The US Health Care System
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) has a critical role in assuring the safety of health care patients in the United States (US). The OSHA have staff members that aid employers and employees though technical assistance and consultation programs while the JCAHO assures the quality of health care service in the US through an accreditation process.
The OSHA assures the safety of the workplaces in the country, it has helped decrease workplace fatalities, occupational injury and illness rates in workplaces by 40 percent while the JCAHO makes sure that hospitals provide quality service through an evaluation process in areas such as patient rights, patient treatment, and infection control.
However, despite of the presence of the two organizations, health care service in the US is hardly accessible.
Some people deem that the quality of US Health Care as truly excellent while others view it just as good as what is found on the developed side of the world. However, the delivery o health care in the US is fragmented and is hard to access most of the time. Many people seeking medical aid are not assured of success and are constrained by financial difficulties. There are also cases that there are uncertain return in investment or unclear value, for a significant portion of health cares considerable expenditures. There is also great discontent from patients, practitioners and payers alike regarding processes of care (Kizer, 2002, p.1079).
A hindrance in the improvement of the quality of health care is (1) the lack of reliable and comparable data about the quality of health care, (2) the lack of widespread use of automated information management systems in health care, (3) payment, (4) liability concerns and (5) lack of organizational and systems support for quality improvement efforts. (Kizer, 2002, p.1081-1082).
To identify patient safety incident rates, HealthGrades applies the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Patient Safety Indicator methodology to the three years of medical data in almost every hospital in the country. Through this method, the agency was able to identify the rates of, and excess lengths of stay and mortality associated with, these specific patient safety indicators (HealthGrades 2005, May Second Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Report p2).
HealthGrades identified a total of 1.18 million patient safety incidents that occurred in approximately 39 million hospitalizations in the Medicare population from 2001 through 2003. The 16 PSIs studied accounted for approximately $8.73 billion during 2001 through 2003, or $2.91 billion annually. (HealthGrades 2005, May Second Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Report p5).
In the case of G.I. Jones Memorial Hospital, the problems should immediately be addressed which should start with boosting the morale of the employees because this aspect could gravely affect the quality of health care provided by the hospital. Loss of revenue can be solved by finding other sources of income but it should not increase the fees for medical treatment.
On the other hand, the hospital administration must draft plans to heighten patient care quality.
To sum it up, the overall American health care delivery system just like the case of G.I. Jones Memorial Hospital needs change and the two bodies, the OSHA and the JCAHO should make ways to elevate the quality of health care provided in the country.
References
Kizer, K (2002). The Emerging Imperative for Health Care Quality Improvement, Retrieved March 7,
2008 from http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/healthcarehearings/docs/030611kitzeraemqi.pdf
1079, 1081-1082.
HealthGrades (2005) Second Annual Patient Safety in American Hospitals Report, 5, Retrieved March
7 2008 from, http://www.healthgrades.com/media/dms/pdf/patientsafetyinamericanhospitals
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