Roles of Healthcare Professionals
QUESTION
The Roles of Healthcare Professionals assignment will be at least 1500 words. Reflect on the roles of nurses and other healthcare professionals as the roles of physicians in the healthcare system move from one of working in silos to a more progressive value-based system. Write a paper that discusses in detail why a value-based system may improve health care in the U.S. and address the following questions:
- How has current policy transformed the current practice of nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals?
- What distinguishes physicians/healthcare providers working in fee-for-service and value-based care systems?
- How do you view shared power between physicians and nurses in your healthcare system? How does it impact care?
ANSWER
Roles of Healthcare Professionals
Introduction
Professionals in the healthcare industry provide an essential function for the industry as a whole. They ensure that patients can get health care for themselves and their families. Most of the time, health professionals are employed in hospitals and other community health settings, where they are responsible for patient care, such as assessing patients, making diagnoses, prescribing medicine, and educating patients. While each healthcare provider is integral in delivering quality treatment, their specific duties vary according to their training and experience.
Nursing and medical doctors, for instance, perform distinct but complementary functions, yet they share the ultimate objective of providing excellent patient care. Previously, the healthcare industry operated in isolated departments. That is to say, each healthcare worker gave undivided attention to their tasks, with minor curiosity in those of their colleagues. Some healthcare facilities have a problem with information silos when data collected at one facility is not shared with others. However, recent reforms in the healthcare industry have resulted in a shift from silos to value-based care. As a consequence, today’s healthcare professionals are taking on novel duties.
How Value-Based Systems May Improve Healthcare System
The United States began the move from volume-based to value-based treatment very recently. The former is more challenging today due to patients’ insistence on receiving high-quality treatment at lower costs. Patients in volume-based care pay healthcare professionals for their services according to the number of services they receive and not the quality of treatment received. As a result, the financial benefit of the system takes precedence over the patient’s health. In addition, it encourages those who work in the medical field to concentrate on the number of patients treated rather than the therapeutic results. In addition to its other flaws, volume-based care discourages healthcare providers from working together to improve patient outcomes. It follows the silos approach, in which healthcare providers compete with one another rather than pool their resources. Because doctors and hospitals want to make more money by seeing more patients, this trend is bad for patients’ health.
To minimize the disadvantages associated with the volume-based approach, the healthcare system may transition to value-based care, which provides the most efficient way of giving the best treatment to patients. When it comes to healthcare, patients in a value-based system are charged depending on the outcomes they achieve. It encourages patients to get specialist treatment while lowering overall healthcare costs. Disease prevention is emphasized in value-based care to improve overall health and lessen the need for hospital readmission. A value-based structure encourages cooperation across the many divisions, as opposed to the silo approach. This is due to the system’s ability to facilitate risk sharing across departments, reducing healthcare costs without compromising quality. Patients may choose the medical treatments they desire, eliminating unnecessary options. As a result, patients may save their healthcare costs by forgoing unneeded procedures.
Thus, the following health benefits may result from adopting a value-based system in the United States. One is that it would help advance healthcare industry-wide efforts toward interoperability. This is because the system necessitates collaboration across many branches to maximize health benefits while limiting. Additionally, it would encourage openness. As a result of the volume-based nature of the treatment, patients paid for services without necessarily benefiting from them. However, in value-based care, the price must reflect the value received. Further, all parties involved would benefit from the system’s promotion of related services. Thus, information sharing allows patients to switch between healthcare providers without interruption. In addition, the system would provide updates on what is occurring in all areas of the healthcare system, allowing all stakeholders to make well-informed choices.
Several examples of hospital readmission in the United States have been in recent years (Spatz et al., 2020). Medical malpractice is the leading cause of patient readmission to the hospital. As a result, reducing unnecessary hospital readmissions would be facilitated by a value-based approach. The system encourages cooperation among healthcare providers, allowing for the sharing of patient records. Providers get a deeper understanding of their patients via collaborative efforts, which improves the quality of treatment they can deliver based on evidence.
How Current Policy Has Transformed the Current Healthcare Practice
The present healthcare strategy has led to the implementation of a value-based system. The policy has forced significant changes in how medical staff formerly conducted their duties. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, patients and doctors are encouraged to work together more closely. Consequently, healthcare practices have moved outside the clinical environment and into the community setting. To accomplish ACA’s aims, new players have entered the workforce. For instance, social workers are now integral to the medical community. Patients are discharged under their care, and post-discharge recovery is monitored.
Furthermore, the policy of the ACA made sure that healthcare was accessible to as many individuals as possible. Therefore, healthcare professionals have prioritized delivering high-quality treatment to reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions. Hospitals already have too many patients in them without adding readmissions. After all, the Affordable Care Act contributed to a rise in hospitalization rates throughout the country. Doctors are now more invested in their profession because of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) emphasis on affordable, high-quality healthcare.
The US people were the intended target of ACA’s health promotion efforts (Caldararo & Nash, 2017). So, nurses have made it a priority to teach their patients about their conditions. A speedier healing time and fewer unnecessary hospital readmissions are both benefits of patient education. As a result, value-based care, much needed in the US today, is assured by the law’s implementation.
Difference between Physicians Working in Fee-For-Service and Value-Based Care
The transformation to a value-based healthcare system has highlighted the disparities between the two types of healthcare providers. To begin, less EHR use is seen among fee-for-service healthcare providers. This is because very little information is shared with other parties; therefore, none of the data they gather ever leaves the company. After all, their main priority is making money, regardless of whether or not the service they provide is of good quality. On the other hand, EHRs are standard practice for value-based healthcare providers. The reason is that health records can only be effectively shared by being digitalized. In hospitals, for instance, when a patient checks in, the nurse is responsible for keeping track of their every need, including the prescriptions they get.
Moreover, compared to those who operate in a value-based system, healthcare practitioners paid on a fee-for-service basis are more likely to have inefficiency problems. In a healthcare system based on payment per service, healthcare providers deliver treatment and are, in return, offered financial compensation. After the patient has received the service for which they have paid, the healthcare provider will no longer provide care until the next time the patient is prepared to pay for treatment. This arrangement is more like a trade.
However, value-based care is centered on the universal goals of illness prevention and health promotion (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Therefore, healthcare practitioners put patient care ahead of financial gain under this system. For this reason, doctors work together with their patients to optimize their treatment. Before being released from a value-based care facility, for instance, every patient must receive an education. Preventative measures like these may save money on healthcare by reducing the likelihood of a patient having to be readmitted.
Shared Power between Physicians and Nurses
Currently, value-based healthcare systems need teamwork among all healthcare providers. One professional may, for instance, confer with or seek patient information from a different professional within the same organization. With this form of cooperation, the company functions as a unified whole, which reduces vulnerability. However, for professionals to work together efficiently, they must each have a distinct position inside the company. Due to this, doctors and nurses now share decision-making responsibilities. From my vantage point, having power distributed equally across all parties involved is the best way to ensure happy patients. This is because when nurses have autonomy over patient care, they may tailor their services to meet individual needs.
Also, when nurses and doctors have an equal say in medical decisions, patients benefit from higher standards of care. Today’s healthcare system is very intricate. The only way to simplify healthcare is to delegate responsibility for achieving its goals to more people. Because of this, efficiency increases when people have defined jobs and are less likely to overextend themselves. In addition, when all healthcare professionals have a say in the agenda, everyone benefits from increased teamwork. Involving all relevant professionals in making decisions boosts efficiency, improving the quality of care provided to patients.
Conclusion
The functions of those working in the medical field have evolved. This is attributed to the value-based care system, which has broken down the walls between departments at work. Because there was no need for cooperation amongst healthcare providers, those working in silos were able to increase their level of autonomy. Nevertheless, doctors and nurses are working together more than ever because of the new value-based care system. The government has instituted new regulations stressing the need for cooperation between medical professionals.
Furthermore, healthcare professionals are compensated via government programs such as Medicare based on the quality of treatment rather than the amount of care provided. Nurses and doctors must now share decision-making authority in the present healthcare system. This method advocates for value-based care because of the positive effects of collaboration between healthcare professionals on both care quality and cost.
References
Caldararo, K. L., & Nash, D. B. (2017). Population health research: Early description of the organizational shift toward population health management and defining a vision for leadership. Population health management, 20(5), 368-373.
Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12.
Spatz, E. S., Bernheim, S. M., Horwitz, L. I., & Herrin, J. (2020). Community factors and hospital wide readmission rates: Does context matter?. PloS one, 15(10), e0240222.