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Research news and other sources of information about healthcare trends in the United States. Describe one trend and at least three implications the trend could have for financial planning and decision-making within a healthcare organization, such as a hospital or clinic. Your post should include why you think the trend will have those implications.
Peer Response 1:
Terryn Borkman posted
One trend in healthcare that I felt has a lot of involvement with financial planning and decision-making for healthcare organizations is Value-Based Purchasing. VBP has become more popular in healthcare now that CMS has been raising their expectations and upgrading their rules and regulations. Value-Based Purchasing has its pros and cons but can be beneficial to the healthcare system. "This program affects payment in more than 3000 hospitals across the United States and is part of the larger quality strategy to reform care delivery and payment." (Vogenberg, 2019). One implication that VBP has financially is lowering costs. Years ago, healthcare was based off of a volume-based approach, meaning that every service given to the patient was paid for. Now with Value-Based Purchasing, reimbursement is based off of the quality of care that is given to patients. This ties in with the second implication of quality care improving for healthcare organizations with VBP. Costs are lowered, as CMS is no longer paying for several services but the entire hospital stay as a whole.
Improvement in the quality of patient care is another implication VBP has for an organization. CMS has strict, specific guidelines that they are expecting healthcare team members to follow. They present certain evidence-based practices that they expect facilities to follow, and are continuously performing regular quality audits to ensure that facilities are receiving their payments appropriately which in turn lowers the financial burden for multiple facilities.
The third implication for financial planning and decision-making is less patient-centered care. Although Value-Based Purchasing has shown some evidence that it improves the quality of patient care, I have first-hand experience that it takes away from actual patient-centered care. Unfortunately, CMS has made it so that documentation is first priority over patient care. They may not realize it, but the majority of the shift for myself and other nurses has been documenting on several patients and making sure that quality documentation exists. This leaves a lot less time for actual patient care. Overall, CMS might be reimbursing organizations a lot more, but there is more research to be conducted in order to assess how all of the newly required documentation is affecting patient-centered care.
References
Vogenberg F. R. (2019). US Healthcare Trends and Contradictions in 2019. American health & drug benefits, 12(1), 40–47.
Peers Response 2:
My topic for trends in nursing is the use of mobile health technologies. These technologies come in varied sizes and uses. We see these items implemented in every day life, most commonly being smart phones and smart watches. There are a vast amount of health related implications for these devices for the patients and staff but with most new technology, the price is the main disadvantage. Smart phones and watches, with corresponding mobile applications, offer unbridled communications within the interdisciplinary teams and patients to physicians and specialists through telehealth communications. These devices are also advanced enough to monitor patient vital signs, food/caloric intake through journals, and heart conditions mush like an electrocardiogram.
Many facilities have adopted the use of cell phones within the interdisciplinary healthcare teams. The phones help improve patient safety and quality care experiences. McBride and Levasseur polled approximately 15,000 nurses in 2017 and found 28.75% of nurses responded that patients benefitted from increased care, 29.88% reported reduced stress, and 25.74% felt an improvement in patient care coordination. This added communication also reflects directly to patient care. Patients saw a major decrease in time spent within the ICU and shorter times needed with physical therapists to meet goals (Anderson, Sparbel, Barr, Doerschug and Corbridge, 2018). Smart watches have made a major impact on physical fitness, diet, and healthy lifestyle changes. Mobile health technologies and companion applications have been found to increased lifestyle scores based upon healthy eating habits, increased the amount of user’s exercise, as well as increased overall motivation and a healthier feeling (Sarcona, Kovacs, Wright & Williams, 2017).
The disadvantage of these devices is the cost. On average, newer smart phones easily reach $1000 each and $400 for smart watches. The implementation of these systems can equate to a large financial burden for facilities up front, but they also need continued maintenance, educational services for their use, and eventual repairs. A facility must weigh the initial financial burden and long term costs compared to the benefits of using these devices. I personally feel it is well worth the cost to use these devices. Instant and accurate communications will lead to fewer errors due to misinterpretation of orders and less time waiting for consultations and lab/imaging results. Less errors leads to patients spending less time in facilities and less financial burden to facilities. The health benefits are unmeasurable but reducing resident risk for cardiac issues, diabetes, and various other health detriments in the long term by promoting healthy life styles reduces facility expenditure. The advent of telecommunications will also help reduce facility spending by offering mobile triage for recently discharged patients. This can be crucial to avoid Medicare penalties for readmission of patients within the 30-day time period by providing education and services over mobile communications rather than hospital visits and before readmission is necessary.
Anderson, R. J., Sparbel, K., Barr, R. N., Doerschug, K., & Corbridge, S. (2018). Electronic health record tool to promote team communication and early patient mobility in the intensive care unit. Critical Care Nurse, 38(6), 23–34.
Mcbride, D. L., & Levasseur, S. A. (2017). Personal communication device use by nurses providing in-patient care: Survey of prevalence, patterns, and distraction potential. JMIR Human Factors, 4(2). doi: 10.2196/humanfactors.5110
Sarcona, A., Kovacs, L., Wright, J., & Williams, C. (2017) Differences in eating behavior, physical activity, and health-related lifestyle choices between users and nonusers of mobile health apps. American Journal of Health Education, 48(5), 298–305.
Steel, C. (2019, January 15). Smartwatches will lower healthcare costs. One might have saved my father's life. Retrieved from https://medtechboston.medstro.com/blog/2019/01/15/smartwatches-will-lower-healthcare-costs-one-might-have-saved-my-fathers-life/.