...health care you must start to understand it from its core. The mismanagement of health care has resulted to long wait times and made it the biggest political issue facing Canadian health care (Rachlis, 2005). Wait times in Canada has become a major issue in the health care system and a major set back in providing good quality health services to Canadians. Along with addressing the issues of wait times I will also include the problems of packed emergency rooms, what exactly these wait times are and how it can improve. When ill or in pain, there is nothing more frightening or frustrating than having to wait for treatment. Many Canadian face long wait times for health services such as waiting to see a specialist, having a transplant or simply getting a check up at their local doctor office. Wait times in the Canadian health care system has become a problem for Canadians, despite polices which states equal access to health care, this is not true. It was stated that there is two types of wait times, surgery, MRI, CT wait times and emergency room (ER) wait times (Service Ontario, 2008). Patients suffering from cancer, double transplants for example all end up all getting wait listed and not being able to get the treatment they need right away. It has been reported by CBC that wait times for referral to a...
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...these changes. Simply put, access in the health care sector refers to the ability for a patient to receive the care and services required to maintain a healthy quality of life. Access to health care services continues to be a key issue for Canadians and health policy makers.1,2 Key issues exist in several dimensions of the health care process, including access to a specialist, non-emergency surgery and non-emergency diagnostic testing. More specifically, it is the significant amount of time one will spend waiting for their opportunity to receive these services that remains a concern. Among those who had waited for specialist visits, 29% reported unacceptable waits. This was also true for 17% of patients who were waiting for a non-emergency surgery and 20% for those waiting for diagnostic testing.3 Median waiting times for all specialized services remained relatively stable between 2003 and 2005 at 3 to 4 weeks, depending on the kind of care. Approximately 18% of individuals who visited a specialist indicated that waiting for the visit affected their life, compared with 11% and 12% for non-emergency surgery and diagnostic tests respectively.4 Despite several efforts made by government agencies, access still remains one of the foremost issues identified. Billions of dollars have been invested to solve this chronic issue, unfortunately several obstacles still remain impeding significant progress to solve accessibility issues in the Canadian health care system. Policy...
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...ID#110204 PUBLISHED ON MAY 20, 2014 Emergency Department Congestion at Saintemarie University Hospital BY LAURENT HUBLET * , OMAR BESBES † , AND CARRI CHAN ‡ Introduction In late 2009, Marc Dupont, CEO of Saintemarie University Hospital, had just ended an extremely tense phone conversation with the state secretary of health. The secretary was very concerned about the wait time in the hospital’s emergency department (ED). The recent coverage of these problems in the local press, which repeatedly echoed complaints of patients and their families, was making things worse: It took them 18 hours to take care of my mother when she was admitted to the emergency department in the Saintemarie University Hospital — Saintemarie Tribune (March 2009) On September 8, Nancy (86 years old) had to wait eight hours in the ED with a broken leg before seeing a doctor — Saintemarie Tribune (September 2009) Saintemarie was a midsize European city with a population of 512,000. A few private clinics in the area provided urgent care (i.e., treatment which does not require hospitalization), but were unable to handle acute emergencies. The hospital’s ED was the only emergency care unit available in the Saintemarie metropolitan area. The only alternative to it was a hospital located 50 miles away; patients had to be transferred there by helicopter, which happened rarely because such transfers were extremely expensive. Given its central role, Saintemarie University Hospital was under...
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...PHYSICAL FACILITIES OF ICU: Physical facilities can be classified as: * Patient Area. * Auxilary Area. * Entrance to the ICU. * Ancillary Area. 1.ENTRANCE TO THE ICU: 2.PATIENT CARE AREA: 3.AUXILLARY AREA: 4.ANCILLARY AREA: LEVELS OF ICU: There are five different types and levels of ICU defined according to three main criteria: the nature of the facility, the care process and the clinical standards and staffing requirements. All levels and types of ICU must be separate and self-contained facilities in hospitals and.The five types of ICU are briefly described below: * Adult intensive care unit, level 3: must be capable of providing complex, multisystem life support for an indefinite period; be a tertiary referral centre for patients in need of intensive care services and have extensive backup laboratory and clinical service facilities to support the tertiary referral role. It must be capable of providing mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal renal support services and invasive cardiovascular monitoring for an indefinite period; or care of a similar nature. * Adult intensive care unit, level 2: must be capable of providing complex, multisystem life support and be capable of providing mechanical ventilation, extracorporeal renal support services and invasive cardiovascular monitoring for a period of at least several days, or for longer periods in remote areas or care of a similar nature (see ACHS guidelines). * Adult intensive...
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...Solutions to Prescription Drug Crisis HCS/440 Solutions to Prescription Drug Crisis Solution to Prescription Drug Crisis Health care classifies as the third most important thing on the mind of registered votes. The U. S. health care system is a mess. Health care costs are surpassing the wages and of most Americans. Millions of Americans do not have insurance. Most of the others are under insured. We have a superior health care system even though our health care system spending is not buying us superior health. The increasing cost also does not insure better health care. Our health care system are is forcing millions of Americans into a lifetime of debt and financial worries. Throughout the years many plans have been presented to Americans as a solution to this economic issue. The most recent and possibly most controversial was the plan submitted by our current president. President Barack Obama and Vice President John McCain presented a plan to reform health care in order to provide Americans affordable health care. This plan stresses prevention, while not only controlling costs, but maintaining individuals' choice of doctors and plans. Obama's health care plan is expected to create an agency to regulate the private insurance market. The consumers will choose to buy private insurance through the agency or the federal government. This plan will force providers to provide coverage to people with existing conditions. Obama care will also expect certain businesses to provide...
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...It was a warm sunny day and I was in the backyard playing on my homemade wooden swing-set. My stepfather was a general contractor, so he built me and my younger sister a new swing-set. The slide was made out of copper and it had wood as the rails. As I was sliding down it my leg got to close to the side of the rail and I got a huge splinter in the side of my leg. I was crying very loudly because it hurt so bad, my mom heard me so she ran out there to see what had happened. I had to go to the emergency room to get the splinter removed so it wouldn’t get infected. I knew right then at that very moment that I wanted to be a nurse. Here are a couple things that I found to be interesting about nursing. Did you know that Jan 27th is school nurse day? Or did you know that in 1783 a black slave named James Derham worked as a nurse in New Orleans, eventually earning enough money to buy his freedom and move to Philadelphia, where he studied medicine and became a doctor? And I also bet that you didn’t know that the largest demand for Licensed Practical Nurses through 2110 will be in nursing homes? Or that the 4th week of May is National Nurses week, which is coming up pretty soon. And May 8th is national Student Nurses’ day (Start a nurse staffing agency). Well I didn’t know any of that either until I started my paper on my nursing career. In December 2010 I finished my schooling for a Licensed Practical Nurse at the JCTC Campus in the accelerated program. I chose to start...
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...University: UNV 515 December 16, 2015 Multidisciplinary Teams In Health Care Hospitals are integrating a variation of team-based health care delivery concepts for staff working in intensive care units, emergency rooms, and operating rooms. Team-based health care delivery often referred to as multidisciplinary teams, improve communication between different levels of healthcare workers. According to Epstein (2014), multidisciplinary teams are responsible for improvements in patient outcomes, improved patient and employee satisfaction, and most importantly a decrease in adverse events (AE). Case Description Peter, a 24 year-old male involved in a traffic collision has suffered internal bleeding due to liver trauma and is in need of a surgery and a blood transfusion. Past medical history includes asthma, diabetes, and a significant drinking problem that started at a very young age. It is important to note that the patient is a Jehovah’s Witness and his mother raised him without a father figure. Health Care Delivery Team The multidisciplinary team delivering care to the patient include: the paramedics that arrived at the scene of the accident, extracted the patient from the car, and transported the patient to the emergency department, the registered respiratory therapist that assisted in intubating the patient and was appointed to make sure the patient had ample respirations, the bedside registered nurse that was assigned to make sure the patient...
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...months. It is estimated that the primary care shortage will be as high as 45,000 to few PCPs (primary care providers) by 2020. Colleges that offer these programs are buffering their previous student numbers with additional seats to cover the influx into the profession. The medical doctor training is also expected to decrease by 30 percent (Reisman, 2013). Additionally, states that did not once allow independent working conditions for nurse practitioners are reassessing their decisions due to the already existing shortage of primary care physicians. Gardner (2013) revealed that some states have been resistant also to PAs prescribing narcotics, and this too is on the table for reassessment. Overall, the article presented how the current healthcare system is gearing up to be able to provide care for the millions that will soon be seeking medical attention and maintenance outside of the emergency room setting. At this writing, 18 states allow independent action from APRNs and 32 require physician supervision to some extent. Reisman states, “Primary care is not an easy field to master; the breadth and depth of knowledge is vast, unlike the narrower world of the shoulder specialist who only sees patients with shoulder problems (2013).” This dilemma causes some to question whether some form of interdisciplinary collaboration is not a better answer for the shortage. An article by Peck (2013) that discusses the current critical shortage to primary care started by stating that 28 counties...
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...Primary Care Practices: Their Nature and Importance for the Future of Healthcare Bryan White MGMT 5530 Physician Practice Management November 2015 Abstract The practice of medicine has seen a lot of changes in the last century. In the 1960s, more change was happening than the Cultural Revolution in the United States. Specialized medicine was starting to take shape, altering the size and scope of general practice. From this, there have been unintended consequences to how primary care is practiced. While congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2010 to reform healthcare, it was more concerned about tackling health insurance and did little to address the issues facing primary care. This piece is designed to give the reader a look into how the general practice of health care has changed over time, the challenges it still faces, and the resources that could provide the solutions. Main Composition Throughout history, mankind has made leaps and bounds to advance the practice of medicine. Many of these improvements have happened within the last century. When it comes to the practice of generalized medicine, these advances have altered its shape size, scope, and structure. In the United States, there have been some consequences to these changes in primary care that, if the right adjustments or corrections are not made, could be detrimental to healthcare delivery. General Medicine in the Past It would be best to begin with just how the general...
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...excess capacity. Our project aimed at improving the patient experience in the critical care by looking into the problem of excessive wait times in the Critical care and we will identified variations in the critical care and how it is staffed and managed. Although these variations have the potential to sabotage efforts to reduce surgical wait times within the hospital, they also present significant opportunities for change and improvement. Method- This report describes how system dynamics using Stella model was used in the healthcare system in critical care units in Santa Clara Valley (SCV), California. Based on the data analysis, a 'conceptual model' of the system was developed, showing different stages of potential patients in the ER (emergency...
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...The Cleveland Clinic stays true to the mission and values of its organization with medical innovation. One of the top ten medical innovations introduced by the Clinic is a Mobile Stroke Unit. Using Telemedicine and partnering with Cleveland EMS, the Cleveland Clinic has introduced a Mobile Stroke Unit, bringing the emergency room to the patient. If a person contacts EMS with a suspected stroke, the Clinic will deploy a unit that will connect them with the Emergency room through Telemedicine. Reducing the time between symptom and diagnosis is critical to stroke recovery. The Cleveland Clinic has researched modalities to reduce the time between a call to 911. Shared radio channels broadcast a 911 call throughout the city so that the closest EMS unit can be dispatched. When the unit is on site and a possible stroke diagnosis is made, the ambulance will transport the patient to the closest stroke...
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...Doctor Shortage Impacts Rural Areas Jean Larsen Senior Project Kristi Hund March 1, 2011 Abstract The United States is experiencing a substantial shortage of physicians, which is creating a severe supply and demand problem in America. Citizens living in rural areas should receive the same quality of care as those living in urban settings. Substantial differences exist in quality and access to health care for persons living in rural America. The shortage of physicians in rural America calls for immediate attention and change, as the inadequate supply of physicians is affecting the quality of patient care. The life expectancy of persons living in rural America is actually declining due to treatable conditions such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. These illnesses could be managed with proper medical treatment. This paper addresses these issues and recommends two solutions. Healthcare is in crisis in many countries, not least of which is the United States. We hear on the news how health care providers are unable to provide medical care to an increasing number of chronically ill and the aging population. There are a number of systemic failures, none is more difficult to correct than the basic lack of human resources. There are simply not enough physicians to service the needs of the population. The problem is intensified in rural areas, where specialized physicians may not be found within several hundred miles. The healthcare...
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...[PROBLEMS IN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENTS OF PAKISTAN] ADVISOR: MR OMAR AZIZ BABAR GROUP MEMBERS: ABSHAM MEHBOOB (08-0014) AGHA MUREED AHMAD (08-0636) HAMZA AHMED JALAL (08-0282) NABEEL ATIQ SYED (08-0141) SYED ALI HAIDER SHAH (08-0176) SUBMISSION DATE: 07-05-2012 This project is solely the work of the author and is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Bachelors of Business Administration EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Our FYP project is based on the issues in the emergency department of health sector of Pakistan on which we are conducting a research work. As we hear about the problems that occur in this department of health sector and the difficulties that people face we will be looking into the depth of these issues and try to highlight the key points that create such a situation. Our main objective is to find the gap between the perception and reality. We go about in our project first giving a brief introduction of the emergency department of health sector according to the secondary data that we collected. We also discussed the techniques, strategies and standard operational procedures i.e. SOP’s according to which emergencies should operate. Moreover we also discussed emergency ethics that are the first and foremost base to determine how the doctors are expected to behave with...
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...The NHS: One American’s Perspective Lynn Whitt MHA 776 Dr. Leist December 18, 2013 The National Health Service (NHS) of Great Britain was established in 1948 to create a national health system that would serve all citizens regardless of ability to pay. There were three main objectives established that were critical to the success of the program: (1) equal access to care, (2) provision of preventative and curative care, and (3) services provided at no cost to the patients (Perlman & Fried, 2012). Today, the NHS is still alive and well and is meeting the expectations of the original objectives set forth at its inception. Currently, the NHS is credited as being the single largest publically funded health care system in the world. In 2010, the Commonwealth Fund declared that “in comparison with the healthcare systems of six other countries (Australia, Canada, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and USA) the NHS was the second most impressive overall. The NHS was rated as the best system in terms of efficiency, effective care and cost-related problems. It was also ranked second for patient equality and safety” (Perlman & Fried, 2012). This paper will address the author’s impression of the NHS based on research and information collected and reviewed as well as discusses the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the program. As stated previously, the NHS is the world’s largest publically funded health care system. It employs approximately 1.7 million people...
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...hence hospitals represent the largest possible market opportunity for American Well. The advantages of tying up with hospitals is that it will be able to access a large number of patients in the waiting area through its Online kiosks, thereby decreasing the waiting time of a patient before he gets his first consultation. Also, patients themselves might be confused regarding the nature of their ailment and whether it requires a PCP or a specialist and other such doubts. These can more effectively be addressed by the online kiosks. The kiosk will also lead to better communication between patients and doctors. However, one serious drawback to this opportunity is the fact that hospitals might be apprehensive of losing out patients to American Well. Introducing online kiosks might encourage the patients to consult physicians online rather than visiting hospitals, or in some cases convince the patients that a physical examination by a doctor is not necessary. Thus the patients in the waiting area might never come back except for surgeries or emergencies. Hence it will be difficult to convince hospitals to install online kiosks in their premises. 2) Retail Clinics: The retail clinics are headed by Nursing Practitioners, who have approximately 600 million patient visits each year. Thus the market size represents a sizeable opportunity for American Well. Introducing online kiosks at retail centers could turn out to be a win-win situation for both American Well and retail clinics since...
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