Automation of Healthcare

5 Biggest Issues in Healthcare Today

The healthcare industry has experienced a lot of interesting changes during the last few years, and it will not exempt 2015.

However, there are still a lot of major healthcare programs being practiced all over the world. There are still recurrent issues concerning healthcare today. In this article, we will discuss more about the 5 biggest issues in healthcare.

Wasted Health Funds
According to the recent report of Institute of Medicine Health, there are billions of dollars of health costs that are being wasted each year. Some of the funds were used for unnecessary programs.

Excessive and Needless Care Rendered
Half of all healthcare costs were used for unnecessary and excessive health care. According to the American College of Obstetricians, these healthcare issues have been around for more than a decade. A lot of healthcare organizations carried this burden for so long yet did not dare to do something to fix it.

Chronic Disease Rates Are Extremely High
According to recent surveys, out of the seven countries being examined, Americans have the second highest rate of chronic disease next to Australians. Where in fact, Americans pay the most expensive healthcare costs. How did it happen? Authorities were not able to focus more on preventive care. Majority of adult Americans are becoming at risk to diseases and illnesses due to lack of healthcare support.

Preventable Harm to Patients
This is considered to be one of the most common healthcare problems. According to research, one of four health insurance recipients that were admitted suffers harm during their hospital stay.

Absence of Transparency
Transparency stimulates healthcare change like nothing more. Regardless of getting a lot of warnings from respected national health organizations and other medical societies, the rates of healthcare problems continues to rise. There were a lot of early elective deliveries reported since 2010 but were not taken care of due to unexplained loss of funds.

Healthcare Waste Management

Hospitals can efficiently protect public health by lessening the quantity and toxicity of the wastes they generate, and also by employing a variety of ecologically sound waste management and disposal alternatives. As part of a healthcare program, they must not only focus on treating the patients inside the hospital, but protecting citizens as well outside from harmful waste materials.

All over the world, health care waste management is underfunded and inadequately executed. The merging of contagious and other dangerous properties of medical waste symbolize a significant environmental and public overall health threat. It is indeed frightening to think that chemicals and other toxic substances may reach our neighborhood. A current literature review came to the conclusion that over half the world’s population is in danger from illness caused by healthcare waste. It was also found that plenty of inadequate waste treatment methods cause violation of fundamental human rights.

There is certainly no international convention that directly addresses medical waste management, so classification systems vary from country to country. Nevertheless, waste is frequently categorized based on the risk it carries. The vast majority of medical waste (around 75-85%) is comparable to normal municipal waste and also considered as low risk, unless burnt. The rest consists of more harmful forms of medical wastes, which include infectious and sharp waste, chemical and radioactive waste and hospital waste water.

Burning medical waste products creates numerous hazardous fumes and compounds, such as hydrochloric acid, dioxins and furans, as well as the toxic metal lead, cadmium, and mercury. The disposal of biodegradable waste produces greenhouse gas pollutants, including methane, which can be twenty-one times stronger than carbon dioxide. The government, as well as international organizations, must have a strong stand in managing hospital waste materials. This is to improve the quality of healthcare and avoiding possible spread of diseases in the community.

Career in Healthcare Management

Healthcare is changing more quickly than almost any other field. The sector is beginning to change in terms of where and how care is delivered, who is supplying those services, and just how that care is financed. Healthcare management demands talented people to manage the changes taking place. In their roles, healthcare executives have an opportunity to produce a significant contribution to improving the health of the communities their organizations serve.

With growing diversity in the healthcare system, executives are needed in many settings, including clinics, consulting firms, health insurance organizations, healthcare associations, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, physician practices, mental health organizations, public health departments, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities and universities and research institutions.

Currently, approximately 100,000 people occupy health management jobs at numerous organizational levels, from department head to chief executive officer. Prerequisites for senior-level positions in healthcare organizations are demanding, but these jobs also offer the opportunity to improve the system of care giving.

If you choose a career in healthcare management, your first job might be an entry- to mid-level management position in a specialized area, like finance, government relations, human resources, information systems, planning and development, marketing and public affairs, material management, medical staff relations, nursing administration, patient care services, as well as growth and salaries.

Healthcare management is a large, sophisticated, and ever-changing field. The fact is, healthcare services improve each year which supports millions of new jobs, the largest increase of any industry. This shows that nurses, physicians, therapists and other health care professionals are highly needed by the industry. It is a good time to enroll to a program and enter the health care field.

Healthcare Problems

Healthcare has been a major issue for most countries including the USA. Though the issues are not as huge as compared to poor countries, it still has an effect on the system and the health of the citizens in general. Amongst the major problems in relation to healthcare are the cost and the accessibility to health insurance. There are many other issues aside from this, but we will be focusing first on this issue.

The cost of healthcare is not as affordable as compared to other countries that are subsidized, most if not all, the expenses for any health related concerns. There are many reasons why the cost is high. Healthcare professionals, medicine manufacturers and suppliers and service providers will charge a cost or fee that will give them a reasonable profit or else they will invest in other areas.

Doctors charge excessive rates just to reimburse the expenses they used with their education. It’s virtually impossible to get a medical education in America without winding up with many years of debt. Another explanation would be that the US is really a litigious society, and also to safeguard themselves, doctors need to pay high malpractice insurance rates.

In knowing the explanation of high medical costs, you have to consider insurance in addition to time and materials. Private health insurance companies don’t run a business to facilitate healthcare, but, like drug companies, to create profits for their employees and investors. Just to create a profit, they often deny coverage to those who have problems with their insurance that may result in claims. They even deny legitimate claims by making the procedure for compensation difficult. They offer guidelines which have high insurance deductibles and minimal insurance coverage.

Healthcare is a business and will require financials in order to function. Without it, services will surely be affected with reduced quality and efficiency. To be able to deal with this problem the government must be able to find a way to reduce the cost of education for doctors, support researches that will lead to affordable and more efficient medicine and services, and create a system that will benefit both the providers and the people.

Ways Technology Is Improving Healthcare

It is undeniable that more and more people are depending on the internet to inquire about their medical conditions. Healthcare has been using the internet as a medium for people to get in contact with the necessary information they needed. The internet is a good source of medical information, from symptoms, as well as treatments and medicines. It is of course not advisable to depend on the internet and avoid the doctor, it is somehow an immediate source of information on what they are about to do next.

Healthcare facilities like hospitals and other facilities are using the social media to get connected with the patients. Through the social media, they are able to inform the public the services they offer, their available facilities and answer patients’ queries. Technology has been able to improve the facilities, equipments, medicines and treatments offered by hospitals today. Through this, they are able to save more lives.

Information Technology has made patient care secure and more efficient than it was before. Hand-held computers are now being used by nurses and physicians to trace a patient’s medical history and check that they are administering the correct treatment. Results of lab tests, records medicine orders and vital signs are all automatically put into a main record that can be checked and updated. Many healthcare institutions are using electronic health records. It is much easier to access patients’ information to make more accurate medications and treatments.

Electronic databases are used to consolidate large amounts of information that are used for health research. By studying patient history, scientists can have a better understanding of trends and causes of ailments. Technology can reach more milestones in the future and could lead to more breakthroughs. It has no limits and its capability has not yet been fully achieved.

Medical centers are not the greenest of places. Even in the operating room where the greatest care is taken to make a clean environment, too often the contagious bacteria, viruses and even fungus are stubbornly present and contaminate patients under the knife. Today, medical tools are examined, sanitized and counted by hand and by multiple individuals. It’s an ineffective process that carries a risk for error. General Electric is trying to improve surgical tool care in hospitals by taking people out of the formula and letting a robot do the work.

An infection occurs in 1 to 3 surgery patients out of a hundred. While efforts are continuous to reduce surgical site infections, enhanced operating room air flow, enhanced cleanliness methods, the use of antimicrobials are still the most common sort of healthcare-associated infections, accounting for approximately 31 % of infections contracted by hospitalized sufferers. Of the 300,000 people that contract surgical site infections each year, about 3 % will die. And for the 97 % that endures, an infection can increase hospital stays and increase hospital bills by lots of money.

To help fight infections, the research department at General Electric, GE International Research, recently declared their plans to develop an automatic surgical device sterilization procedure. Each medical center has thousands of medical resources that need to be monitored and taken care of on a regular basis. Cleaning and planning them is hard work and requires the synchronization of several medical center workers. Allowing a robot locate, sanitize, sort and provide the medical resources without individual guidance, GE is designed to create a more efficient healthcare system. Automating the device care procedure, the company says, will improve cost performance, not waste time from kit set up mistakes, and improve individual safety in part by reducing medical infections. As opposed to their individual alternatives, a robot will make fewer mistakes while working what can easily become a boring job. In addition, more experienced workers can be released to do other projects. Healthcare-associated infections stay a significant wellness issue. That is why; this type of step is a good one for the healthcare industry.