Health Care Policy Essay Paper
DQ1
Provide two examples of social institutions that are prevalent in American society and explain their functions. How have social institutions played a part in your health? Do you think their influence was positive or negative? Why?Health Care Policy Essay Paper
DQ2
Can health care policy shape the way in which social institutions are viewed by an individual or population group? Support your position with examples and/or evidence.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.Health Care Policy Essay Paper
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ANA exists to champion the nursing profession, and the essential role nurses play in improving health and health care for all.
Thanks to their frontline role, nurses offer a unique, expert perspective on every aspect of the health care system, and have a key voice in ongoing efforts to improve public health.As the lead organization representing the interests of the nation’s 4 million registered nurses, ANA’s role is to articulate that voice at the highest levels in order to influence health policy.
Our efforts are directed at those responsible for creating the modern U.S. health care environment the policy makers and agencies whose decisions will affect patients and those who care for them. We are dedicated to ensuring that the voice of nursing is heard at all levels where these decisions are made.
Health System Reform
ANA believes every single person, including nurses, should have access to the highest quality and safest care. Health care is a basic human right. For decades, we have used the experience and expertise of our members to fight for that right, and for meaningful health care reform.
The passage of the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (often referred to as the ACA) – and recent high-profile attempts to change it – demonstrates how health care legislation is one of the most important issues facing our leaders today.
Agencies and regulations
While Congress makes the laws, much of the critical federal-level advocacy that ANA carries out is geared towards those whose role it is to interpret, and enforce, legislation that may affect our profession and its members – the numerous agencies of the federal government.
The day-to-day work of agencies such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Centers of Disease Control (CDC), The Federal Drug Administration (FDA), and Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) have a huge impact on all who work in the health care system. It is vital that the voice of nursing is heard during their decision-making processes. Health Care Policy Essay Paper
Care Coordination
With the transformation of the health care system well underway, care coordination is now being highlighted by hospitals, health systems, and insurers as a key tool in improving patient health and satisfaction, and controlling health care costs.
ANA is leading the way through a number of initiatives to bring attention to nurses’ essential role in care coordination and to demand payment for these essential services as a distinct component of patient care.
Health Information Technology
Health Information Technology (HIT) has enabled the pursuit of better care coordination, allowing health care providers to quickly capture standardized data, use it to inform patient care, and communicate it to their colleagues across a range of clinical settings.
But with such potential comes a greater level of responsibility for nurses who, thanks to their place on the front line, are key stakeholders in the implementation of any new practices and procedures. This is why ANA has taken a particular interest HIT and its implications for nurses – both in terms of opportunities and additional workload.Health Care Policy Essay Paper
The purpose of healthcare policy and procedures is to provide standardization in daily operational activities. Through our many years working with policies and procedures it has become clear to us that they are essential in providing clarity when dealing with issues and activities that are critical to health and safety, legal liabilities and regulatory requirements. The importance of healthcare policy and procedures cannot be disputed but the way they are managed best will vary from one organization to another. As the importance of policies and procedures manuals may not be as apparent as it should be, we thought it would be resourceful to share our knowledge on the matter. To our end, we try to develop powerful solutions, to help manage policies and other documents in order to improve the productivity and efficiency of a healthcare facility, as well as, ensure it is not breaching any regulations. With that said, we realize that we may not be every organization’s cup of tea and that another vendor may offer a better match.
Policy in healthcare is vitally important as it sets a general plan of action used to guide desired outcomes and is a fundamental guideline to help make decisions. The purpose of healthcare policy and procedures is to communicate to employees the desired outcomes of the organization. They help employees understand their roles and responsibilities within the organization. In the healthcare environment specifically, policy should set the foundation for the delivery of safe and cost effective quality care.
With the continued increase in new regulations and requirements, such as the Affordable Care Act, HIPAA, and Meaningful Use, the burden of setting policies and effectively communicating these to the employees has become burdensome.Health Care Policy Essay Paper
New Laws And Regulations
For every new law or regulation, new or updated, policies must be created and be disseminated to staff. There are regularly changing provisions within the Affordable Care Act, other federal healthcare requirements, state laws and regulations, CMS Conditions of Participation, Joint Commission Standards, and other accreditation requirements. This makes it difficult to ensure that proper polices are not only created, but are efficiently communicated to the employees. As such, the legacy policy management systems for maintaining polices are no longer viable and can place the organization at risk. It is difficult just keeping up with every new law or regulation update, as well as, ensuring policies and procedures are effectively rolled out to employees is also just as complicated.
With the rapid pace of new and updated laws and regulations that providers must address, the task of ensuring that policies and procedures are up-to-date, available, and effectively communicated throughout the organization can be very difficult. This is where more state of the art policy management software can assist.Health Care Policy Essay Paper
Utilizing Technology And Education
The best healthcare organizations must use both technology and education to manage their healthcare policies and procedures. Technology solutions become critical enablers to streamline this process. It can help in providing a controlled framework for updating, authorizing, and communicating to the organization, as well as, ensure that older policies are properly archived and not disseminated in a fashion that can impact patient care.
The rapid pace in which regulations change requires automated policy approval and dissemination as well as acknowledgment of employee access.Health Care Policy Essay Paper
At Policy Medical we have worked with a number of large healthcare providers who rely heavily on using a web-based policy management system for policies and procedures. Through our research we have found this is an excellent method to reach staff not only locally but also to those that may be located off site. This is particularly true for those that operate in more remote and isolated regions.
Policy management systems that allow for streamlined updating and notification tools to make staff aware of the changes are critical. It is also important to allow easy access to view the documents and communicate the changes throughout an organization.
The Best Software For Healthcare Policy And Procedures
The best policy management software solutions will ensure that employees can easily access that information and can communicate to managers and stakeholders the changes in regulations that affect those policies. Additionally, sound policy management systems can help ensure an organization’s policy and procedure information is updated and accurate. This provides more effective means for regulatory and accrediting organizations to validate that you are operating in a state of continued readiness for a survey or audit. Not having sound systems in place can result in additional on-site visits by these bodies putting the organization at risk for increased deficiencies and penalties.Health Care Policy Essay Paper
Policy in the healthcare environment sets the foundation for providing the best level of care. In today’s environment, in order to realize optimal efficiencies, healthcare organizations must combine sound organizational processes with complimentary technology to achieve their desired outcomes.
At Policy Medical, we are firm advocates of being on track with rules and regulations when it comes to policies and procedures. Therefore, we strive to develop solutions that help do just that and keep the healthcare facilities on track. If you would like to find out more about our healthcare policy management solution, Policy Manager, please get in touch to find out more. We would happy to chat through how policy management software can help bring order to your policy and procedures. It may be that our software is exactly the kind of solution your organization needs, or it may be that another vendor has a better offering. Regardless, we would be more than happy to point you in the right direction; please do not hesitate to contact us. Alternatively, if you want to see our software, Policy Manager, in action, please request a free demonstration.Health Care Policy Essay Paper