Question

Why do you believe that quality can be viewed as a strength and a weakness of the U.S. health care system?

Be sure to provide at least 2 reasons for this, and provide specific examples for discussion.

Identify several difficulties and several benefits of working with licensed independent practitioners to improve quality in a typical hospital. What considerations should managers keep in mind when working with them?

Answer 1

Ans) STRENGTH

- Strong, world-class professional education and CPE for practitioners and researchers.

- Many extremely educated, experienced MDs, nursing cadres and ancillary professionals.

- Many highly dedicated professionals at all levels.

WEAKNESSES

- Very poor and in many cases non-existent, internal, operational, management and business controls.

- Unchecked and widespread fraud, waste and abuse.

- Administrators at “not-for-profit” institutions whose salaries approach or, in many cases (at least in major American cities) exceed, one million USD per annum.

- Ineffective government oversight and control to maximize access to care.

- Ineffective government oversight and control to constantly audit, correct and punish bad practices.

- Little is done to prevent burnout, especially among those with responsibility for hands-on patient care.

- Overwork of Interns and Residents which causes fatigue and poor decision-making in patient encounters.

- Government, at all levels, refuses to hire enough trained, experienced fraud, operational, management, financial and forensic auditors to control mismanagement in healthcare organizations which receive financing from the public purse.

- Healthcare, a round peg, has been forced into a square hole, i.e., a for-profit business model that is unrealistic and has negative impact on patient care.

- Business and professional competition among hospitals, researchers and other professionals where collaborative relationships should exist across the board for the ultimate benefit and good of the patient.

• Large opportunities currently exist to advance quality, access, and cost simultaneously by focusing on care delivery. Despite significant disparities between the quality of providers, patients and payers cannot distinguish which providers provide the highest-quality care at affordable cost. By focusing on empowering patients and payers with this information, he explains, transparency has the ability to promote efficiency within the healthcare system.