The US National Library of Medicine defines health disparities as differences in the health status of different groups of people. Health disparities have also been described as differences in access to or availability of facilities and services. It might also be used to explain the variations in rates of disease occurrence and disabilities between socioeconomic and geographically defined population groups (Baciu et al, 2017). The groups might be through race, ethnicity, immigrant status, disability, sex or gender, sexual orientation, and geography. It is estimated that some groups have higher rates of diseases and death than others. This paper aims to describe how strategic partnerships in healthcare might be utilized to improve quality of care among various groups within the society.
Strategic or collaborative partnerships in healthcare might be described as an alliance between people and organizations from multiple sectors, working together to achieve a common purpose. Partnerships might be entered to improve the quality of public health, improve conditions, and outcomes associated with health and care for the entire society. When focusing on a community, the partnership might be shaped to include people within a specific geographic location such as a rural community or an urban neighborhood or an experience such as children living in poverty (Lewis et al, 2017). Strategic partnerships are significant in improving the quality of care as they look at aspects such as social planning, community organizing, and policy advocacy.
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Health Disparities and Societal Concerns
Some of the social issues that have affected the quality of care and health outcomes in the modern world include religious beliefs, childhood vaccination, organ donation, and end of life care. Patients need to look at their beliefs, values, and unique situations before committing to the healthcare that deals with public health care. Most of these healthcare situations usually bring strong feelings and opinions. Religious and spiritual beliefs are essential practices in human life. Medical practitioners need to be aware that there are some consideration and care that need to be taken when dealing with people from different religious groups. It is evident that in previous decades, medical practitioners were educated on diagnosing and treating disease but were rarely trained in dealing with the spiritual beliefs of the patient (McCormick, & Min, 2014). Religious beliefs are broad, and they vary from one groups to the other; for instance, in America, there are atheists, agnostics among other spiritual practices. In some circumstances nurses and physicians are instructed to avoid religious beliefs, but when it comes to some critical decisions like organ donation, the beliefs must be taken into consideration.
Organ donation is a development that is meant to bring new hope for the treatment of serious diseases. Scientifically, organ transplant is the transfer of living tissue or organ to an injured or ill person to restore health or reduce disability; kidney transplants is one of the most famous organ transplants that has been practiced for decades. While in current times, organ transplant is viewed as a safe procedure it comes with ethical dilemmas and controversies. For instance, the high costs of organ transplant have been regarded as way of sidelining some societal groups from accessing care.
The issues of childhood vaccination have also brought social concern; some of the vaccines used for medical purposes are reported to contain dead infectious organism awhile others have weakened organisms. It is feared that some vaccines might have dangerous side effects in children such as autism. The diseases are risky and might make a child to suffer impaired social interaction and communication. Therefore, one might ask what measures would be put in place to ensure vaccines are safe for the children.
Ways in Which Organizational Partnerships Can Collaborate
A healthcare can consider entering collaborative partnerships with organizations such as Cross International, international medical corps, global health ministries and Heart for Africa to handle societal concerns that impact health care and health outcomes. In this context, a healthcare facility might approach organizations that specialize in treating the children such as Heart for Africa to get guidance on administering the vaccination to children. This particular organization works alongside churches in Africa in providing care to African children. Therefore partnering with such an organization would help avoid controversies and adequately care for the children.
Entering into agreements would be the other way of establishing collaboration. A healthcare facility might need to solidify commitment by coming up with codes that provide guides, regulations, and information on how the organization is required to work together and interact with each other. The agreement would also describe the expectations of each member and how they would utilize the available funds and resources. Lastly, the partnership need to outline formal and legal mechanisms such as pre-requirements to join, mandatory contributions, legal contracts among other aspects.
Interdisciplinary Services
Interdisciplinary approaches are services that involve team member’s from different disciplines working together to set goals, improve quality of care, make decisions and share resources and responsibilities (Lewis et al, 2017). In this kind of a setting, all healthcare professionals have a role of providing person-centered care for the patient. Some of the elements that would help improve the health of the community include proper leadership styles, person-centered practice and teamwork. Decisive leadership in health care would provide clear direction and vision to the entire team. This would promote trust among medical professionals. The other aspect is person-centered practice; this intends to involve the patient in all the aspects of their care to enable them to make decisions and ensure their values are put into consideration (Baciu et al, 2017). The healthcare needs to strategize on standardizing interdisciplinary care plans and records of care.
Teamwork in interdisciplinary approaches helps health professionals from different disciplines to work together for the best interests of the patient and the institutions. The teams should work in a way that they share responsibilities and promote the role of each member and still work to improve the experiences of individual members. The teams should have clear goals and participate in the joint assessment, diagnosis and goal setting. The health care facilities should also form teams that have diversity in order to improve its effectiveness.
Measurable Outcomes
• Evaluating the number of people from different religious groups who come to the healthcare facility seeking to have an organ transplant.
• Measuring the rates of organs transplant between different groups in the society.
• How many parents bring in their children for vaccination?
• Assessing the beliefs that limit people from vaccinating their children.
References
Baciu, A., Negussie, Y., Geller, A., Weinstein, J. N., & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2017). The State of Health Disparities in the United States.
Lewis, V. A., Tierney, K. I., Colla, C. H., & Shortell, S. M. (2017). The new frontier of strategic alliances in health care: New partnerships under accountable care organizations. Social Science & Medicine, 190, 1-10.
McCormick, T. R., & Min, D. (2014). Spirituality and medicine. Ethics in Medicine.
