Essay Sample on Quality Healthcare and Patient Safety

Introduction

Healthcare quality is a measure of assessing the manner in which services of health care result in outcomes that are beneficial to people. Individuals benefit by being healthy at all times, or if there are those that fall sick, the outcome of treatment measures is that they heal within the shortest time. When looking at the iron triangle of healthcare, quality care is one of the core aspects that help in understanding the present connections between the cost of healthcare, quality, and the ease of access to healthcare. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the main domains that are used when gauging quality care include patient safety, efficiency, focus on the patient, effectiveness, timely, and equality (Unruh & Hofler, 2016).

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On the other hand, patient safety refers to the procedures that include preventing, diagnosing, reporting, reducing, and the analysis of health situations that would lead to having a reduced number of people suffering from health effects that are adverse. The concern of patient safety came to be in the early 1990s when many nations reported an increase in the number of individuals who died from the fact that medical practitioners made errors that would have otherwise been avoided (Unruh & Hofler, 2016).

The nurse is the medical practitioner that spends the most time with patients, thereby making them have a greater role when it comes to ensuring patient safety and healthcare that is of the highest quality. First and foremost, the vigilance of the nurse would go a long way into ensuring that there are very few cases of medical errors during the treatment process. However, achieving this requires that they are allocated patients based on the recommended ratio. Secondly, studies indicate that highly educated nurses improve the safety of patients, considering that they are keen on the reduction of errors, while at the same time ensuring that the health services offered are of high qualities (Unruh & Hofler, 2016). Lack of resilience and proper education is one of the major reasons as to why there is no safety and quality care in hospitals.

Poor Health Outcomes with Medicaid

Medicaid is a healthcare program that was implemented with the main aim of ensuring that the low-income earners had a chance of receiving treatment that they would otherwise not afford. According to the Health Insurance Association of America, it is an insurance cover by the government that has the major aim of enabling all and any individual who lacks the ability to pay for simple medical services receives the same with ease. By the end of the year 2017, more than 70 million Americans were covered under the program, a clear indication of how many persons cannot afford healthcare in the country (Smith, Hampton & Brandon, 2018).

While some have pointed out the success of the project, most studies are indicative of the fact that many individuals have suffered more than getting the best from Medicaid. From the research cases, revelations state that the program is very expensive, yet the services offered from the same are of very poor quality. The fact that the provider payment rates are very low, many people are coerced into visiting emergency rooms of hospitals, even when it is clear that they lack issues that require emergency treatment (Smith, Hampton & Brandon, 2018). Most patients under the care receive poor treatment as most of those who offer the services are less-skilled.

In addition to that, the main objective with which the program was started has eroded over time. The reason behind this is that while it was introduced to cater for the medical needs of the poor, many of those who get the best treatment from the same are people who can cater for their medical needs. Therefore, the poor are left to overcrowd in emergency rooms where they receive substandard treatment, hence the poor health outcomes (Smith, Hampton & Brandon, 2018).

References

Smith, G., Hampton, C., & Brandon, W. (2018). Physicians, Physician Extenders and Health Outcomes: Race, Gender and Patient-Health Provider Concordance in North Carolina Medicaid. Journal Of Health Care For The Poor And Underserved, 29(1), 530-555. doi: 10.1353/hpu.2018.0035

Unruh, L., & Hofler, R. (2016). Predictors of Gaps in Patient Safety and Quality in U.S. Hospitals. Health Services Research, 51(6), 2258-2281. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12468