Intermountain Healthcare: a modern healthcare ecosystem
Intermountain Healthcare, Headquartered in Salt lake City, Utah, was founded in April 1975, when the Church of Jesus Crist of Later-day Saints donated all of its hospitals to the community. IHC is a nonprofit organization. It is an example of an integrated delivery system, spanning the continuum of care. IHC is comprised of three divisions, hospitals & clinics, physicians, and health plans. It operates 22 hospitals, 185 Clinics. Its physician group includes over 1,000 doctors and its health plans insure approximately 600,000 people in the region (Intermountain Healthcare [IHC], n.d., para. 2).
In this essay, I will review key factors that shape how Intermountain Healthcare operates and delivers healthcare. These Factors include:
• The effect of rising healthcare costs on delivery of services.
• Comparing how IHC's core ideals translate into actions.
• Initiatives that continually improve quality.
• The use of informatics to improve patient outcomes.
• Responses to emerging healthcare trends.
Since 1985, the rapid rise of healthcare costs has had a ripple effect on the healthcare industry. Most of the cost increases are associated with medicines rapid advancement. Like most technological advancements, the newest treatments and most advanced diagnostic machinery have a higher cost. Understandably, patients expect the most advanced and effective treatments to be utilized for their care. The effects of rising healthcare costs are illustrated in the diagram below (Intermountain Healthcare [IHC], n.d.).
IHC has worked diligently to contain costs while improving the quality of the healthcare delivered. A report prepared by The Dartmouth Institute found that IHC ha...
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Minimizing or completely ridding the United States healthcare system of the administrative waste is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to waste in healthcare spending. The good news is that this is a problem that more and more people are becoming aware of, so forward-thinking practitioners and health advocates are already proposing solutions. Once the changes begin to gain some traction and savings start to show, we will likely see greater patient satisfaction and lower insurance premiums, which will create a trickle-down effect benefiting anyone who does business in the healthcare industry, from the patient to the insurance companies.
For the last five years of my life I have worked in the healthcare industry. One of the biggest issues plaguing our nation today has been the ever rising cost of health care. If we don't get costs under control, we risk losing the entire system, as well as potentially crippling our economy. For the sake of our future, we must find a way to lower the cost of health care in this nation.
Ghosh, C. (2013). Affordable Care Act: Strategies to Tame the Future. Physician Executive, 39(6), 68-70.
When one examines managed health care and the hospitals that provide the care, a degree of variation is found in the treatment and care of their patients. This variation can be between hospitals or even between physicians within a health care network. For managed care companies the variation may be beneficial. This may provide them with opportunities to save money when it comes to paying for their policy holder’s care, however this large variation may also be detrimental to the insurance company. This would fall into the category of management of utilization, if hospitals and managed care organizations can control treatment utilization, they can control premium costs for both themselves and their customers (Rodwin 1996). If health care organizations can implement prevention as a way to warrant good health with their consumers, insurance companies can also illuminate unnecessary health care. These are just a few examples of how the health care industry can help benefit their patients, but that does not mean every issue involving physician over utilization or quality of care is erased because there is a management mechanism set in place.
Based on the case study provided: Hospital A, Porter Regional Medical Centre (Hosp. A) & Hospital B Banner Regional Medical Centre and Turner Geriatric Centre (Hosp. B) merged to form a consolidated entity named “Portsmith Regional Medical Centre” (PRMC). Both Hospital A and B were fully accredited hospital, with “state-of- art diagnostic technology” which included MRI and CAT scanners, 24-hour physician staffed emergency centers. Both Hospital A and Hospital B are located in a small community of 60,000 people in southeastern part of Idaho.
Reese, Philip. Public Agenda Foundation. The Health Care Crisis: Containing Costs, Expanding Coverage. New York: McGraw, 2002.
In order to make ones’ health care coverage more affordable, the nation needs to address the continually increasing medical care costs. Approximately more than one-sixth of the United States economy is devoted to health care spending, such as: soaring prices for medical services, costly prescription drugs, newly advanced medical technology, and even unhealthy lifestyles. Our system is spending approximately $2.7 trillion annually on health care. According to experts, it is estimated that approximately 20%-30% of that spending (approx. $800 billion a year) appears to go towards wasteful, redundant, or even inefficient care.
As I began watching Reinventing Healthcare-A Fred Friendly Seminar (2008), I thought to myself, “man, things have changed since 2008.” And as the discussion progressed, I started to become irritated by how little had changed. The issues discussed were far-reaching, and the necessity for urgent change was a repeated theme. And yet, eight years later, health care has made changes, but many of its crucial problems still exist.
The U.S. expends far more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we get fewer benefits, less than ideal health outcomes, and a lot of dissatisfaction manifested by unequal access, the significant numbers of uninsured and underinsured Americans, uneven quality, and unconstrained wastes. The financing of healthcare is also complicated, as there is no single payer system and payment schemes vary across payors and providers.
reimbursement determinations. As a result, the camaraderie among physicians has developed into a more aggressive approach to impede competition (Shi & Singh, 2012). Little information is shared with patients in regards to procedures or disease control. The subjects are forced to rely on the internet for enlightenment on the scope of their illnesses (Shi & Singh, 2012). Furthermore, the U.S. health care system fails to provide adequate knowledge on billing strategies for operations and other medical practices. The cost in a free system is based on supply and demand and is known in advance of hospital admission (Shi & Singh, 2012). The need for new technology is another characteristic that is of interest when considering the health care system. Technology is often v...
There is no doubt that health care costs are rising out of control. Look again at the information presented in this paper. It should make sense of things.
There are three issues when it comes to the health care cost rising. The first is the rising cost in prescription drugs. The second area of rising cost is the increased technologies when it comes to the medical industry. The third problem is the aging population. Prescription drugs are the area of the fastest growing health care expense, and it is projected to grow at 20 to 30 percent each year over the next several years. There are many newer, more expensive drugs on the market, and the use of these prescriptions is exploding. In addition, with so much television advertising, many consumers ask their doctors for expensive, brand name drugs when there may actually be a generic drug that works just as well.
Reforming the health care delivery system to progress the quality and value of care is indispensable to addressing the ever-increasing costs, poor quality, and increasing numbers of Americans without health insurance coverage. What is more, reforms should improve access to the right care at the right time in the right setting. They should keep people healthy and prevent common, preventable impediments of illnesses to the greatest extent possible. Thoughtfully assembled reforms would support greater access to health-improving care, in contrast to the current system, which encourages more tests, procedures, and treatments that are either
...d about the economic nature of new technologies, Dr. Slez emphasized that “costs almost always increase with new equipment”. When deciding whether or not to adopt a new technology, Dr. Slez cited cost of implementation, industry standard, and efficacy relevant to the current market as his primary considerations. “If a treatment costs more but is no more effective, we won’t adopt it” he continued. Technology, as with all other aspects of the firm, must be consistent with that firm’s goals; excellent care at an affordable cost.
The cost of US health care has been steadily increasing for many years causing many Americans to face difficult choices between health care and other priorities in their lives. Health economists are bringing to light the tradeoffs which must be considered in every healthcare decision (Getzen, 2013, p. 427). Therefore, efforts must be made to incite change which constrains the cost of health care without creating adverse health consequences. As the medical field becomes more business oriented, there will be more of a shift in focus toward the costs and benefits, which will make medicine more like the rest of the economy (Getzen, 2013, p. 439).