This document provides an overview of the US health care delivery system. It discusses challenges like reducing costs while maintaining quality, improving access, and encouraging healthy behaviors. It also covers different levels of care like preventative, primary, secondary, tertiary, restorative, continuing care and settings within each level. Issues discussed include the nursing shortage, evidence-based practice, quality/safety, and the future of health care needing to address the uninsured while improving quality through nurse participation.
2. Challenges to Health Care
Reducing health care costs while maintaining
high-quality care for patients
Improving access and coverage for more people
Encouraging healthy behaviors
Earlier hospital discharges result in more patients
needing nursing homes or home care.
3. Emphasis on Population Wellness
Health Services
Pyramid
Managing health
instead of illness
Emphasis on wellness
Injury prevention
programs
{Fig 2-1 here}
4. National Priorities Partnership
National Priorities:
Patient and family engagement
Population health
Safety/eliminating errors as possible
Care coordination
Palliative care for advanced illnesses
Overuse/reducing waste
5. Institute of Medicine (IOM)
Nurses need to be transformed by:
Practicing to the full extent of their education and
training
Achieving higher levels of education and training
through an improved education system that
provides seamless progression
Becoming full partners, with physicians and other
providers, in redesigning the health care system
Improving data collection and the information
infrastructure for effective workforce planning and
policy making
6. Case Study
Amy Sue Reilly is a 15-year-old white female of Irish
descent. She is a freshman at a Catholic high school.
Although her parents are divorced, Amy Sue reports
that her family (she has two brothers and lives with
her mother) is very close, and that her parents work
together to meet all their children’s needs.
Amy Sue has had asthma since she was 5 years old.
She has been able to control her asthma by taking
oral medications and by using inhalers when needed.
7. Health Care Regulation and Competition
Regulatory and competitive approaches
Professional standards review organizations
(PSROs)
Created to review the quality, quantity, and cost of hospital
care provided through Medicare and Medicaid
Utilization review committees (URs)
Review admissions, diagnostic testing, and treatments
provided by physicians who cared for patients receiving
Medicare
8. Health Care Regulation and Competition
(cont’d)
Prospective payment system (PPS)
Diagnosis-related groups (DRGs)
Capitation
Resource utilization groups (RUGs)
Profitability
Managed care
9. Health Care Regulation and Competition
(cont’d)
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Access to health care for all
Reducing costs
Improving quality
Provisions include
Insurance industry reforms
Increased funding for community health centers
Increased primary care services
Improved coverage for children
10. Health Care Settings and Services
1. Preventive
2. Primary
3. Secondary
4. Tertiary
5. Restorative
6. Continuing
11. Health Care Accreditation/
Certification
Reasons:
To demonstrate quality and safety
To evaluate performance, identify problems, and
develop solutions
Accreditation earned by the entire organization
Specific programs or services within an organization
earn certifications.
The Joint Commission and others
12. Preventive and Primary Health Care
Preventive Care
Primary care
Focuses on improved health outcomes for an entire
population
Requires collaboration among health professionals,
health care leaders, and community members
Health promotion lowers overall costs:
Reduces incidence of disease
Minimizes complications
Reduces the need for more expensive resources
Occurs in home, work, and community settings
13. Secondary and Tertiary Care
Also called acute care
Focus: Diagnosis and treatment of disease
Disease management is the most common and
expensive service of the health care delivery
system.
20% require 80% of health care spending.
Fastest growing age group of uninsured?
Postponement of care by uninsured
14. Secondary and Tertiary Care (cont’d)
Settings
Hospitals
Rural
Hospitals
Intensive Care
Units
Psychiatric
Care
Resource efficiency, word redesign
Discharge planning—nurses’ role
15. Restorative Care
Serves patients recovering from an acute or
chronic illness/disability
Helps individuals regain maximal function and
enhance quality of life
Promotes patient independence and self-care
abilities
Requires multidisciplinary approach
Settings:
Home Care
Rehabilitation
Extended Care
16. Restorative Care: Home Care
Provision of medically related professional and
paraprofessional services and equipment to patients
and families in their homes for health maintenance,
education, illness prevention, diagnosis and treatment
of disease, palliation, and rehabilitation
Involves coordination of services
Focuses on patient and family independence
Usually reimbursed by government (such as
Medicare and Medicaid in the United States), private
insurance, and private pay sources
17. Restorative Care: Rehabilitation
Focus: To restore patients to their fullest physical,
mental, social, vocational, and economic potential
Includes physical, occupational, and speech
therapy, as well as social services
Occurs in many health care settings, both
inpatient and outpatient
18. Restorative Care: Extended Care
Extended care facility
Provides intermediate medical, nursing, or custodial
care for patients recovering from acute illness or
disabilities
Skilled nursing facility (intermediate care)
Provides care for patients until they can return to
their community or residential care location
19. Continuing Care
For people who are disabled, functionally
dependent, or suffering a terminal disease
Available within institutional settings or in the
home:
Nursing Centers or Facilities
Assisted Living
Respite Care
Adult Day Care Centers
Hospice
20. Continuing Care: Nursing Centers or
Facilities
Provide 24-hour intermediate and custodial care
Nursing, rehabilitation, diet, social, recreational, and
religious services
Residents of any age with chronic or debilitating
illness
Omnibus Budget
Reconciliation Act of 1987
Regulated by standards:
Interdisciplinary functional assessment is the
focus of clinical practice: MDS, RAIs
21. Continuing Care: Assisted Living
—Offers a long-term care
setting with a home
environment and greater
resident autonomy
—Provides services such
as laundry, assistance with
meals, personal care,
housekeeping, and 24-hour
oversight
—Allows residents to live
in their own units
22. Respite Care
The service provides short-term relief or “time off”
for persons providing home care to an ill,
disabled, or frail older adult.
Settings include home, day care, or health care
institution with overnight care.
Trained volunteers allow family caregivers to
leave the home for errands or social time.
23. Adult Day Care Centers
Provide a variety of health and social services to
specific patient populations who live alone or with
family in the community
May be associated with a hospital or nursing
home or may operate independently
Offer services to patients such as daily physical
rehabilitation and counseling
24. Hospice
Family-centered care that allows patients to live
and remain at home
Focuses on palliative (not curative) care: comfort,
independence, and dignity
Provides patient and family support during
terminal illness and time of death
Many hospice programs provide respite care,
which is important in maintaining the health of the
primary caregiver and family.
25. Issues in Health Care Delivery
Nursing shortage
Competency
Evidence-based practice
Quality and safety in health care/ Patient-
centered care
Health care organizations are being evaluated on
the basis of outcomes such as prevention of
complications, patients’ functional outcomes, and
patient satisfaction.
26. Issues in Health Care Delivery
(cont’d)
Magnet Recognition Program
Nursing-sensitive outcomes
Nursing informatics and technological
advancements
Globalization of health care
27. The Future of Health Care
Change opens up opportunities for improvement.
Health care delivery systems need to address the
needs of the uninsured and the underserved.
Health care organizations are striving to become
better prepared to deal with these and other
challenges in health care.
The solutions necessary to improve the quality of
health care depend largely on the active
participation of nurses.
Editor's Notes
To meet these changing conditions, organizations must run as businesses. Technology, new medications, and shortened lengths of stay increase the cost of doing business.The health care system is faced with rising costs, increased access to services, growing populations, improved quality outcomes, and threats of bioterrorism.Nurses face major challenges to prevent gaps in health care across health care settings, so individuals remain healthy and well within their own homes and communities.
The Core Functions Project developed the Health Services Pyramid.The shift from managing illness to managing health includes an emphasis on wellness, and the environment has enhanced quality of life.The emphasis has led to improvements in water, sewage, immunizations, and living conditions. Patient teaching has promoted better diet habits, decreased tobacco use, and improved blood pressure control. Injury prevention programs advocating seatbelt use, child seats, restraints, and helmet laws have enhanced quality of life and decreased mortality rates.[See Box 2-1 (on text p. 17) for common health care definitions that should help students begin to integrate terminology.] [Figure is on text p. 17.]
How is health care changing? One example can be seen in the National Priorities Partnership, a group of 28 organizations from a variety of health care disciplines that have joined together to work toward transforming health care.They bring an increased focus on wellness and prevention, working through a six-part approach.
Nursing is a caring profession with a set of ethics, values, and standards. Nurses will change with the times; however, nurses will always keep patient needs first as they are challenged with new roles and responsibilities.[What are some ways you can see yourself implementing the IOM recommendations?]
What concerns would you have if you were Amy Sue’s school nurse about Amy Sue getting the medical care she needs? [Discusstransferring medication to and from school, keeping her inhalers with her when she visits her dad, acclimating to a new routine in high school, etc.]
[Lead a discussion on what level or type of care is offered in each of these health care settings.]Larger health care systems have integrated delivery networks (IDNs) that include a set of providers and services organized to deliver a continuum of care to a population of patients at a capitated cost in a particular setting. Nurses are especially important as patient advocates in maintaining continuity of care throughout the levels of care.
The Joint Commission (formerly The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations) accredits health care organizations across the continuum of care, including hospitals and ambulatory care, long-term care, home care, and behavioral health agencies. Other accrediting agencies have a specific focus, such as the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and the Community Health Accrediting Program (CHAP).
Preventive care focuses on reducing and controlling risk factors for disease through activities such as occupational health programs. [Ask the class for some examples of primary care. Discuss health education, proper nutrition, maternal/child health care, family planning, immunizations, and control of diseases.] Table 2-2 presents examples of preventive and primary care services.
Hospital emergency departments, urgent care centers, critical care units, and inpatient medical-surgical units provide secondary and tertiary levels of care. Because of work redesign, more services are available on nursing units, thus minimizing the need to transfer and transport patients across multiple diagnostic and treatment settings.Discharge planning is a centralized, coordinated, multidisciplinary process that ensures that the patient has a plan for continuing care after leaving a health care agency. [What are some ways that nurses help with discharge planning? Discuss.]An ICU is the most expensive health care delivery site because each nurse usually cares for only one or two patients at a time, and because patients in the ICU require complex treatments and procedures.Patients who suffer emotional and behavioral problems such as depression, violent behavior, and eating disorders often require special counseling and treatment in psychiatric facilities. The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 changed the designation for rural hospitals to critical access hospital (CAHs) if certain criteria were met. The CAH provides inpatient care to acutely ill or injured people before transferring them to better-equipped facilities.
As one of the fastest growing industries within the United States, assisted living offers privacy, independence, and security.Some facilities provide assistance with medication administration, although nursing care services are not available directly.However, this industry has little regulation, no fee cap. It may not be the most financially sound plan for some individuals.[Photo is on text p. 22.]
The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) established the Magnet Recognition Program to recognize health care organizations that achieve excellence in nursing practice. [See Boxes 2-8, Magnet Model and Forces of Magnetism, and 2-9, Nursing Quality Indicators (both on text p. 26).]Nursing informatics uses information and technology to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision making.Nurses gain or use information when they organize, structure, or interpret data. Knowledge develops when nurses combine and identify relationships between different pieces of information. Technological advancements influence where and how nurses provide care to patients and can help nurses improve direct care processes, patient outcomes, and work environments. [Ask students what they think of recent technological advancements—do they help or hinder the nurse’s effectiveness?]Globalization, the increasing connectedness of the world’s economy, culture, and technology, is one of the forces reshaping the health care delivery system.Children, women, and older adults are vulnerable populations most threatened by urbanization.