The issue of linking hospital reimbursement to performance outcomes is a controversial one due to the sensitive nature of medical care. Despite opposition to the idea, hospital reimbursement should be tied to performance outcomes to enable improved patient outcomes. Hospitals are care experts that comprehend and improve health systems facilitate quality care. Above everything else, hospitals need to stand for quality. On that note, the system of linking hospital reimbursement to performance outcomes is suitable since it enables institutions to stay on top of quality and enable hospitals deliver and implement quality projects to ensure job security.
The pay-for-performance approach enables improvements in regards to adherence to best practices by facilitating financial incentive for clinicians. It is suggested that the adherence to hospital guidelines improves quality of care and hence patient outcomes ( Mendelson et al., 2017) . The approach also enables institutions to dedicate enough resources to ensure adherence to quality standards by clinicians. Also, the initiative enables knowledge translation, implying a potential technique for enhancing compliance with guidelines ( Mendelson et al., 2017) . On that note, the pay-for-performance approach sets precedence to the use of evidence-based practice to ensure the highest possible care for patients to improve a society’s well-being.
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Based on the above assertions, pay-for performance gives financial motivation for quality improvement and deployment of evidence-based practice, while, at the same time, avoiding the adverse effects of payment schemes that associate payment to complexity and volume. Financial incentives are one of the vital features for transforming clinical practice; this is certainly not the cause when it comes to the fee-for-service approach. For instance, if a patients gets a complication like abyss following a surgery, the practitioner who performed the first surgery will execute the second one to correct the problem. Additionally, such surgeries can be performed after usual working hours hence leading to increased reimbursement. Enhanced financial compensation for physicians in primary care looking after patients with complex conditions is linked with enhanced outcomes ( Mendelson et al., 2017) . Aside from mitigating the narrow approach of the current scheme, the pay-for-performance approach ensures patients get appropriate treatment as needed.
To enable effectiveness, pay-for performance programs should develop incentives towards facilitating quality care for the higher-risk populations. Such an approach will empower physicians to take on high-risk patients rather than avoid them ( Kondo et al., 2016) . Also, to enable a clear comprehension of the long run effects of pay-for-performance programs, rates of readmission and mortality rates should be considered a marker. Such an approach may assist in ensuring that a high-turnover of patients that are still-impaired does not boost quality measures ( Kondo et al., 2016) . When amalgamated with these measures that enable long-term focus, the pay-for-performance approach can play a great role towards improving the quality of life in a given society.
The pay-for-performance approach is a powerful method to improving the quality of health care. Financial incentives are powerful motivator for a change in behavior. Also, the current system whereby providers are rewarded according to quantity of services is untenable. On that note, clinicians can collaborate with their institution’s quality assurance department or through the professional body to decide how to best implement the pay-for-performance strategies. Research can be undertaken into new strategies for improving and measuring quality. Also, educators can demonstrate to the next generation of professionals the significance of measuring the quality of health care and play an active role in reimbursement initiatives that are quality-based. The greatest mistake will be to do nothing. Indeed, the challenge of linking hospital reimbursement to performance outcomes is not to minimize or avoid it, but to enhance and engage it. By doing this, clinicians can fulfill their dusty to facilitate the best possible care for patients.
References
Kondo, K., Damberg, C., Mendelson, A., Motu'apuaka, M., Freeman, M., O'Neil, M., ... & Kansagara, D. (2016). Understanding the intervention and implementation factors associated with benefits and harms of pay for performance programs in healthcare.
Mendelson, A., Kondo, K., Damberg, C., Low, A., Motúapuaka, M., Freeman, M., ... & Kansagara, D. (2017). The effects of pay-for-performance programs on health, health care use, and processes of care: a systematic review. Annals of Internal Medicine , 166 (5), 341-353.
