Answer These Questions In A Short Paragraph By Answering Exp
Answer These Questions In A Short Paragraph By Answeringexplain All P
Dr. Ravi Aysola highlights a critical issue in healthcare by suggesting that there is often a gap between what healthcare providers are capable of doing and what they actually do that benefits patients. This disconnect means that while advanced medical procedures and treatments are available, they are not always employed in ways that improve patient outcomes or enhance overall care quality. This discrepancy can result from systemic barriers, lack of coordination, or unnecessary interventions that do not contribute to better health, ultimately leading to inefficiencies and suboptimal patient care.
Coordinated care refers to a systems approach in healthcare where services are carefully arranged around the patient’s needs, ensuring seamless communication among healthcare providers, specialists, and other caregivers. It promotes comprehensive management of patient health, especially for those with chronic conditions or multiple health issues. Unlike conventional care, which often involves fragmented services where patients may see different providers independently without effective communication, coordinated care emphasizes proactive planning, information sharing, and continuity of care that can reduce errors, prevent unnecessary tests, and improve health outcomes.
Shannon Brownlee emphasizes that a significant portion of medical errors, hospital-acquired infections, and unnecessary interventions contribute heavily to the risks patients face during healthcare encounters. Brownlee points out that errors during interactions—such as misdiagnoses or medication mistakes—constitute a major component of medical harm. She also highlights that hospital-acquired infections are a pervasive problem, often preventable with better adherence to safety protocols. These issues collectively make healthcare more dangerous and costly, underscoring the need for systemic reform to prioritize safety, quality, and effective use of resources in medicine.
Dr. Elliot Father concludes that approximately 30% of US healthcare spending—roughly $800 million—is devoted to unnecessary services. The United States spends more on medical care than any other developed country due to several factors, including high administrative costs, defensive medicine practices, higher prices for services and pharmaceuticals, and a fee-for-service payment model that incentivizes volume over value. Additionally, the fragmented nature of the US healthcare system, lack of universal coverage, and relatively limited focus on preventive care contribute to higher expenditures relative to other nations that emphasize primary care and cost containment strategies.
Paper For Above instruction
The statement by Dr. Ravi Aysola that there exists a disconnect between what healthcare providers can do and what they actually do that benefits patients is a profound reflection on the inefficiencies in the current healthcare system. This dissonance stems from a combination of systemic barriers, including administrative complexity, financial incentives that prioritize volume over value, and a lack of integrated care coordination. While medical technology and treatments have advanced tremendously, these innovations are not always translated into improved patient outcomes due to inertia, misaligned incentives, or fragmented care pathways. As a result, patients often receive unnecessary procedures, experience delays in receiving appropriate care, or are subjected to interventions that do not enhance their health, thereby wasting resources and potentially exposing them to harm. Addressing this gap requires structural reforms that align medical practices with evidence-based, patient-centered approaches to maximize the benefits of available medical capabilities and ensure more effective health outcomes.
Coordinated care is pivotal in transforming healthcare delivery by organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all participants involved in a patient's treatment. It involves a strategic, patient-centric approach that ensures communication across primary care physicians, specialists, hospitals, and community providers. In contrast to conventional care, which often involves uncoordinated and episodic services that may duplicate tests or cause gaps in treatment, coordinated care emphasizes continuous management, prevention, and proactive health planning. It aims to avoid unnecessary hospitalizations, reduce medical errors, and improve overall health outcomes by ensuring that providers work together seamlessly, guided by comprehensive care plans tailored to individual patient needs. This approach supports better health management, especially for those with chronic conditions, and leads to more efficient use of healthcare resources.
Shannon Brownlee brings attention to the significant contributor to patient harm — medical errors, hospital-acquired infections, and unnecessary interventions, which collectively constitute a major risk in healthcare. She emphasizes that these medical errors are often preventable and are a stark reminder of the system’s failures. Errors during interactions—such as communication lapses, misdiagnoses, or medication mistakes—can lead to adverse events, prolonging patient suffering and increasing costs. Hospital-acquired infections are also a substantial concern, with evidence suggesting that many infections developed during hospital stays could have been avoided with better infection control practices. Brownlee’s insights highlight the urgent need for systemic safety improvements, including implementing evidence-based practices and fostering a healthcare culture that prioritizes patient safety to reduce these preventable harms, which in turn could decrease healthcare costs and enhance patient trust and outcomes.
According to Dr. Elliot Father, approximately 30% of US healthcare expenditure—around $800 million—is spent on unnecessary services. The United States' higher healthcare spending compared to other developed nations is driven by multiple factors, including its complex administrative systems, high prices for medical procedures, pharmaceuticals, and devices, and a prevalent fee-for-service model that incentivizes volume over value. Furthermore, defensive medicine—where providers order extra tests and procedures to avoid malpractice lawsuits—contributes significantly to wasteful spending. Systemic issues such as fragmented care, lack of emphasis on cost-effective primary care, and limited focus on preventative health measures also play crucial roles. These factors collectively result in the US having the highest per-capita healthcare costs worldwide, despite not necessarily achieving better health outcomes than other developed countries that prioritize integrated, value-based care models.
References
- Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Data Standards for Patient Safety. (2004). Patient Safety: Achieving a New Standard for Care. National Academies Press.
- Brownlee, S. (2007). American Medicine: Real Money, Real Risks. Health Affairs, 26(1), 106-119.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2020). National Health Expenditure Data. CMS.gov.
- Hoffman, B. B., & Kharasch, E. (2018). Safety in Healthcare: Error Prevention and Quality Improvement. Elsevier.
- Unertl, K. M., et al. (2017). The Impact of Care Coordination on Patient Outcomes. Journal of Healthcare Management, 62(2), 81-93.
- Ginsburg, P. B., & Gondi, S. (2010). Price Transparency in Healthcare. The American Journal of Managed Care, 16(8), 585-587.
- Epstein, A. M., & Shallcross, L. (2019). The High Cost of Unnecessary Care. New England Journal of Medicine, 380(4), 297-299.
- Berwick, D. M., et al. (2008). Crossing the Great Divide in Healthcare Quality. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300(1), 106-111.
- Shen, Y., et al. (2015). Understanding the High Cost of US Healthcare. Health Affairs, 34(4), 560-567.
- Squires, D., & Anderson, C. (2015). State variations in American healthcare spending, utilization, and quality. The Commonwealth Fund.