Monday, July 16, 2012

How does research affect health care? discussion


Post your thoughts on the following:
  • How has research affected Health Care Policy?
  • Please provide specific examples.
  • What research would be helpful in moving a policy initiative forward?
  • Is there research you have encountered in practice or your readings, in this course or in other courses, from which a policy initiative should be developed?
Much of the research into health care costs has focused on the financing of health care, and as a result most of its importance is better understood. There is little disagreement today with the propositions that providers respond to financial incentives, that open-ended payment of hospitals and physicians is inflationary, or that payment by third parties helps to increase health care costs.  One of the most dramatic outcomes of health policy research has been the development of DRG's and their adoption as the basis for Medicare hospital fees in the 1983 social security legislation. "The health reform legislation recently discussed by Congress would develop an infrastructure for the ongoing generation and dissemination of information on the comparative effectiveness of different health care treatments." (Docteur, 2010).  The Rand Corporation does innovative studies of health insurance, health care reform, women's health, as well as, other related topics.  They are a nonprofit company who does research and studies for the public as well as private entities.  They help to determine if things like payback, or incentives are appropriate.  Research that would be helpful in moving policy forward are things like understanding dangerous consumptions of things like alcohol, food addictions and other eating disorders. It would seem that eating disorders of all kinds are on the rise. The mental aspect of why people are obese is an area I would like to see more research on. We hear about what obesity does. We are now seeing a change by the FDA on lap band surgery to include those who are overweight, and have a problem, like sleep apnea instead of those who are morbidly obese. Has enough research been done to warrant the necessity of invasive surgery, albeit less invasive than gastric bypass?

References:
Docteur, E.,Berenson, R.,  (2010, Feb.). How will Comparative Effectiveness Research Affect the Quality                of Health Care? Retrieved from    http://www.rwjf.org/files/research/20100218qscomparativeeffectiveness.pdfhttp://www.rwjf.org/files/research/20100218qscomparativeeffectiveness.pdf
Rand Corporation, (2011, Apr.). Health and Health Care. Retrieved from                http://www.rand.org/topics/health-and-health-care.htmlhttp://www.rand.org/topics/health-and-health-care.html




Discussion 2:
As your final posting, identify at least two challenges facing the U.S. health care system that cause you the greatest concern. Discuss how you will impact these concerns through your professional activities.

The biggest challenges facing national health care is 1-improvement in health care quality and safety, 2-making health care cost effective, and 3-having an number of skilled professionals to deliver care.

1. The biggest challenge really is health wellness promotion. This would fall under the improvement in health care quality and safety.  

2. Patients should be listened to and their feelings about their care should be valued. A patient is the only one who has been with themselves all the time and should be considered an expert on themselves. To many times health care providers dismiss the patient.

3. A shortage of nurses has always been a challenge for many places, however now we have the potential with the new healthcare reform law to also have shortages of primary care doctors, as well as, other providers in health.
There are so many challenges facing our health care, you could potentially list and discuss a great deal more.

References:
Nursing Online Education database, (NOEdb), (2011). 5 Little-Known Giant Health Care Issues             Facing the United States.  Retrieved from http://noedb.org/library/features/5-little-      known-giant-health-care-issues-facing-the-united-states



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