Healthcare industry is a vital organ in society. Provision of healthcare services should not be discriminatory. Healthcare providers should ensure that when handling patients, they abide by the medical laws stipulated. Several agencies regulate the laws as well as ensure the caregivers work within the specified limits to deliver excellent medical services to their patients. An example of such an agency is the Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). As such, this paper discusses AHRQ’s role of making certain the healthcare industry is candid, well-versed, and follows the officially authorized requirements.
Describe the function, mission and scope (work) of the federal agency you have selected
AHRQ has several functions. Firstly, it examines the accessibility of high-quality health care (Kronick, 2014). Secondly, the body studies the results of healthcare services at the individual as well as population aspects. Thirdly, the agency notifies as well as assesses novel health policy’s innovations such as modifications in Medicaid and Medicare coverage, care access and operation inequalities, and private health insurance innovations (Kronick, 2014).
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Besides, the AHRQ’s mission entails offering information that impacts each citizen’s health positively. Its mission is to formulate mechanisms and laws that ensure high-quality, easily reachable, more secure, unbiased, as well as affordable care (Kronick, 2014). The agency aims to achieve this mission by a thorough analysis of novel as well as existing knowledge, hypotheses, and methods in both basic and applied types of research as well as diverse disciplines such as sociology, psychology, and nursing among others (Kronick, 2014).
Moreover, AHRQ’s seeks to effective and safe care by employing process-of-care measures as well as evaluate how caregivers have executed practices that realize the desired objectives while discarding those whose execution leads to more destruction.
Discuss the types of issues this agency addresses
The agency addresses several issues. The issues are determined by six AHRQ’s chief objectives of quality healthcare provision. The first aim of the agency is to ensure effectiveness. Provision of effective care is anchored in scientific facts to improve the treatment possibilities as well as the preferred health results. Usually, clinical researches, as well as laboratory experiments’ evidence, are randomized controlled trials and epidemiological investigations. Accessibility, as well as the potency of these proofs, vary depending on the disorder as well as cure.
Secondly, AHRQ aims to promote efficiency in healthcare provision. Despite being among the top world’s costly healthcare systems, reliable facts show that the U.S. healthcare system still drags regarding providing excellent health results and satisfaction. AHRQ aims at recognition and elimination of the repeated discrepancies as well as insufficiencies of healthcare services provision.
Thirdly, the agency aims to at enhancing patient safety. The agency ensures that the patients are not harmed by healthcare procedures whose administration is intended for their healthy well-being. According to the IOM report, approximately between forty-six thousand and ninety-eight thousand medicinal errors’ deaths occur in hospitals every year (Jiang et al., 2016). The issue is not due to caregivers’ negligence but rather due to the absence of structures that should ensure such errors are prevented.
Fourthly, AHRQ aims to address the issue of time and its effect in healthcare provision. Often, delays of appointments as well as waiting in physician’s offices and emergency rooms are a common thing. Such delays deny patients much-needed services or even lead to worsening of the patient’s conditions. AHRQ seeks to ensure that the healthcare system is organized well to meet the patient’s requirements promptly.
Moreover, the agency aims to ensure equity of healthcare services delivery. According to Jiang et al. (2016), the IOM reports indicate the unequal distribution of healthcare services provision, as well as persistent differences of health care provision by race and ethnic minorities. Specifically, the report shows that ethnic minorities receive poor quality care. Thus, this indicates that the healthcare sector fails to achieve impartial healthcare services provision.
Lastly, the agency aims to ensure that care is patient-centred. This form of care identifies that paying attention to the needs, ideals, as well as preferences of the patient is essential in high-quality care provision. Such care incorporates cooperation between caregivers, family and friends whose role is to ensure physical as well as the well-being of the patient.
Describe the impact this agency has on health care policy and delivery
AHRQ has significantly improved several aspects of healthcare provision since its creation. The first impact is the training and education funding. The agency offers a variety of both intramural and extramural pre- and post-doctoral occupational as well as educative health services research funding and opportunities. AHRQ’s funding assists in supporting studies aimed at improving the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, affordability, as well as accessibility of care.
For instance, AHRQ has put forth a proposal of adopting Outcomes Management System (OMS) whose role is to create medicinal intelligence each disorder’s effective form of treatment and circumstances to consider it (Kronick, 2014). The system involves the connecting care outcomes with patient’s experience, diagnosis, as well as treatment information. Furthermore, the OMS links to elucidate procedures of implementing payment reforms facilitating caregivers to centre their attention more on care quality, results, as well as the patient’s experience.
Generally, AHRQ has been able to keep track of efficiency of the U.S. healthcare system by making certain that hospital offer high-quality services. Consequently, its actions have ensured that patients get access to affordable care. Moreover, through cooperation with the public, there have been great improvements in the research of methods of absolute eradication of epidemic diseases.
Identify at least one current initiative the agency considers a priority
With the care delivery seemingly at its lowest point, it requires a large boost. Currently, AHRQ’s has prioritized Research and Development (R&D) Projects initiative which is intended to devise as well as analyze healthcare merchandises to ensure high-quality, secure, affordable, as well as accessible care. The initiative has made certain that patients can access affordable health care insurance.
Provide a summary of the initiative
The initiative aims to make certain that every individual can access health care insurance as well as afford medical bills. According to Gerteis and Kantz (2015), the number of uninsured Americans under the age of 65 declined from nineteen percent to ten percent in 2015. Additionally, the rate of those uninsured between eighteen and twenty-nine years also declined by almost half, that is, from thirty-four to sixteen percent (Gerteis and Kantz, 2015). Moreover, the rate of uninsured declined from forty-three to twenty-five percent amongst poor individuals between eighteen and sixty-four years (Gerteis and Kantz, 2015).
Therefore, the Affordable Care Act is quickly accomplishing its objective of ensuring that Americans can access health care coverage. Specifically, substantial achievements are seen amongst the poor as well as young adults. Thus, enhancing care delivery mechanisms is vital to health care reforms aimed at ensuring quality, efficacy, and affordability is accomplished. As noted, AHRQ is funding recent as well as ongoing initiatives, and such research falls under its focus.
Describe how and why a health policy analyst needs to consider policy problems using political and legal analysis
A society without politics is likely to encounter equality issues. The national structure plays a critical role in ensuring there is the distribution of responsibilities in both the national and state levels. In particular, during the formulation of programs such as health policies aimed at solving issues affecting the population, the state’s involvement is critical.
However, some believe that state’s involvement, when the national government takes action to accomplish community purposes, promotes innovation and evades natural inclination towards policies’ stagnation or rigidity. Therefore, to achieve the supplementary goal, national policies outline the objectives as well as their success criteria. Additionally, the national policies generate a general outline for proceedings exclusive of the means.
Therefore, several reasons validate the state’s role in formulating substantial policies which encourages outcome variation among the states. In this context, the federal policy aims at keeping changes in policy within stipulated boundaries. This is critical since it ensures that the government avoids the harmful repercussions of the nation’s extensive conflicting situation which may destabilize the basic customs from which both the community and government sprouts from.
References
Gerteis, J., & Kantz, B. (2015). Findings From the AHRQ Transforming Primary Care Grant Initiative: A Synthesis Report.
Jiang, H. J., Boutwell, A. E., Maxwell, J., Bourgoin, A., Regenstein, M., & Andres, E. (2016). Understanding Patient, Provider, and System Factors Related to Medicaid Readmissions. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 42(3), 115-121.
Kronick, R. (2014). Patient safety: The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's ongoing commitment. Journal of nursing care quality , 29 (3), 195-199.
