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Cost containment in health care, research
Conclusion of reducing health care costs
Importance of accountability in healthcare
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Recommended: Cost containment in health care, research
Introduction
Healthcare is under scrutiny to find cost reductions or cost containment. Available healthcare dollars are diminishing with an increased aging population and costs continually on the rise there is a need for healthcare institutions to become more accountable in how the dollars are spent. Canadian healthcare is 11.2% of gross domestic product in 2013 (Information, 2013)Pressure exists to maintain current service levels with decreasing budget dollars year after year. Healthcare institutions (administration and sometimes physicians) spend a substantial amount of time and energy yearly cutting dollars from existing budgets in order to provide a balanced budget. Savings come in the form of salaries (jobs), supply savings, and amount of services available to those in need. The need exists in the surgical environment to provide more thoughtful and meaningful savings by engaging physicians and nursing staff to assist in cost containment. The heart of the matter is the need to determine how to knowledge share cost information and engage clinical individuals in cost reduction or cost containment.
Literature Review
Cost containment or reduction opportunities are identified in various articles; going green (Taheri MD, Butz PhD, Griffes MHA, Morlock MBA, & Greenfield MD, 2000) (Wormer MD, et al., 2013), standardizing equipment (Brita-Rossi MS, et al., 1996), lean process (Collar MD, et al., 2012) (Aronsson & Abrahamsson, 2011), standardizing preference cards (Rappold, Van Roo, Di Martinelly, & Riane, 2011), and consignment of inventory (Brinkman, Seipel, & Juers, 2001)The above articles identify strategies that organizations can implement onetime cost containment, however do not address the factor of knowledge sharing. Research li...
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...n Impact on the Total Cost of Care. Annals of Surgery, 231(3), 432-435. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1421015/
Varkey, P., Murad, M. H., Braun, C., Grall, K. J., & Saoji, V. (2010, July 3). A review of cost-effectiveness, cost-containment and economics curricula in graduate medical education. Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, 16(6), 1055-1062. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2753.2009.01249.x
Wormer MD, B. A., Augenstien MD, V. A., Carpenter MHA, C. L., Burton BS, P. V., Yokeley BS, W. T., Prabhu MD, A. S., . . . Heniford MD, B. T. (2013, July). The Green Operating Room: Simple Changes to Reduce Cost and Our Carbon Footprint. The American Surgeon, 79(7), 666-671. Retrieved April 11, 2014, from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=uid&db=mnh&AN=23815997&site=eds-live&authtype=uid&user=ucw&password=ebsco
It is generally accepted that the method of payment to physicians affect their professional attitude and behaviour. Consequently, health policy makers manipulate payment system in an attempt to achieve optimal health care for their citizens such as improve accessibility, quality of care, patient’s satisfaction and cost containment. In Ontario, there are a wide range of mechanisms that are used to pay physicians for their services that are funded by both federal and provincial government. According to Canada Health Act annual report (2013), the majority of primary healthcare physicians are funded using the fee for service payment arrangement but of that majority, only less than 30% are compensated exclusively according the fee for service plan. The remaining physicians are funded using one of the following mixed compensation models:
Review, T. R. (2017, September 01). A Debate Over the Use of Cost-Benefit Analysis. Retrieved October 25, 2017, from
Smeltzer, S., Bare, B., Farrell, M., & Dempsey, J. (2011). Smeltzer & Bare's Textbook of Medical-Surgical Nursing (2nd Australian and New Zealand edition ed. Vol. 1): Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Pty Ltd.
Elective surgery average waiting times increased from 2011-12 to 2012-13, from 33 days to 36 days respectively. In 2012-13, wait times ranged from an average of 27 Days in Queensland hospitals and 51 days in hospitals located in the ACT (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2013, p. 13-15). With the looming pressure of decreasing tax revenue and heavy reliance on government funding; implementation of activity based funding may result in cost savings for the government, however hospitals will be short-changed if costs cannot be accurately analysed.
The purpose of this case study is to hypothetically conduct a complete project analysis on the ambulatory surgery center and to present my findings and recommendations.
Like Porter suggested I do agree that many efforts to reduce the health care costs are ineffective because organizations don’t know how to measure the cost properly. The organizations confuse cost with how much they get paid, they add up the costs around departments, not around a patient. Like Porter said they allocate the costs improperly with all kinds of bias. The insurance companies and the governments reimburse for procedures performed but not based on the outcome achieved.
HCUP provides reliable comprehensive information for hospital, clinics and research organization (HCUP, 2015). These facilities can use the data that HCUP have collected to answer question they have about the use of healthcare, access, outcomes, and the cost that is related the hospital inpatient stay, emergency department visit and ambulatory surgery and services. They are several reports that HCUP produce to help aid the medical facilities. The HCUP statistical briefs reports is a short report that focuses on topics associated to hospital use and cost for specific conditions or populations (HCUP, 2015). For example it reports medical condition treated and procedures performed in the hospital, and quality of care. The projection report uses longitudinal HCUP data to project national and regional estimates on healthcare priorities (HCUP, 2015). “HCUP methods series reports address methodological issues regarding use of HCUP databases, software tools and supplemental files” (HCUP,
...d procedures are now being monitored to improve clinical processes. Ensuring that these processes are implemented in a timely, effective manner can also improve the quality of care given to patients. Management of the processes ensures accountability of the effectiveness of care, which, as mentioned earlier, improves outcomes. Lastly, providing reimbursements based on the quality of care and not the quantity also decreases the “wasting” and overuse of supplies. Providers previously felt the need to do more than necessary to meet a certain quota based on a quantity of supplies or other interventions used. Changing this goal can significantly decrease the cost of care due to using on the supplies necessary to provide effective, high-quality care. I look forward to this implementation of change and hope to see others encouraging an increase in high-quality healthcare.
Controlling the cost of medical care is an essential element of health care reform. Without adequate cost control measures, ensuring widespread access to care may become unsustainable. Cost containment approaches should not compromise value in health care; however, cost containment efforts should focus on reducing redundancy and waste, improved care management, and improved delivery of excellent value in health care. According to Jessup (2012), containing the costs of care can be useful to government, employer, and household budgets, but it may have a detrimental impact on innovation since health care costs are the main source of revenue for medical innovators. One of the health care treatment that is controversial and is costly is the patient
Introduction Cost-effectiveness analysis (CEA) is a form of economic analysis that compares the relative costs and outcomes/effects of two or more scenarios. The CEA is typically expressed as a ratio, where the denominator is a gain in health using a natural unit of measurement (years of life, cases of flu prevented, etc.). and the numerator is the cost associated with that health gain. Most clinical studies express gains in health in terms of disease-specific measures, such as number of heart attacks avoided or cases of influenza prevented. Although this is useful for particular treatments related to those health conditions, those measures do not allow for comparison across diseases.
The way in which physicians and other health care providers are compensated is not beneficial to the patients. The fee-for service method of payment, which according to Kongstevedt is one of the main forms of reimbursement in HMO’s, is more focused on quantity as opposed to quality and volume over value. In the fee-for service method payments are made per service, without considering if the treatment, referral, or prescription is effective. There is no limit on how services are prescribed to patients and so many services may not have been necessary in the first place. Many patients choose to do surgery when other less invasive procedures would have been equally if not more effective. The Florida Times Union states
Health care cost continues to rise at an unsustainable rate. Finding ways to contain cost and to optimize our current resources is a top priority. The surgical arena is one place that can generate revenue and at the same time be a drain on the system. Surgeries that occur within the hospital can be a financial benefit, if everything goes well.
In general, medical errors are expensive, with post-operative complications “accounting for 35 percent of costs for medical errors and 39 percent of costs for preventable medical errors” (Andel, et al., 2012, pg.). Data gathered by Andel et al. (2012) have yielded that 1.5 million medical injuries out of 6.3 million were preventable if “better polices and practices were followed” (pg. 4). Imagine how much money an HCO could save if healthcare providers were simply “more careful” when collecting history, diagnosing, administering medication, and treating patients. Andel et al. (2012) mentions that the result of such practices would quantify to more than 19 billion of opportunity savings (pg.
When a patient comes to the hospital for a surgical procedure, he or she expects the surgery to be completed successfully with little or no complication. However, healthcare associated
New developments have changed the way health care operates. The government is buying the concept of effective economies of scale much more fervently because Medicaid has drastically increased the area of individuals under the mandatory insurance. Therefore, paying for the actual performance of diagnosis and treatment rather than the service of medical procedures has gained prominence in the place of thorough, but often unnecessary medical procedures. The discussion highlights the problem then goes on to a propose logic model to address the issue. Cost is one of the main barriers to health care in America. The discussion focusses on how to make the processes of health care more cost-effective without increasing premiums or compromising on quality.