Tag: health

Improving Patient Care

Every health care provider aims to provide the highest level of care for their patients. They are molded to become not only skilled in their field but also exhibit the utmost patient care as well as professional dealings. Medical professionals are always faced with the issue of how to improve patient care. They are aware that skills are not the only thing that matter to deliver the best patient care. More often than not, patients appreciate it when they are handled in a most human way.

Patients are now more aware of issues underlining the medical practices like malpractice and they fear being involved in one. This creates a reason for them to seek medical practitioners who will deliver the best patient care. They will likely go to someone whom they trust rather than someone who is popular because of being expert in their field. People will go for competent, affectionate and empathetic health care professionals. For this reason, professionals in health care system are now seeking ways to develop interpersonal skills as early as during their education. Patient care is now emphasized in educational curriculum.

The quality of patient care is not only quantified through technical and personal skills. The health care system needs to ensure that delivering patient care is at its best because of the new technology and infrastructure. The advancement of technology is a contributing factor in innovating new equipment and methods to efficiently get results from patients’ diagnosis.

Moreover, patient care needs to be accessible to the patients anytime and anywhere. This is a great challenge to all health care professionals considering that there are still areas around the globe that are far beyond reach.

 

 

 

Health and Sociology

When we talk about health, we may only consider the biological or the physical aspect of a certain human being. However, health is a social issue and it may affect not just a single person, but as well as the community. That means sociology has an impact on health. The health of any individual may be affected by any social issue. The World Health Organization defines “health” as a ‘condition of complete physical, mental and social well-being’. As we can see, the WHO link health to the status of any society, culture as well as traditions and religious beliefs.

We all know the fact that the wealthy in most communities have more access to quality healthcare, medicines and services. The poorest in the society have the least access to healthcare; depending only on government support or NGOs. They also have the highest infant mortality because of inaccessibility to hospitals and medicines starting from pregnancy. The poor countries’ health is compromised by insufficient food and poor sanitation. This affects also the average life expectancy which is generally below 50 years. Roughly half the children born in poor nations generally don’t reach adulthood.

Standards of health within the Western nations such as the USA have greatly enhanced starting the nineteenth century. This is mainly because of better standards of living when industrialization advances the medicine and healthcare system. It was able to control infectious illnesses. Today, ill health in western communities can be indicated largely by chronic degenerative illnesses for example cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancers. Individual health-affecting actions like smoking cigarettes and drinking also have impact on the society’s health.

Promoting health in any society may be hard to achieve if the support is less, financially and legally. Improving the status of the society will also improve the health. The primary objective of any program should be to reduce inequities in health. Ever since then, health promotion has turned into a primary feature of health policy in any country. Giving importance on the study of sociology in relation to health will make a difference not just on the health of the individuals but on their status and way of living as well.

Medicare Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has new financial incentives and penalties. This is done in order to improve the health care system, mainly hospitals, performance in the country. The new mandate has been proven to be hard to manage and has encountered several problems. However, it provides new opportunities for leaders to have a good collaboration with different health care providers.

Medicare’s Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program or the (HRRP) penalizes hospitals that allow patients to have excess 30-day readmissions specifically for health conditions like myocardial, pneumonia, and heart failure.  The program was intended to punish hospitals with surplus 30-day readmissions not considering whether the patient was readmitted to the same hospital or to another hospital.

Actually, the penalty itself is not that substantial or damaging to the hospital’s income. What makes it more significant is its effect on the image of the hospital. The penalty data of each hospital is open for public viewing every year, so they know what hospital has been paying a lot of penalties recently. This could affect the number of patients that will choose that hospital. If the hospital is located in a very competitive location, having a high penalty rating could greatly affect them.

The program has forced hospital leaders to develop, filter, assess, and implement care management programs in different areas. It is essential to use the information technology for data incorporation. Evidence-based decision-making is also important to make the services more effective and fast as soon as the patient was admitted. It is also crucial to the development and rapid-cycle learning. Hospital leaders as well as their management must be aware of the changes in the rules. They now need better collaboration with other health care institutions to be more effective in terms of the services they offer to patients. Keeping the patients from readmission to the hospital due to their total wellness and recovery is a very good sign for the hospital’s development.

 

Fundamentals of Nursing Course

Nurses play a big role in the Healthcare industry. In fact, they are the most dominant in terms of their numbers. They are advocates of wellness, decision maker and an aid to the patients’ recovery. The nursing learning process will help students apply principles of biological, physical, as well as social sciences.  Basic elements of health, nutrition, pharmacology and disease will be presented among students.  Basic concepts of nursing are introduced and basic nursing skills are taught and practiced in the nursing lab.

The Fundamentals of Nursing course will provide lessons to students to give them ideas and perspective about the nursing history, current issues and updates of nursing as well as its history. Basic skills and values will also be taught to students such as therapeutic communication, nursing diagnosis, infection control, ethics and legal issues, basic physical assessment and competent care. There are laboratory exposures which trains the students in taking vitals, using gadgets and apparatuses, even teaching you how to put-up an NG tube.

Dealing with pressure and stress will also be part of the course. The nursing profession will require enough patience and sufficient skills to deal with different clinical conditions and settings. Stress will always be a part of the job and learning to deal with it will be important for the nurse to endure the job. Different schools offer different approaches in teaching their students the fundamentals of nursing. This may also depend on how their professors or nursing educators build the teaching program. These instructors must be highly qualified and trained to pass on the learning and skills to the students. Choosing a program or school that matches the needs of the student is vital in building his future as a nurse or nursing educator. It will also all depend on the student on how he applies his learning to his profession.

Healthcare Management vs. Healthcare Administration

Healthcare institutions require managers with the skills, knowledge, and practical experience necessary to keep with the ever growing needs for healthcare and maintenance. Healthcare today is among the largest and fastest-growing industries in the United States. The Healthcare Management concentration develops the managerial skills needed to work in today’s synchronized, complex healthcare field.

Definitions of healthcare management and healthcare administration can be easily confused. Many people, of course, cannot help but use the two phrases interchangeably. Mainly, the difference between administration and management is much similar to the difference between sales and marketing. In sales and marketing, they are used to generate revenue for a company, but they achieve that task in two different ways. It’s is the same with healthcare management and administration. The sales is the face of a company that has the personal contact with clients and marketing attempts to expand the corporate client base through advertising and other physical means. While marketing is much more involved in demographics than sales would be, the sales department is much more focused in increasing the revenue numbers than marketing.

Likewise, healthcare administration is responsible in running the healthcare organization. Administration deals more with functionality of a facility, while healthcare management deals more with staffing and direct patient care.

 

Hospital Management

Management in a hospital is critical in keeping its services updated and in high quality. Our hospitals are always open for patients no matter what time day and thus doctors and support staff need to be prepared for managing everything. There are various departments in a hospital which offer life-saving care, managing complex equipment, and dealing with business concerns. It requires a top-level management to assist a hospital to run effectively.

 

Hospital Management plays a role in improving the patients overall experience. It is a very essential position in every hospital. It helps medical specialists work more efficiently and thus uplift the healthcare system of the hospital.

If you want to enter hospital management, you must have a bachelor’s degree, like any other professional degree. It is the basic qualification for entry. However, further study for masters is suggested for people who want to see themselves in a high level position. A diploma in hospital management is also required to fully be in a hospital management field.

There is a huge responsibility for hospital management to carry the managing aspects of the hospital. They have a lot of duties that should be managed by the professional. Hospitals are multi-faceted systems, where there are plenty of operations happening at the same time. Hospital Management professionals have a lot of roles and responsibilities. They also play an essential role in ensuring the quality of care to the patient.

You must have a higher emotional quotient to work in the highly emotional environment of a hospital. To be an effective professional in the healthcare sector, it is needed that you have a service-focused mindset and must be ready to work for extended hours.

There is indeed a rising need of high professionalism and reliability in the healthcare field. This is needed to improve the value of hospital management courses globally. Along with the government, numerous private hospitals are today competing with each other to offer high quality health care services to the public.