Strengths And Weaknesses Of HCAHPS

Western Connecticut Health Network (WCHN) is a fairly large regional network, with a scope encompassing the vast majority of specialties and services as would be expected between several hospitals and a plethora of outpatient facilities. A well-organized executive leadership model helps ensure quality, through the core values WCHN has established, whilst keeping themselves in check through third party surveys and analysis. WCHN’s quality improvements have simply built onto an already strong foundation of health care quality, with a focus on the patients.

Healthcare is in a constant state of change with movements that impact rates, access and quality of care. Hospitals have become more competitive due to the rising cost of care delivery and the reduction in reimbursement from payers. This causes difficulty in delivering quality care to all patients, which is being measured by mandated patient perception surveys, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). HCAHPS scores are part of value

The successful evolution of this organizational structure in a competitive marketplace has required a close partnership between managers and physicians supported by a culture of physician group accountability for quality and efficiency. An overarching agenda for achieving excellence focuses on high-impact health conditions, provides goal-oriented tools to analyze population data, proactively identifies patients in need of intervention, supports systematic process improvements, and promotes collaboration between patients and professionals to improve health.

The fact that there are broad spectrums of services available within the Kaiser Permanente network makes it easier to coordinate patient care. For example the Northern California site has implemented programs that focus on five “imperatives of personal care”, which are: patients have to have a primary care doctor, they need to be able to see that physician, patients that call have a short telephone wait, patients should receive timely appointments and have a great care experience (Commonwealth fund June 2009). Care management definitely plays a crucial role in health care. When the patients needs are met and quality care is received the result is patient satisfaction and potentially cost saving for the organization. Patients not only have to deal with health issues, many experience challenges within their environment and certain limitations depending on socioeconomic status. Therefore , coordination of patient care is key to the success of any health care delivery system.

The primary care practice is essential to improve the care of our population, our current system is fragmented, but it does show potential for improvement. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has listed some areas that will help improve our system. One is “the need for external infrastructure to help primary care practices develop quality improvement” this is done with support to the quality capacity (Agency For Healthcare Research and Quality, 2015). Quality care will include the coordination of care within the system, as well as understanding what needs the patient will have

The way we practice healthcare and healthcare organizations are changing due to the pressure to reduce costs, improve the quality of care and to meet rigorous guidelines. This change has forced health care professionals to examine we evaluate our overall performance. Paradise Hospital, Inc. has not had any service improvements since 1995. A physician named Avedis Donabedian (2005) proposed a model for assessing health care quality based on structures, processes, and outcomes. He defined structure as the environment in which health care is provided. This is known as the organizational characteristics such as the measurement of staffing ratios and the number of hospital beds. The process is described as the method by which health care is provided. This represents the communication and interaction seen between doctor and patient. The necessity for the tests and procedures performed. The outcome is defined as the consequence of the health care provided, was there a desirable or undesirable effect.

The current health care sector is too costly and too fragmented with a lot of variation in care even with established evidence based guidelines. Providers lack the tools, support and information they need to offer the coordinated health management that can reduce cost and improve outcomes. Primary Care Physicians are constrained in their abilities to perform any proactive care that involves avoiding Hospital or ER visits, and influencing healthy lifestyles.

Quality patient centered care is vital to a hospital or clinic’s ability to treat whole patients. Dabney and Tzeng (2013) address the necessity to implement patient-centered care into clinic and hospital settings. The article clarifies what patient-centered care and service quality is by consolidating many works and sighting benefits medical professionals can observe in their practice.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) has created new forms of care organizations in order to provide better healthcare to Medicare and Medicaid patients at a greater value. The two types of organizations that this paper will focus on are Accountable Care Organizations (ACO’s) and Coordinated Care Organizations (CCO’s). There has been much information gathered regarding the similarities and differences between these organizations. This research has been conducted to better understand the way that ACO’s and CCO’s effect the hospitals, physicians, insurance providers, and patients involved in their implementation.

One of the foundations of a positive patient experience is communication — both between providers and patients and among providers. Several questions on the HCAHPS survey address communication. For example, the survey asks patients:

Improving the quality of health care system is the main goal of this organization. In this case study we will be talking about the strategic plans being made by the organization for the next decade to deal with the problems of resource management, network growth, patient satisfaction as well as nurse staffing. The readiness of the organization towards catering the citizens' needs for health care will also be discussed in this case study (Goetsch and Davis, 2010).

CMS will be rewarding the top performing hospitals by increasing to their payment for Medicaid patients. HCAHPS survey is sent out within six weeks of the patients discharged, there is 27 questions relating to communication with the staff, cleanliness, pain management, communication about medicines, discharge information and if they would recommend the hospital. The data is to Premier Incorporated to categorize the date, and then place this information on the website http://.wwwhospitalcompar.hhs.gov and available to the public. Health Quality Alliance and Center of Medicare and Medicaid Systems have awarded over eight million to hospitals who have shown improvements in the care of their patients.

“Running a health care organization is a team sport. It is very important that all members of the team-whether on the medical staff, in management or on the board-understand the role of governance and what constitutes effective governance” (Arnwine, 2002). Running a hospital is a difficult task. Several factors need to be seriously thought of and considered in every decision and undertaking. Unfortunately, all the three important factors in governing a hospital is not always in harmony. As likened to a team sport, if the three major components are not working with each other as a team, there will be tension and a great divide will be experienced. And often times, the patients will be in the middle and will be greatly impacted. This writer believes that there are several factors that contribute to the tension that usually exists among the medical staff, the board and administration. One factor is the disconnect, where each entity is not seeing each other eye to eye and their visions may be different from each other. Another factor may be the lack of communication in order to bridge the gap and to build a respectful and a relationship wherein there is trust for each end every member of the group. Often times, the medical staff is concerned with ensuring that patients are cared for in a manner that their practice is protected as well as the patients are getting the appropriate care. On the other hand, the board of trustees may be focused in ensuring that that

The concept of governance within a health care organization must be well design and welcome cooperation (Berger, S. (2011). When those that make policies can understand how to apply cooperative regulatory structure in healthcare setting it is noted that self-interest is not the only way of motivating positive behavior. The concept of governance spells out who is responsible for ensuring and providing support and services to all members needing health resources (Berger, S. (2011).

Fixing problems that face health care in many health facilities demand a system wide set of solutions. The systems used in these facilities must be assessed and redesigned to identify factors that will aid in the achievement of the set goals. The enormous task of achieving the goals should be undertaken collaboratively by all the key stakeholders, who include, health care professionals, planners and policy makers, administrators, payers, and patients and their families. These partnerships must begin with a common understanding of the problems together with a shared commitment to cooperate and work together to eliminate the problems. With this knowledge, therefore, an action plan for redesigning the health care system can be developed and later implemented. For a successful health care service to be realized, there are various factors which should be employed and which are not found in the traditional business setting. These include unique economic processes, proper regulatory requirements and the perfect quality indicators. This creates a need for every leader within the healthcare industry to create or develop unique skill sets that will harmonize both organizational leadership and the inter-professional team development. It is, therefore, important to understand the comprehensive approach to the management of patient care and also how the concepts of team development and organizational leadership support healthcare leaders in creation of a patient-centric