Interprofessional Team Development Essay

Interprofessional Team Development

In the contemporary medical world, new patient care delivery models are constantly emerging. Such an evolution in patient care comes with certain disadvantages that one cannot underestimate. For instance, the evolution of patient care has led to an emergence of healthcare options that have consistently neglected the needs of the patient, the primary stakeholders, and consumers of healthcare. With such a disadvantage, it is beyond doubt that there is a need for refocusing all the attention towards the institutionalization of patient and family-centered care (PFCC) in the healthcare environment. Central to the realignment of healthcare organization priorities is the initiation of a strategic plan that will create a healthy equilibrium between improved patient care delivery and the various components of healthcare such as technology, quality, financial options and reimbursement mechanisms.

In essence, this paper aims at presenting a plan for the installation of a patient-focused environment within a healthcare organization. At the heart of the strategic plan are various themes that this analysis will target to bring to light. The components of interest include the impact of business practices, regulatory requirements, and reimbursement on PFCC, self-assessment analysis, area of improvement and improvement strategy as well as the role of the multidisciplinary team. By so doing, the realization of the PFCC is inevitable.

Impact of Business Practices, Regulatory Requirements, and Reimbursement on PFCC

Characteristic of the current business practices is the insistence of creating an organizational culture that fosters patient centeredness. Central to this creation is the alignment of organization’s mission and vision with the aspiration of becoming a healthcare facility that provides an enabling environment for the institutionalization of patient-centeredness. Such an alignment creates a deeper commitment among the healthcare team members towards the realization of a patient-centric environment. Notwithstanding, the current business practices are also of the emphasis on good communication, more integrated care delivery options and reduced healthcare service delivery gaps. All these areas of emphasis enhance patient satisfaction given their focus on the patient’s well-being, which is a core feature in a patient-centric environment (Ryan, Kinghorn, Entwistle, & Francis, 2014). Based on these illustrations it is beyond doubt that the current business practices have a positive effect on the PFCC.

Besides, the reliance on Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores used by many patients is another current practice that has an impact on the PFCC provision option for hospitals. At the heart of the HCAHPS survey are questions that seek to establish patients’ perspectives about the care accorded to them. A high HCAHPS score depicts a high satisfaction with the hospital processes, which in most cases will result in influencing other persons’ decisions to pursue the hospital’s services. Given this eventuality, contemporary medical facilities have started to offer care geared to the patients’ needs so that their HCAHPS scores remain within acceptable ranges (Billingsley, & Richard, 2015). As such, the provision of PFCC becomes inevitable given the need for maintaining the HCAHPS scores within the acceptable ranges.

As for the regulatory requirements, several instances that are suggestive of the indispensability of their effect on patient-centeredness are existent. A case in point of such regulations relates with the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) regulation for financial penalties for its participating hospitals with high instances of readmissions and mortality rates. With such a regulation, the Medicare participating hospitals have no option but to improve their service delivery, quality of services offered and its patients’ satisfaction levels, which are common in a patient-centric environment (Carey, & Lin, 2016). In the absence of such adherence, the readmission and mortality rates of these hospitals will increase significantly resulting in financial penalties as well as dissatisfied patients, which is incongruent with the PFCC concept.

Finally, new reimbursement trends are also affecting the institutionalization of PFCC in a variety of ways that are worth noting. A befitting example is the value-based purchasing program, a provision by CMS that seeks to add value to healthcare services. Under this provision, incentives paid for inpatient hospital services are mainly due to value and quality measures. That is for sure because the value-based purchasing program mainly targets to enhance quality improvement through rewarding best performance and valuable services (Raso, 2015). As such, the value-based purchasing program drives the hospitals to institutionalize quality improvement projects that will enhance the patient experience, which is significant in a patient-centric environment.

Self-Assessment

Central to the realization of the organizational commitment to PFCC implementation is the PFCC organizational self-assessment tool whose practical details are captured in the section of appendices (Appendix 1).

Setting Description

Worth noting in this self-assessment analysis is the setting in which the proposed plan will take place. Primarily, the health organization of interest is the Mena Regional Health System (MRHS). Of the utmost significance of the setting of interest is the fact that it is a community medical facility located in Mena, western Arkansas. It has a bed capacity of 65, which serves the surrounding population of approximately 7000 people whose predominant racial group of Mena is the White (93%). The remaining 7% constitutes the Hispanics (2.4%), Asians (0.3%), mixed racial group (2.5%) and African-Americans (0.2%). MRHS provides a wide range of services that include medical, obstetrics, surgical, critical care, emergency, psychiatric, pediatrics and trauma services. Notwithstanding, support services such as laboratory, ultrasonography, CT scan, radiology, and MRI imaging are available. MRHS employee base is mainly persons from the local community. Lastly, the setting is clinical education site for physical therapy assistants, registered nurses, occupational therapy assistants, licensed practical nurses and other professionals in the medical field (Billingsley, & Richard, 2015).

Strengths and Weaknesses

Of the essence to the PFCC organizational self-assessment are various strengths and weaknesses that are worth highlighting. The practical details of the strengths and weaknesses of MRHS across the 11 domains of the PFCC tool are as shown in the table below.