Organizational Policies and Practices to Support Healthcare Issues

Providing standardization in daily operational activities is the purpose of healthcare organizational policies and practices (Velez et al., 2020). Policies are essential in providing clarity when dealing with healthcare issues and to improve organizational productivity and efficiency (Velez et al., 2020). Healthcare policies are used as a fundamental guideline in decision making and communicate the desired outcomes of an organization (Velez et al., 2020). Specific to the national healthcare issue of healthcare costs, determining achievable health policies to reduce the annual increase in health care expenditures is critical (Maddox et al., 2019).

Impact of Competing Needs on Policy Development

The challenge to maintain an effective, equitable, and efficient system of healthcare has caused organizations to shift to a more corporate model (Kelly & Porr, 2018). Unfortunately, with this shift in priorities, the emphasis no longer remains on patient outcomes; instead is focused primarily on cost outcomes (Kelly & Porr, 2018). Upgrading the use of electronic health records for the use of health information systems, is a policy development in technology, for financial and clinical gain (Chinitz, 2019). Policy development of substituting tasks and procedures traditionally performed by medical specialists, to ancillary staff, has been shown to lower expenditure (Stadhouders et al., 2019).

Policy development needs to be more focused on balancing finance and ethics (Chinitz, 2019). While the United States insists current healthcare policy implements patient centeredness, given the actual structure of healthcare organizations, it remains a mere aspiration (Chinitz, 2019). Current healthcare policy emphasizes individual’s improvement of their own care (Chinitz, 2019). However, this has been proven largely ineffective so far, which may substantiate taking stronger measures (Chinitz, 2019). Policies of implementing negative incentives to improve health behaviors is one suggestion of a stronger measure (Chinitz, 2019).

Impact of Competing Needs on Healthcare Costs

The high cost of United States healthcare is currently unsustainable and unaffordable (Stadhouders et al., 2019). In response to the tremendous impact created by the needs of these healthcare costs, organizations have been directed to improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare services through using limited resources more effectively (Kelly & Poor, 2018). Some examples of specific impacts of competing needs on healthcare costs include restructuring staff through cutting staffing levels, closing and merging hospitals, and reducing bed numbers (Kelly & Poor, 2018).

Other examples of competing needs on healthcare costs include initiating family assistance in patient care, in order to discharge acute patients rapidly, forcing them to recover at home (Kelly & Poor, 2018). Yet another example, as a cost-containment strategy to meet the demands of reduced funding, includes implementation of a ‘product-line’ management approach to patient care, which originates from the manufacturing industry (Kelly & Poor, 2018). Patients are treated as impersonal ‘products,’ being processed through machinery, with budget and cost-cutting at the forefront of this approach.

Policies Addressing Competing Needs of Healthcare Costs

Policies addressing competing needs of healthcare costs are addressed by business models of inflexible regulations and operating procedures (Kelly & Poor, 2018). For example, a prominent policy addressing competing needs of cost reduction is known as the Value Based competition in Health Care (VBHC) (Groenewoud et al., 2019). The philosophy and definition of ‘value’ in VBHC is ‘outcomes divided by costs,’ which is an entirely different conception of ‘value’ in health care ethics (Groenewoud et al., 2019). Serious infringements upon ethical principles may be caused, due to the singe-minded focus on VBHC (Groenewoud et al., 2019). For example, not paying attention to the intrinsic value of care giving is a clear violation of ethical principles, despite the ever-present refrain over the efficient allocation of scarce resources (Groenewoud et al., 2019).

Policy development has added significant responsibilities to the role of nurses to provide more affordable, patient-centered care (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Policies include the expectation of nurses to help reduce preventable medical errors and costly, unnecessary hospital readmissions (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). Other policies include expectations of nurses to manage caseloads of patients with intense care needs, help patients transition out of hospitals into the home or other settings, and coordinate care from multiple providers (Salmond & Echevarria, 2017). This form of policy development has left nurses with unreasonable workloads that can cause burnout.

Conclusion

In summary, organizational policies and practices are set in place as an essential factor to support critical healthcare issues. Unfortunately, competing needs, such as limited resources, patient needs, and workforce needs, has had a negative impact on policy development. Competing needs also has had a negative impact on policy development of the national issue of increased healthcare costs. Policy development needs to be refocused to address competing needs in a way that is not detrimental to patient care or staff safety and satisfaction.

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By Day 6 of Week 3