Article Review on ACO and Populations Health Management

The government is promoting Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) which will b financially accountable for delivering efficient and quality healthcare to the masses in a shift away from the conventional healthcare facilities that were mainly volume-based. The new form of population health management requires that all people in the country's population to be attended in ACOs for both the preventive and curative healthcare irrespective of whether the patient is sick or not. Healthcare organizations that will want to form or join other ACOs need to make the transition to population health management (Hodach, 2011). Instead of only availing preventive and chronic healthcare services to patients with acute health issues, the ACOs will now be tasked with tracking and monitoring the health status of an entire population. This will be a necessary part of their adjustment so that they can be able to provide quality and inexpensive healthcare in a financially accountable manner.

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The article identifies various challenges whose failure to address is likely to result into stifling bottlenecks for the ACOs. The current electronic health records (EHR) system operates at full capacity and more will require to be done to accommodate the additional number of prospective and existing patients. The healthcare facilities will also need to encompass the increased number of patients that will include people with minor ailments in a preventive approach to quality living. In addition, the number of chronically ill patients with acute problems will also shoot up necessitating increased attention from the few number of physicians available (Hodach, 2011). There is also likely to be a shortage of staff due to the increased duration of working shifts and the high influx of patients to the ACOs.

The author offers some possible solutions that will help the traditional healthcare facilities to successful transition into cost-effective and quality ACOs. The new ACOs will have to undergo a re-engineering process where they will be required to increase their patient capacity without compromising on the quality of healthcare provided. There will be more work added to the healthcare personnel, especially the already overburdened physicians who will have to take up additional responsibility and share some of their duties of caring for patients with other members of the ACOs team (Hodach, 2011). Healthcare entities must also embrace a shift in culture by providing patient-centered care. This will mean more working hours for the staff who will engage in increased scheduling, patient appointments, and requests for more refills. The increased workload will call for new approaches to providing healthcare to the entire population.

There is plenty pf evidence in this article to show that it is closely tied to the functions of human resources management (HRM). This is especially the case considering the demanding staff requirements and management within the new set up of ACOs. All of these initiatives will require changes in staffing, staff roles, and clinician workflow and scheduling (Hodach, 2011). The very concept of the care team will be difficult for some doctors to accept because they're used to thinking of themselves as the providers and the rest of the team as support staff. That attitude has to change because of all the additional functions that will be required by population health management. Medical assistants may take more of a patient's history, allowing doctors to spend extra time working with patients to fill their care gaps (Hodach, 2011). Nurses may triage care-related calls directly, freeing up receptionists to spend more time on patient referrals and follow-up.

References

Hodach, R. (2011). ACOs and population health management: How physician practices must change to effectively manage patient populations. American Medical Group Association, Phytel Inc.