Health is crucial to human success, happiness, and wellbeing. A healthy population is always productive, leading to significant economic improvement in any given country. Therefore every country should strive to ensure that its population access affordable and quality healthcare services. Expanding health insurance coverage is one of the strategies that can help to reduce the cost of health while at the same time improving the quality of healthcare services. Clinic managers should implement health initiatives that can that can enhance patient satisfaction and reduce the cost of health, and Medicaid should be allowed as a potential pay source for any urgent care center.
Quality Initiatives to Improve Patient Satisfaction and Reduce Healthcare Cost
The first quality initiative is the implementation of evidence-based care in the health center. Studies have consistently shown that the use of evidence-based care has positive effects on the patient's perception on the on the emergency department (ED) care, leading to substantial patient satisfaction. As a result, many hospitals now implement evidence-based care to improve patient experience as well as satisfaction. Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) is one of the hospitals that are implementing evidence-based care to patients. Apart from significantly improving patient satisfaction, HCA can save about $68 million annually, resulting in reduced healthcare cost (Cosgrove et al ., 2013). The example shows that evidence-based care can improve patient satisfaction.
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The second quality initiative is the use of a team-based approach in the provision of the healthcare services. The team-based approach to care is one of the strategies that hospitals can use to improve the quality of care while at the same time increasing patient satisfaction. Importantly, the initiative helps shared decision-making, which reduces medical errors and improves timely and quality care. As a result, a hospital can improve patient satisfaction. The Cleveland Clinic is one of the health facilities that are successfully implementing the team-based approach to care, particularly among lung transplant patients. The initiative has helped the clinic to reduce length-of-stay, lower the cost, and enhance patient satisfaction by nearly 30% (Cosgrove et al ., 2013) .
The third quality initiative is the development and execution of effective scheduling practices in the hospital. Scheduling helps in smooth flow of the patients, leading to reduced delays as well as time wastage. At the same time, scheduling reduces the rate of cancelation of appointments. The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is using effective scheduling practices to improve efficiency and improve patient satisfaction. Besides, the hospital can reduce capital cost by about $100 annually (Cosgrove et al ., 2013). Hence, effective scheduling can improve patient satisfaction and reduce the cost of healthcare services.
Medicaid as a Potential Pay Source for My Urgent Care Center
I believe that Medicaid should be used as a pay source for the urgent care center, especially in this era where urgent care (UC) is one of the leading venues of health delivery. Although there is a common assumption that Medicaid patients are overusing the emergency rooms, many patients are using Medicaid for urgent or serious clinical problems. Therefore, I believe that Medicaid should be used as a potential pay source for my urgent care center to ensure that patients with severe and urgent medical conditions can get timely and quality healthcare services. For examples, a study that was published in the Center for Studying Health System Change revealed that about 75% of patients use Medicaid to seek urgent care ( Kliff, 2012) . At the same time, evidence from Tennessee and Missouri using Medicaid for urgent care makes health care service affordable and accessible to low-income people.
Conclusion
Hospitals and any other health facility should strive to provide quality healthcare services to improve patient satisfaction. At the same time, they should find ways of reducing the cost of healthcare services by implementing various quality initiatives. Besides, with the increasing demand for urgent care, Medicaid should be used as a potential pay source for emergency medical cases. Hospitals should always provide quality and appropriate healthcare services.
References
Cosgrove, D. M., Fisher, M., Gabow, P., Gottlieb, G., Halvorson, G. C., James, B. C. ... & Toussaint, J. S. (2013). Ten strategies to lower costs, improve quality, and engage patients: the view from leading health system CEOs. Health Affairs , 32 (2), 321-327.
Kliff, S. (2012, July 11). Study: Most Medicaid patients visit the ER for urgent, not routine, care. Washington Post . Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/study-most-medicaid-patients-visit-the-er-for-urgent-not-routine-care/2012/07/11/gJQAlJ83dW_story.html?utm_term=.538a0e339afc
