my role in accountability and the role of a healthcare worker in tackling the challenges that may arise in the course of administering quality healthcare

 my role in accountability and the role of a healthcare worker in tackling the challenges that may arise in the course of administering quality healthcare

    Introduction

Accountability is the act of being responsible by an individual or organization for their actions concerning a particular task. Responsibility in healthcare is of paramount importance as it entails strict procedures and processes being followed for the betterment of services offered to the patients, and individual employees are held responsible for any action. This improves the level of trust between the doctors and patients, misuse of resources is reduced, helps concerned organizations provide quality care, and breaks the barriers that may arise in the course of administering healthcare (Denis, 2014). This paper will look at my role in accountability and the role of a healthcare worker in tackling the challenges that may arise in the course of administering quality healthcare.

My Role in Accountability

            The level of accountability in healthcare should be conducted to minimize harm and neglect that may affect the patient. I will make it my duty to ensure that I execute my role in the right way and being trustworthy in safeguarding the patients’ records in a secure manner, which will improve the confidence and trust of patients. Divulging a patients’ information puts the individual in the risk of falling prey to fraud and taints the organizations’ image negatively, and this can lead to lawsuits. The staff delegated in the safekeeping of records will be highly scrutinized to fit in that docket and perform duties as required.

I will cultivate a culture of self- discipline where proper attention will be given to patients, which leads to a decrease in doctors’ mistakes during treatment. Patient safety is improved as the healthcare staff follows procedures. This will reduce variability when the entire workforce is held accountable for the actions that they take, and also it simplifies the rather complex processes in the healthcare industry. Adherence to work ethics and performance targets will be easily achieved as set standards are stated to every employee through appraisals. I will also engage the patients by asking them to rate the service delivery, and their feedback will help me make the necessary adjustments and interventions.

I will make regular inspections as the healthcare industry followed a particular code of conduct and laid down measures to ensure sufficient service delivery. This can be achieved by providing the healthcare facility properties are not being misused and also check on the reports of misconduct and the actions taken. Transparency in the health industry leads to a committed workforce that values proper work ethics. To ensure productivity and service delivery, appropriate checks- and -balances will be conducted to ensure that no department or individual has any form of monopoly in decision making hence minimize mistakes and misconduct. Also, I will motivate the staff as this will make them feel their efforts are being recognized in the running of the industry, which will goodman brownthem to work even harder, which will help yield positive results.

Briefly define the Accountability Care Organization.

Accountability Care Organization is an organization in the healthcare industry that bonds provider remunerations to quality and practical measures that reduces cost care as it holds itself accountable to patients for quality, suitable, and efficient healthcare provision.

What challenges do we face?

The Accountability Care Organization can improve the quality of care by reducing the already high expenditure and spending in the healthcare industry. However, problems may hinder it from achieving and implementing this noble objective ranging from lacking carefulness concerning the implementation of the ACOs as it is estimated that its formation would lead to the incurrence of exorbitant costs and expenses (Berwick, 2011). Besides, violation of antitrust laws which were seen to pose the threat of driving up the cost of care by reducing competition, which will create a monopoly hence leading to the provision of indigent care quality (O’Hagan & Persaud, 2013). The level of privacy and confidentiality will be breached as for the ACOs to be effective; it will solely depend on the sharing of health data and claims between the staff and the ACOs, which might bring trust issues and open loopholes to fraud.

Accessing the patient’s previous clinical record is a challenge as the ACOs will strictly need the information to find and treat the available gaps in healthcare. This will also allow in proper assessment plans and ease the need for acquiring health charts from other care providers hence saving time. Also, there is the problem of a lack of standardized Electronic Health Records as different healthcare service providers use different systems, which makes sharing of patient’s data amongst each other rather complicated.

How do you see the role of a healthcare worker changing as a result of these challenges?

I see a situation whereby the healthcare workers will be understrength as unnecessary specialists will be excluded under the ACO system since the administrative on them is laid off. This will lead to the loss of patients, revenue jobs and thereby causing poor services to the population as the specialists play an essential role through various steering committees and bringing onboard patient engagement (Gourevitch et al. 2012). Cases of mistrust between the healthcare facility and the ACOs are likely to occur if the shared information lands in the wrong hands, which can result in legal battles and negatively tainting of one’s image.

I see a poor management and leadership structure that cannot accommodate individual accountability, and operational changes won’t be able to produce the expected results across the board as the ACOs cannot do so. Also, I see the healthcare worker facing obstacles in the technology sector as there is the usage of technology systems that reward interoperability, which is a complicated method, thus hindering the process of sharing information, and this will cause significant issues and concerns across the industry. This will generate considerable interest among the ACOs and the concerned parties. Finally, I see the loss of revenue, which will affect employment in the healthcare sector. This can be caused by the ACOs’ tendency to keeping the entire staff hence failing to eliminate proper care and improve efficiency.

References

Berwick, D. M. (2011). Making Good on ACOs’ Promise — The Final Rule for the Medicare Shared Savings Program. New England Journal of Medicine, 365(19), 1753-1756. doi:10.1056/nejmp1111671

Denis, J. (2014). Accountability in Healthcare Organizations and Systems. Healthcare Policy | Politiques de Santé, 10(SP), 8-11. doi:10.12927/hcpol.2014.23933

Gourevitch, M. N., Cannell, T., Boufford, J. I., & Summers, C. (2012). The Challenge of Attribution: Responsibility for Population Health in the Context of Accountable Care. American Journal of Public Health, 102(S3), S322-S324. doi:10.2105/ajph.2011.300642

O’Hagan, J., & Persaud, D. (2013). Creating a Culture of Accountability in Health Care. The Health Care Manager, 28(2), 124-133. doi:10.1097/hcm.0b013e3181a2eb2b