Managed Care Philosophy and Initiatives Directed at Prevention and Health Maintenance. the Nature of the Problem of Vaccinations and Access to Vaccines Relative to Prevention and Health Maintenance. the Steps Taken to
Introduction. Managed health care is a system that is used to control the financing and the method of delivery of healthcare services to those individuals who are enrolled is specific types of healthcare plans such as Preferred Provider Organizations (PPO) and Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO). Managed healthcare main goal is to ensure that the care that is received by the patient is not just routinely done so that the providers are making a high profit but to ensure that providers are delivery a high quality of care that is also cost effective.
Managed care philosophy and initiatives directed at prevention and health maintenance within the managed health care. The manage care philosophy was designed with the intent of placing emphasis on the maintenance of health rather than performing expensive interventions. The operators of the managed care plans are paid a specific amount of money per month for each patient to provide them with a clean bill of health so to speak. It is important that these organizations put themselves in the position where they are focusing on the prevention of certain illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes among others.
The nature of the problem of vaccinations and access to vaccines relative to prevention and health maintenance. Health maintenance organization (HMO) is also in the business that I would term as preventative medicine, vaccination of patients can be classified as a prevention measure. Having access to vaccines takes into consideration the patients access to medical care. Some individuals however are classified as disadvantageous in relation to access to care, for example elderly, less education and African Americans.
Vaccinations are a main constituent of preventative medicine; some studies indicated however that effort should be placed on improving and maintaining the safety and access of vaccines across the various age groups and ethnicities. There are also several controversies regarding the vaccination of children and many parents continue to refuse to have their children vaccinated. Another study showed that during the winter of 1997-1998 the need for influenza vaccination delivery was painfully clear when there was a high rate of respiratory illness which led to a critical shortage of bed s and mass congestion in the emergency departments.
With such major scare the local hospital and the Department of Health launched a collaborative program to increase influenza vaccine coverage in the community. This was done by increasing the number of individual that were vaccinated which would result in a close moderation of the severity of lower respiratory tract illness during the winter season. To accomplish this however certain procedure will have to be in place for example to public needs to be aware of the providers intent and plan of action have to be in place to enhance the delivery of the vaccine.
The steps taken to improve quality. It is important steps are taken to increase the rates of immunization while ensuring a safe delivery. The immunization records should be maintained at least at federal level for a long period of time. It is believed that the introduction of the point-of-service data entry there was a big increase in the quality of immunization. There was also an introduction of an automated immunization due reminder and a monthly report to several providers on the patient’s immunization status. There was also a comparison of the immunization rate per provider.
Several programs were put in place to ensure that vaccination is delivered to as many individual as possible, for example there was an attempt to reduce the number of individuals that was unvaccinated by having a delivering the vaccines to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Improving vaccine from a clinical point of view takes into consideration the efficacy of the vaccine which is studied using the FDA approved research that evaluates whether or not the vaccine actually protects individuals against the disease that the vaccination is supposedly providing prevention against.
The vaccine used should also be cost effective in other words it should gear towards saving both lives and money. Many vaccines are equipped with what is referred to as disease burden criteria which is expected to prevent diseases with significant morbidity. Using this can reduce the risk of spreading the disease through person to person contact. What works and what does not? What worked in my opinion is the fact that physicians take the interest of the patients to heart and hence their focus was on keeping people healthy.
The implementation of point-of-service data entry showed increased in the utilization of the HMO immunization registries. An automated immunization reminder for patients is also an effective measure and so are the provider’s monthly reports. What would not work is when physicians have a conflict of interest that is they serve both HMO, other communities’ patients the patient are not always provided with the best treatment options nor access to vaccinations. My recommendations for further or continued improvements.
My first recommendation would be to develop a level of trust between the patient and the provider in doing so the provider will have a wider population to be more receptive of the vaccination and even to have their children vaccinated also.. There should also be a continuous effort to identify strategies and even some form of software to enhance or improve the quality of the immunization records with a managed care facility for example. How does your previous essay on Breast Cancer screening apply to the issue of vaccinations?
I believe that my previous study o breast cancer screening applies to this issue of vaccination in the concept of individuals being reluctant to accept care in some situation. If we should take for example those individuals who does not want to have their children vaccinated for fear of either getting sicker than they were prior to receiving the vaccination or for religious believe. On the other hand there are individual who are willing and ready to accept the vaccination but because of the category that they are placed in they are unable to receive it. Often times these are to poorer group with takes into consideration ethnicity also.
These are two top issues for discussion in the media at the moment with the recommended change in breast cancer treatment and the recommendation for the H1N1 vaccines. Conclusion From the study it can be concluded that the intervention that is directed towards the vaccination of older children and families who has a low educational background may help in the improvement of vaccination rates among these individuals who are seen as high risk. Asthma care quality for children should also be of interest to researchers. References Medline Plus (2004). Immunization. Retrieved on October 15, 2004, from http://www. lm. nih. gov/medlineplus/immunization. html. Michael F Parry, Brenda Grant, Anthony Iton, Patricia D Parry, & Diane Baranowsky. (2004). Influenza Vaccination: A Collaborative effort to improve the health of the community. Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, 25(11), 929-32. Retrieved November 24, 2009, from ProQuest Medical Library. Sangeeth K Gnanasekaran, Jonathan A Finkelstein, Paula Lozano, Harold J Farber, & et al. (2006). Influenza Vaccination among Children with Asthma in Medicaid Managed Care. Ambulatory Pediatrics, 6(1), 1-7. Retrieved November 24, 2009, from ProQuest Medical Library.
