The Healthcare Industry Faced Many Changes in Recent Years Discussion

Reply:

one: The health care industry has come such a long way. Affordable Care Act is one of the largest health care reforms since medical and Medicare in 1965. The affordable care act decreased the uninsured rate by 43% from 2010-2015, (Obama, 2016). The affordable care act has proven that healthcare for all is achievable, accessible, and affordable.

The volume to value-based shift is a game changer in the healthcare industry. Volume based is the concept that has traditionally been followed by the healthcare providers, this is where  the health care providers are paid for the number of patients seen. This is shifting to value-based care where the healthcare providers are being paid based on quality, outcomes, and the cost of services, (Teisberg & O’Hare, 2020). Traditionally, physicians were sole providers, that has now changed to a team setting, this has increased quality, coordination, and patient experience. Team settings also move the cost from the most expensive providers to least expensive provider, therefore decreasing cost overall, (Teisberg & O’Hare, 2020).  

Changing the culture of healthcare has become about teamwork, leadership and shifting away from the blame game. It is about learning from mistakes as a team, (Azizi & Iqbal, 2017). The environment is changing to a more open environment to empower open communication between all healthcare providers at all levels to address safety issues, errors, and concerns, and less of a hierarchical approach, (Azizi & Iqbal, 2017). An example that I can think of is, I now see new nurses speak up during surgery if they see the surgeon doing something that is not the standard.  

All the changes that have caused healthcare reform has taken us far, these changes have given us the opportunities to create positions to assistant in team care models, for example medical assistants, expanding scope of practice of advanced practice nurses and physician assistants. Another role I see becoming imperative for the healthcare industry is quality improvement liaisons. Quality improvement replaces traditional hierarchical structures and incentives for quality and trust-based care, (Drew & Pandit, 2020). Currently, there is a shortage in every industry and every position, which makes the search for recruitment and quality employees hard. Incentives are offered for anyone who applies and gets hired. A sign-on bonus is making a huge come back in the health industry, for the anesthesia department that I am employed in, we are being offered huge bonus to be signed on for two years. This is a market where an employee can choose where to work, therefore making the job of human resources much more difficult, human resources managers must keep up with the market and understand what other hospitals are offering to attract candidates.  

Azizi, S., Siddiqui, F., & Iqbal, I. (2017). Changing health care culture: a prerequisite to improving patient safety. Therapeutics and clinical risk management, 13, 623–624. https://doi.org/10.2147/TCRM.S138896 

Drew, J. & Pandit, M. (2020). Why healthcare leadership should embrace quality improvement. BMJ. 1-3. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m872 

Obama B. (2016). United States Health Care Reform: Progress to Date and Next Steps. JAMA, 316(5), 525–532. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2016.9797 

Teisberg, E., Wallace, S., & O’Hara, S. (2020). Defining and Implementing Value-Based Health Care: A Strategic Framework. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 95(5), 682–685. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000003122

two: The United States healthcare system is the most complex in the world making changes within the industry slow. There are many factors that are involved in executing and enforcing changes in the healthcare system (Department of Health and Human Services, 2021). For example, changes in healthcare policies are slow to enact but also environmental and technological factors are attributed to the changes in the healthcare systems. The aging population with multiple comorbidities, workforce shortages, and technology are among the highest factors affecting the changes in healthcare. In 2010, President Obama enacted the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act which provided approximately 28.2 million Americans healthcare insurance decreasing the uninsured rate by 40% (Department of Health and Human Services, 2021).

         According to Pollack (2017), Medicaid covered 45% of children and 16% of adults who lived in small towns and those in rural areas. In the metropolitan areas 38% of children received Medicaid health insurance and 15% of adults obtained health insurance through Medicaid. The highest number of individuals who received health care insurance through Medicaid were patients living in certified nursing facilities with a total of 62%. Although many more Americans received health care benefits due to the enactment of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the supply of the insured was substantially higher than the demand of the healthcare workforce (Department of Health and Human Services, 2017). According to the Department of Health and Human Services (2017), nursing is the largest health profession in the entire United States, however, there is also a shortage of the nursing workforce. Unfortunately, if the current healthcare system is maintained, a deficit of 10,000 or more of registered nurses in the states of California, Texas, New Jersey, and South Carolina will cause a disruption in the supply and demand of healthcare.

         The storages of physicians, nurses, licensed practical nurses, and psychiatrist in the United States enables the United States to provide the highest quality of care to patients (Flynn et al., 2015).  The United States is in the transition from volume-based healthcare to value-based healthcare. The transition requires an adequate healthcare workforce for the value-based transition to be effective. The healthcare workforce shortages put extreme pressure on the human resource departments to properly recruit and retain adequately qualified employees to care for patients. Not having an adequate number of employees will decrease the quality of care and time the patients receive from the physicians, making the transition to a value-based system even harder (Flynn et al., 2015).  

         Human resource (HR) managers will also face challenges related to the changes of the healthcare system. For example, HR professionals will need to manage costs, monitor the quality standards of the facilities, manage diversity and provide competent care, managing and training of new technologies, and ensure a work-life balance atmosphere (Flynn et al., 2015). The healthcare industry emphasizes the importance of improving quality and safety in the healthcare system through clear and effective communication. Organizations can create a culture of excellence that is built on trust that ensures patients, families, and caregivers are treated with compassion, dignity, and respect.

References:

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2021). Trends in the U.S. uninsured population,

2010-2020. https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/private/pdf/265041/trends-in-the-us-uninsured.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2017). Supply and demand projections of the nursing workforce: 2014-2030. https://bhw.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/bureau-health-workforce/data-research/nchwa-hrsa-nursing-report.pdf

Flynn, W., Mathis, R., Jackson, J., and Valentine, S. (2015). Healthcare human resource management (3rd ed.).

Pollack, R. (2017). 2018 Environmental scan: Trends that are shaping health care. Hospitals & Health Networks, American Hospital Association. https://www.aha.org/system/files/2018-01/2018-Environmental-Scan.pdf