patient scenario related to our Summerville scenario. Mr. Lowell is especially concerned about a costly high infection rate in surgical patients at St. Louis Medical Center, along with a lack of concern about patient’s psychological needs. He has read about the efforts of the QSEN Institute (http://qsen.org) to promote quality and safety. He was surprised to see that patient concerns are inherent in the quality improvement conversation. Place yourself in the role of nurse educator to help the new staff education director and the clinical practice council study both problems. How would you explain the relationships among quality, safety, and costs to the director and staff? How would you demonstrate the importance of nursing care in addressing this issue? What outcome variables would you recommend?
ADDITIONAL DETAILS
Quality, Safety, and Costs in Healthcare
Introduction
Healthcare is a hot topic in American politics. Many people are worried about the cost of healthcare, but there are also many benefits that make it worthwhile. In this article, we’ll look at what makes healthcare a good value and how much you can expect to pay for it.
Quality
Quality is a measure of the degree to which something conforms to a standard. It can be measured in terms of performance, process, or product. In healthcare, quality is not one attribute but rather a collection of attributes that collectively define it as such:
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Safety: Is your patient safe during the procedure? What measures are taken to ensure their safety?
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Patient satisfaction: Does your patient feel like they got what they paid for?
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Cost savings: Are there ways you can reduce costs while still providing excellent care
Safety
Safety is an issue that we should all be concerned about. It’s easy to overlook, though. Sometimes it feels like healthcare providers focus more on quality than safety and cost-effectiveness, but this is not true! Healthcare professionals understand the importance of both quality and affordability when providing services to patients.
In fact, many studies have been conducted on patient safety in healthcare settings over the years; some show that 90% of health-care deaths are preventable—and they’re mostly caused by mistakes made by doctors or nurses instead of patients themselves (1). This means that if you want your doctor or nurse to do their job right then you need to make sure they know how important patient safety really is!
Costs
Costs are a major concern for both consumers and policymakers. The rate at which healthcare costs are rising is higher than inflation, so it’s important to understand how they affect your wallet and what you can do about it.
Healthcare costs are rising more quickly than inflation because:
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There are more people with health problems in this country than ever before
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Many new treatments have gone through extensive clinical trials, but still don’t make it onto the market (or aren’t available through insurance) until they’ve been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Healthcare is generally a good value, but still relatively expensive
Healthcare is generally a good value, but still relatively expensive.
The average annual cost of inpatient hospital care: $13,722
The average annual cost of outpatient hospital care: $6,381
Healthcare costs are rising faster than inflation.
In 2016, the US government reported that medical inflation was running at 3.4%. This means that healthcare costs rose faster than overall consumer prices (which increased 2%) between 2015 and 2016.
Conclusion
Healthcare is a great value. If you’re not insured, it’s often the only real way to access treatment without having to pay out of pocket. However, like any other industry, it has its shortcomings and can be expensive at times. Although not perfect, healthcare remains an invaluable part of our lives – but we have a long way to go before we can say that with confidence!
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