The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
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It is inevitable that the role of the hospital may change drastically in the new system. What changes do you predict and what impacts do you see them having on patients?The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
The US healthcare system is made up of a collection of hospitals, insurers, healthcare service purchasers, healthcare facilities and clinicians who operate in different networks in both the private and public sectors. Rather than focusing on providing healthcare services to every patient who visits a primary care physician, hospitals will aim at reducing readmission’s and the average number of patients who fall sick. At individual and Community Level, hospitals will advocate for preventive healthcare services such as: patient education and community participation in vigorous screening, immunization, research and disease surveillance (Tulchinsky & Varavikova, 2014). Hospitals will also shift their roles to reducing healthcare delivery costs and quality improvement possibly by availing healthcare providers at every workplace to manage the continuum of care. For patients, this will enhance the availability of healthcare services and more patients will be able to access a wide range of services with improved patient outcomes.The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
Another hospital role that will change in the new system is the re designation of currently existing processes through simulation modeling in examining healthcare delivery. Through the average simulation of every hospital visit, hospitals will be the ones determining the point and time when a patient awaits for care and the approximate number of providers utilized for a single patient (Pollitt & Bouckaert, 2013). Besides, hospitals will be responsible for developing quality assurance models, clinical governance and clinical audits for quality insurance and progressive professional development. These roles involve good performance of healthcare organizations and involvement of healthcare providers in continuous evidence-based research. Therefore, patients will be guaranteed high quality care with improved health outcomes.
Hospitals will focus on division of labor by ensuring that registered nurses, physicians and other healthcare providers perform tasks which fit their credentials. In today’s hospitals, registered nurses are limited in their clinical practice as compared to their training and scope of practice. To ensure that a lot of time is spent on individualized patient care, hospitals will shift their focus from patient care to critical clinical resources to meet the shortage of primary care physicians and thereafter universal healthcare.
References
Pollitt, C., & Bouckaert, G. (2013). Continuity and change in public policy and management.
Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
Tulchinsky, T. H., & Varavikova, E. (2014). The new public health. Amsterdam: Elsevier /Academic Press.
Obama Care is changing the image of the doctor we know and love. For better or worse, gone are the days of a physician carrying a black bag and making house calls. The new-age doctor is someone who is probably comfortable communicating via text message (secure, of course), or by email.The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
With the rising demands of a new dimension of healthcare delivery, where doctors need to see more patients to make up for lower reimbursement, you will soon see some innovative ways by which doctors will be communicating with patients, and still getting paid.
As of last year, about 30% of doctors reported using email to communicate with patients, and about 18% of those surveyed used text messaging.
But there is still a large percentage of physicians who are concerned about privacy and security. This may change, however, as insurance companies may start to reimburse for electronic forms of communication.
In addition to email and text, an increasingly popular means of doctor-patient communication is video conferencing. Many services have evolved that enable physicians to conduct these video chats with their patients quite effectively, and charge for the consultation.
It’s been predicted that more than 50% of doctors will start working for a hospital or a hospital-owned system in the next year. If that happens, there will be increasing attention paid to the measurement of physician efficiency. Physicians will be compensated based on their ability to effectively communicate with patients, and ensure patient compliance.
As employees of hospitals, physicians may actually start seeing fewer patients as their hours shrink, and they start working more like hourly employees. It is possible that we may see a disruption in the continuity of care as physicians adopt this new schedule.
Ironically, an increase in the percentage of employed physicians could actually have an effect contrary to the intent of the Affordable Care Act to increase access to healthcare.
The work environment for a physician is clearly changing dramatically as there are increased demands for doctors to become more savvy in technology. In the short term, consumers could find it challenging to get the care and information they need, as the healthcare industry transforms itself.
The only thing constant in life is change and that is what is greatly needed most of the time. Healthcare too needs changes in hospital infrastructure planning to evolve for a better future. This change has to come from the basic level and that is why it has to start with hospital infrastructure planning.The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
Hospitals have come to realize that patient satisfaction is the key to their success and growth. The role of hospital infrastructure importance in achieving patient satisfaction is monumental. This is why hospitals are making efforts to adopt changing trends in their infrastructure efficiently by seeking the guidance of an expert healthcare consulting firm.
Emerging trends in hospital infrastructure planning
Today the future of healthcare lies in ability and agility in adopting the technology. With patient satisfaction becoming the core focus, hospitals have to be well-equipped with the latest technology and skill-set to increase their quality of patient care. Major changes are portended in hospital infrastructure planning with the advent of the latest technology. Some of these are described below.
- Hospitals will adopt more technology to have a connected infrastructure.
Patients are favoring the use of telemedicine and prefer virtual visits for their regular check-ups. To facilitate this, hospitals must have a more connected infrastructure. Here are some of the technologies that hospitals can adopt to make their infrastructure more connected.
- Hospitals use augmented reality (AR) to integrate images into the patient’s environment.
- Virtual Reality (VR) is being used to simulate clinical situations in pain management, neuro-rehabilitation, etc.
- Artificial intelligence(AI) is being used for predicting the outcome of clinical situations and helps in improving the quality of treatment.
- Robotics has been used in surgery via telemedicine.
- Wearables like Google glasses are used to monitor patient’s health parameters 24×7 remotely.
- 3D printing has enabled the easy fabrication of prostheses and implants.
Technology has enhanced the hospital infrastructure importance and enabled it to be more remotely connected with physicians and specialists by the above means.The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
- Hospital infrastructure will become decentralized
With technology entering the field of healthcare, there is no longer a need for the patient to remain hospitalized for long periods. Non-invasive treatment procedures are now being done at outpatient clinics, reducing the inpatient stay at hospitals. This has spurred the growth of small health care units, ambulatory services, and emergency-care clinics. Hospital infrastructure has thus become more decentralized.
The vertical integration of big hospitals with small healthcare clinics by merger or acquisition has also lead to their diversification and decentralization. Hospitals have now started setting up a chain of their individual healthcare units in the hope of offering more specialized clinical care.
- Hospital infrastructure will look at alternative sources
With energy costs hitting the roof and with Eco-consciousness being the watch-word, Hospital infrastructure will look at alternative sources of energy and materials. Hospitals will look at renewable energy sources like solar, bio gas, etc. Even recyclable items will be preferred for use in hospital raw materials. Hospital infrastructure planning will focus on green building to cut down on both their energy costs and footprint.
- Hospital infrastructure will switch to Cloud
Healthcare is essentially a data-driven industry and the voluminous patient data becomes too much for hospitals to manage. Therefore, hospitals will tie-up with third-party vendors to store and manage patient or hospital data on the Cloud. Private Cloud vendors can meet the security and privacy standards demanded by the hospital. This will greatly reduce overheads and step up the productivity of the hospital.The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper
- Hospitals will become wholly patient-eccentric
In today’s competitive world, patient satisfaction has become the cutting edge for hospitals to succeed. Hospitals will focus on offering personalized care for patients while trying to adhere to hospital NABH standards. Hospitals will offer their own mobile apps to facilitate online scheduling and follow-up of appointments. Right from the home delivery of medicines to home doctor visits, the patient will be accorded the maximum personalized care by hospitals.
Hospital infrastructure planning has to be revamped to incorporate recent trends in technology to ensure the sustenance and profitability of hospitals. A good healthcare consulting firm knows the hospital infrastructure importance and will definitely suggest means to improve it.The Changing Role of a Hospital Paper