The practice of medicine has been evolving continuously. Once fatal diseases are now easily curable and manageable. Patients' quality of lives has improved, thus portraying America as a country that offers quality healthcare. Although the US spends the most in healthcare expenditure, it does not have the best healthcare. This shows that there exist flaws in the healthcare system. As such, the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) proposed a new initiative into the next phase of quality transformation. The IHI proposed a triple Aim Initiative, a three-pronged approach for helping the healthcare systems optimize their performance. The IHI proposed framework aimed to progress the health of the populations, advance individual’s experience of care, and cap the per capita cost of providing care. Healthcare facilities that are moving towards improving their communities' health must achieve the triple aim to have value-based healthcare facilities. Although the US lacks a truly integrated healthcare system, the three dimensions of the triple aim framework are achievable nationally through; measuring performance in novel ways, developing models of care and financial incentives that optimize care for unique populations and patients, and testing and analyzing the effects of the new approaches to ensure the facilities work towards realizing desired triple aim goals.
Researchers from IHI posited that there was a need to improve the US healthcare system. They proposed pursuing a system of linked goals that formed the initiative's basis. The three goals comprise capping the per capita cost of healthcare, advancing the health of populations, and progressing the patient experience of care to ensure they receive quality care and patient satisfaction is achieved (IHI, 2020). The IHI explains that the goals are simple to understand but hard to implement in healthcare organizations. Healthcare facilities must expand their focus to offer care that meets the wishes of a selected populace. Some conditions must be adhered to before enrolling an identified population. There must also be an organization that; assents the accountability for all three objectives for the selected populace, and commits to universality for its members. To achieve the three goals in healthcare facilities, three main components must be met. Organizations must manage the services at a scale for the population, and they must create the right groundwork for population management (Whittington et al., 2015). They must also establish a scholarship system to motivate and weather the work they are doing overtime.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Having the triple aim initiative set up in healthcare organizations ensures healthcare facilities improve on patient satisfaction and quality of care. As such, implementing triple aim goals nationally will facilitate the achievement of patient satisfaction in the type of care they receive (McCarthy, & Klein, 2010). Improving the quality of individual experience of care is a vital need that healthcare practitioners and facilities must meet to achieve triple aim initiatives. Patient experience can be improved by designing care models that optimize the quality of care patients receive (McCarthy, & Klein, 2010). This can be done through engaging patients in the healthcare practice, respecting patient wishes, and improving the communication between patients and care providers. Facilities can also realize improved quality care by committing to timelines and ensuring their patients can easily access healthcare services (Feinbloom, 2008). As such, it is possible to achieve this goal as healthcare facilities need to realign their incentives to ensure healthcare providers are motivated to provide quality care to the patients.
Refining care of the community is another goal of the framework. Population health is described as the well-being outcomes of a group of persons and the distribution of their outcomes (IHI, 2020). Healthcare facilities offer their care to diverse populations in the regions in which they operate. Such facilities need to know the diverse needs of their population. Facilities can achieve this through creating databases that will document the health behaviors, the physical environment in which the population resides, social and economic factors that affect the population, and clinical care that the population is exposed to (Medlin, 2006). These are the main factors that determine the health outcomes of a population. Once these data is collected and analyzed, organizations will anticipate and provide improved quality care to the populations (Medlin, 2006). Organizations must also measure performance in new ways to test and analyze the effects of their adopted approaches (Whittington et al., 2015). This ensures that they learn what works for the facility to facilitate their ability to reach their desired goals. Therefore, this goal is achievable if the organizations are keen on data collection and transformation, and analytical transformation that ensures the problems and opportunities are identified within the population.
The final goal of the framework is decreasing the per capita cost of healthcare. Reducing the per capita cost of care looks into hospitalization, and ED utilization rate, and the total cost each member of the population pays for healthcare a month (IHI, 2020). In most healthcare facilities, having an overall cost reduction strategy is incompatible with the organization's financial viability. This goal encourages healthcare facilities to reduce the cost of quality care they offer their patients. Facilities can achieve this by being transparent in their definition and measurement of the per capita healthcare cost for a population (Berwick et al., 2008). They can also introduce yearly initiatives that reduce waste in healthcare facilities. The existing dynamics of supply-driven care can also be abolished in the country to match supply to underlying needs. Having financial incentives also helps optimize care by ensuring patients pay for quality care at standardized prices. The government can also set up policies that cap on the total spending for health care (Berwick et al., 2008). These strategies seem difficult to enforce, especially because the country lacks a truly integrated national healthcare system. However, the third goal of the initiative is achievable if the nation and the healthcare providers work together to ensure the healthcare facilities are integrators of the triple aim initiative.
The US lacks a truly integrated healthcare system, thus affecting the realization of the three dimensions of the triple aim framework. The US lacks the best healthcare, although it has quality healthcare practices that it offers its citizens. The IHI set to improve and transform healthcare delivery in the US by proposing the triple aim initiative. This framework aims to advance the health of the populace, progress individual’s experience of care, and contain the per capita cost of providing care. The institute encourages healthcare facilities to aim at realizing these goals, which will result in the facilities optimizing their care delivery. Having linked goals ensures that they influence each other and facilitate quality improvement. Although these goals are difficult to achieve, it is possible to meet all of them nationally. This is achievable through the government and healthcare providers combined efforts that reflect on the healthcare industry. The three goals of the framework can be realized by facilitating the measurement of performance in novel ways, developing novel models of care, financial incentives that optimize care for unique populations and patients, and testing and analyzing the new approaches' effects. Therefore, the government and policymakers should take advantage of the framework to incentivize healthcare professionals who will work towards realizing the desired triple aim goals.
References
Berwick, D. M., Nolan, T. W., & Whittington, J. (2008). The triple aim: care, health, and cost. Health affairs, 27(3), 759-769. https://sci-hub.tw/10.1377/hlthaff.27.3.759
Feinbloom, D. (2008). The triple aim and the future of quality improvement. https://www.medscape.org/viewarticle/578138
IHI. (2020). IHI triple aim measures. http://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/TripleAim/Pages/MeasuresResults.aspx
IHI. (2020). IHI triple aim. http://www.ihi.org/Engage/Initiatives/TripleAim/Pages/default.aspx
McCarthy, D., & Klein, S. (2010). The triple aim journey: improving population health and patients' experience of care, while reducing costs. https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/case-study/2010/jul/triple-aim-journey-improving-population-health-and-patients#:~:text=As%20more%20organizations%20adopt%20the,to%20a%20variety%20of%20settings
Medlin, C. A., Chowdhury, M., Jamison, D. T., & Measham, A. R. (2006). Improving the health of populations: lessons of experience. Disease control priorities in developing countries, 2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK11736/
Whittington, J. W., Nolan, K., Lewis, N., & Torres, T. (2015). Pursuing the triple aim: the first 7 years. The Milbank Quarterly, 93(2), 263-300. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4462878/
