critique and added section

Healthcare Issue or Stressor and How it Impacts Work Setting

Mellisa Givens

Walden University

NURS 6053N-23

Healthcare Issue or Stressor and How it Impacts Work Setting

National healthcare issue/stressor

Healthcare is increasing becoming costly each passing day making it unaffordable to many. The situation is getting worse at a time when people are constantly being diagnosed with chronic ailments at a higher rate than ever before. This is to mean that this is the time that healthcare should be more affordable so that a higher number of people can get to access it thereby improving the general public health status. Increasing cost of healthcare is hence one of the most challenging national healthcare stressor or issue that need to be addressed. The more reason is that the stressor hinders a high number of people from getting medical treatment thereby leading to increased mortality rate. It is a stressor that is pushing individuals in the healthcare industry to offer substandard services at a much cheaper price so that people living below poverty levels who occupies a relatively huge population share to have an option.

The high cost of healthcare stressor has a direct impact on our healthcare organizations. for starters, the facility has potential to serve at least 400-500 people on a daily basis in different sections of the facility. The high cost levied against different services hinders some patients to seek medical attention and the facility ends up serving approximately 250-320 patients both on inpatient and outpatient. This is a great loss for the facility because the stressor is making the facility not to be as profitable as it should be. Secondly, the lower number of patients seeking medical attentions has made the facility management team not to have any reason to have a high number of staffs because even the present employees sometimes sit idle waiting for patients. This is a great challenge because the facility has potential to higher professionals in the medical sector but the limited flow of finances makes it hard for the facility cannot manage to pay the high number of professionals.

The present medical conditions also need high quality equipment to help the staffs offer different medical services that the patients may seek from the facility. The fact that the technological equipment is costly and the charges levied are also high hence lowers chances of patients seeking medical attention where the equipment can be used. This is a major stressor because in as much the hospital management wants to have such equipment in place, it is not guarantee that the equipment will offer the services in the intended manner and obtain return on investment which is extremely high. it is for this reason that within the facility, there are still some outdates equipment and machines that are being used as they are cost effective and helps in preventing patient bills from escalating.

Articles summaries

According to an article by Bobbi Brown and John Hansmann (2018); the high cost of healthcare is a major national issue that needs to be addressed. The article claims that a majority of people in the US are not insured because they cannot afford insurance covers and hence they are subjected to seek alternative options that risk their lives the more. In the article, the authors provide a series of five solutions that different healthcare can embrace and some have taken the initiative to embrace to address the high cost of healthcare challenge. To start with, the authors have touched on the specific activities that make healthcare cost to escalate for instance physicians demanding for high pays and high cost involved when technology is used. The article recommends that healthcare facilities can use technology only when necessary and also set limit on the prices that clients’ should be charged. The article further says that the management should control all employed physicians so that they can offer the best quality services and also avoid overcharging clients. There are some healthcare facilities in the US have implemented systems through which clients can seek medical attention from professionals. The services offered through the system are extremely affordable and the patients are saved from the inconvenience of having to visit the facility especially for diagnosis.

On another article by Martinez, King, & Cauchi, (2016); one of the best ways that healthcare organizations can use to reduce the high cost is by putting in place an effective healthcare system. The system is vital as it helps promote accountability which is missing in a majority of healthcare. In the system, all information about the patient should be captured, treatment offered, and charged made irrespective of the departments that the patient had to visit. For clients who seek huge medical services, the system should automatically offer discounts so that patients with chronic ailments can benefit. This is to mean that it is the system that charges the client instead of physician administering the services and this eliminates irregularities like charging a client twice for the same service. All the physicians need to do is to put all information in the system and the system will calculate and offer discount.

Summary of the proposed strategies

The different strategies offered in the two selected articles have valid and highly applicable solutions to the high cost of healthcare issue. The strategies can impact our healthcare organization positively in the sense that cost of healthcare will be reduced by huge margins and the facility will be considered the most cost effective facility. This is an effective marketing strategy that will attract a high number of clients and the amount reduced in charges will be recovered upon serving a higher number of people. The facility will also benefit because it will have an effective system in place that will demonstrate all services being offered. This will be effective and professional way of promoting accountability and sense of responsibility on all physicians. Moreover, the facility management team will be motivated to invest in expensive machineries something that help in diversifying services being offered which would mean that the facility will attract a higher number of clients.

One of the areas that need caution is the application of the proposed strategies. The more reason is that they would interfere with physician’s duty execution strategies and this might compromise levels of morale. This is particularly with the realization that some services that make physicians earn a lot of monies have been eliminated. The more reason is that it has been noted that some physicians make use of technological devices even in cases they are sure in order to make profits for the facility. Reduced morale can interfere with performance and overall attitude and opinion about the facility. Additionally, the facility would have to incur relatively high costs to implement the strategies and a return on investment is not guaranteed.

References