Strategic Planning
Present how strategic planning, performance improvement, and information systems are interrelated and fundamental to the delivery of quality health care.
Over the last several years, the health care system has been facing considerable challenges. This is because the total number of patients is rapidly increasing and costs are rising. Evidence of this can be seen with a study that was conducted by the Kaiser Foundation. They found that insurance premiums for employer sponsored plans have increased by 97%. Commenting about these issues the report observed, "Health expenditures in the United States neared $2.6 trillion in 2010, over ten times the $256 billion spent in 1980. Addressing this growing burden continues to be a major policy priority. Furthermore, the United States has been in a recession for much of the past decade, resulting in higher unemployment and lower incomes for many Americans. These conditions have put even more attention on health spending and affordability. In the public sector, Medicare covers the elderly and people with disabilities, and Medicaid provides coverage to low-income families. Enrollment has grown in Medicare with the aging of the baby boomers and in Medicaid due to the recession. This means that total government spending has increased considerably, straining federal and state budgets. In total, health spending accounted for 17.9% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2010." This is troubling as it is showing how the industry is facing major challenges associated with rising costs and demand. ("U.S. Health Care Costs," 2011) (Lorenzi, 2005)
These areas were selected because they are having an impact on consumers, government programs, insurance companies, professionals and health organizations. If left unchecked, this problem will have an adverse impact on quality, choices and the delivery of solutions. To fully understand what taking place there will be a focus on how strategic planning, performance improvement and information systems are related. This will be accomplished by looking at the problem and different sources on the subject. Together, these elements will provide specific insights as to the most effective approach for addressing these challenges. (Lorenzi, 2005)
Statement of the Issue to be investigated
The issues impacting the sector are problematic. This is because they are slowly making health care less affordable for everyone. In many cases, this occurs with patients having to pay for a larger amount of the services they are using and higher health insurance premiums. To make matters worse, the federal government and states are implementing major cutbacks to programs such as: Medicare and Medicaid. This is from these entities having fiscal problems attributed to the lingering recession and higher costs for health care. ("Medicaid," 2012) (Seefelt, 2012) (Wagner, 2009)
If some kind of changes are not introduced the number of uninsured will increase exponentially. While at the same time, those individuals who are using Medicare, Medicaid or private insurance will not have access to the services they need (at affordable prices). When this happens, there is a realistic possibility that the majority of the population will be priced out of the health care system. This will cause costs to increase further by not dealing with the medical issues early through preventive medicine. However, larger numbers of people will die every year, because they cannot afford these services and ignore their health issues until it is too late. This will affect quality, costs and the availability of treatment options ("Medicaid," 2012) (Seefelt, 2012) (Wagner, 2009)
Research Sources
According to Seefelt (2012), the current economic challenges are having an adverse impact on the poor, elderly, middle class and upper middle class. This is because of: the recession, its lingering effects and the inability to have access to health care are destroying the standard of living for tens of millions of Americans. To determine this, the study focused on looking at different research that was conducted and government figures. This was accomplished by examining hundreds of documents. What the findings determined, is that the current challenges will adversely affect large segments of the population including: increasing the number of uninsured, reducing the benefits provided to many government programs (based on budgetary concerns) and more people not seeking out treatment due to the lack of financial resources. (Seefelt, 2012)
These issues are showing how this will have an impact on large segments of the population. From a legal prospective, everyone has a right to health care. However, if they cannot afford the fees, these services will not be provided. Ethically speaking, the fact that there are such challenges is troubling. This is because a large number of people are priced out of the system. When...
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