Healthcare Operations Management: How to Improve Quality and Efficiency

Question 1 

Licensure restricts what physicians should do depending on their academic attainment in their medical field. Also, licensure reduces the supply of medical professionals and at the same time increase the cost of medical services (Svorny, 2008). For example, licensure introduces a rule that a mere nurse shouldn't take care of patients suffering from cold and instead are sent to the doctor who charges the patient higher prices for a problem which would have been solved by the nurse at a reduced cost. Furthermore, licensure might introduce a policy that no one should operate as a professional doctor without attaining a doctorate in the field of medicine; this keeps many professionals away from the profession resulting to reduced supply of medical professionals, which in return reduces the quality of care provided by the health care sector to the healthcare consumers (Svorny, 2008). Generally, licensure aims to improve the quality of healthcare but in a real sense, improves the profitability of health professionals. 

Question 2 

The United States government through the president Donald Trump has suggested and has even started putting a restriction for immigrant physicians to undergo training in the country or to establish practices in the USA. The USA is one of the states experiencing a shortage of physicians; thus the restriction will ensure that the number of medical professionals is reduced in the country (Chapter 7). According to the law of economics, increase in demand for any product or service results in the increase in prices to purchase it. Thus, there is a possibility that the local medical professionals will be limited in number and thus their salaries will improve hence they will be earning more than what they previously made. Considering that local physicians and locally trained physicians tend to neglect less appealing medical jobs, these areas are going to suffer the most if the restriction on reducing the number of the foreign physician is maintained (Ranasinghe, April 2015). Such specialties are such as nursing, maternity and such other less appealing jobs that are mostly operated on by foreign and foreign-trained physicians (Ranasinghe, April 2015). 

Question 3 

Healthcare organizations operate on numerous operations that require professional to handle. The organizations pay these professionals huge amounts they offer to the healthcare organizations. About this, it has been reported that labor input accounts for the most significant portion of the healthcare cost (chapter 8). Although hospitals operate using vast and expensive machinery, the cost to pay those working on such types of machinery account for 75 percent of the hospital costs (chapter 8). Surprisingly, the cost of paying such professionals as surgeons and other physician services are not included in the hospital budget, and this reflects how labor cost accounts for a considerable portion of the hospitals' expenses. Technology has also played a big part in hospital cost growth per patient day due to the increased quality of services provided resulting to the charging of higher prices for such services that reduce the time of stay in the hospital and also increases the recovery or survival level. 

Question 4 

Quality improvement in healthcare services has resulted in the increment in prices of purchasing the medical services, which is opposite to the quality improvement in computers which has resulted in reduced costs. In healthcare, medications which were offered 10 or 20 years ago can be provided at a lower price today, but they do not improve the survival or the recovery rate of the patient (chapter 9). This results in patients opting for quality services like chemotherapy and surgery which promise higher chances of recovery as compared to mediations but are offered at higher costs (chapter 9). Patients tend to go for quality services which are accessed at very high prices and neglect the cheaper services that promise a low level of recovery and survival. On the other hand, the improvement in computers ensures that results are obtained early, and the cost per unit is low which reduces the cost of production thus reducing the selling price of the produced products (Agha, 2013). 

References 

Agha, L. (2013). The Effects of Health Information Technology on the Costs and Quality of Medical Care. Journal of Health Economics , 34: 19–30. 

Ranasinghe, P. D. (April 2015). International Medical Graduates in the US Physician Workforce. The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association , Vol. 115, 236-241. doi:10.7556/jaoa.2015.047. 

Svorny, S. (2008). “Medical Licensing: An Obstacle to Affordable, Quality Care” Policy Analysis #621.