Current Trends in Health Care

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Current Trends in Health Care
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Cost Containment

• Trying to control the rising cost of health care
  and achieving the maximum benefit for every
  dollar spent.
• All aspects of health care are directed toward
  cost containment.
• Some reasons for high health care costs include
  technological advances, aging population, and
  health-related lawsuits.

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Technological Advances

• Highly technical procedures such as heart, lung,
  liver, or kidney transplants can cost hundreds of
  thousands of dollars.
• Computers that can be used to examine internal
  body parts are valuable diagnostic tools but
  expensive.

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Aging Population

• Older individuals use more pharmaceutical
  products (medications), have more chronic
  diseases, and often need frequent health care
  services.

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Health-related Lawsuits

• Lawsuits force health care providers to obtain
  expensive malpractice insurance, order diagnostic
  tests even though they might not be necessary,
  and make every effort to avoid lawsuits by
  practicing defensive health care.

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Methods of Cost Containment

• Diagnostic related groups (DRGs)
• Combination of services
• Outpatient services
• Mass or bulk purchasing
• Early intervention and preventive services
• Energy conservation

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Diagnostic Related Groups (DRGs)

• One way Congress is trying to control costs for
  government insurance plans such as Medicare and
  Medicaid
• A limit is placed on patients cost of care and
  the agency providing care receives that set
  amount.
• If the cost of care is less than the amount paid,
  the agency keeps the money if its more, the
  agency must accept the loss.

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Combination of Services

• Done to eliminate duplication of services
• Health care agencies join together or share
  specific services so care can be provided to a
  larger number of people at a decreased cost per
  person

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Outpatient Services

• Patients receive care without being admitted to
  hospitals or other care facilities
• Reducing the length of hospital stays or
  decreasing the need for hospital admissions
  lowers the cost of health care

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Mass or Bulk Purchasing

• Buying equipment and supplies in larger
  quantities at reduced prices
• Can be done by combining the purchases of
  different departments in a single agency or by
  combining the purchases of several different
  agencies
• Computerized inventory can determine when
  supplies are needed and prevent overstocks and
  waste

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Early Intervention and Preventive Services

• Providing care before acute or chronic disease
  occurs
• Methods include patient education, immunizations,
  regular physical examinations to detect problems
  early, incentives for individuals to participate
  in preventive activities, and easy access for all
  individuals to preventive health care services

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Energy Conservation

• Monitoring the use of energy to control costs and
  conserve resources
• Recycling is also a form of energy conservation
  and most health care facilities recycle many
  different materials

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Home Health Care

• Diagnostic related groups and shorter hospital
  stays have created a need for providing care in
  the home
• Another form of cost containment because it is
  usually less expensive
• Multiple types of care can be provided in the
  home environment

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Geriatric Care

• Will continue to show rapid growth as baby
  boomers reach geriatric age
• Examples
• Adult day care centers
• Retirement communities
• Assisted/independent living facilities
• Long-term care facilities

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Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA)

• 1987
• Led to the development of many regulations
  regarding long-term care and home health care
• Requires states to establish training and
  competency evaluation programs for nursing and
  geriatric assistants
• Regulations serve to ensure certain standards of
  care

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Telemedicine

• Involves the use of video, audio, and computer
  systems to provide medical and/or health care
  services
• New technology allows interactive services
  between health care providers even though they
  are in different locations

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Wellness

• State of being in optimum health with a balanced
  relationship between physical, mental, and social
  health
• Examples
• Physical wellness
• Emotional wellness
• Social wellness
• Mental and intellectual wellness
• Spiritual wellness
• Holistic Health

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Physical Wellness

• Promoted by a well-balanced diet, regular
  exercise, routine physical examinations and
  immunizations, regular dental and vision
  examinations, and avoidance of alcohol, tobacco,
  caffeine, drugs, environmental contaminants, and
  risky sexual behavior

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Emotional Wellness

• Promoted by understanding personal feeling and
  expressing them appropriately, accepting ones
  limitations, adjusting to change, coping with
  stress, enjoying life, and maintaining and
  optimistic outlook

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Social Wellness

• Promoted by showing concern, fairness, affection,
  tolerance, and respect for others
• Also by communicating and interacting well with
  others, sharing ideas and thought, and practicing
  honesty and loyalty

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Mental and Intellectual Wellness

• Promoted by being creative, logical, curious, and
  open-minded using common sense obtaining
  continual learning questioning and evaluating
  information and situations learning from life
  experiences and using flexibility and creativity
  to solve problems

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Spiritual Wellness

• Promoted by using values, ethics, and morals to
  find meaning, direction, and purpose to life
• Often includes believing in a higher authority
  and observing religious practices

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Holistic Health

• Care that promotes physical, emotional, social,
  intellectual, and spiritual well-being by
  treating the whole body, mind, and spirit
• Based on the bodys natural healing powers

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Complementary and Alternative Methods of Health
Care (CAM)

• Complementary therapies methods of treatment
  that are used in conjunction with conventional
  medical therapies
• Alternative therapies methods of treatment that
  are used in place of biomedical therapies
• Even though the terms are different, alternative
  is usually applied whether or not the therapy is
  used in place of or in conjunction with
  conventional medical therapies

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Examples of CAM Practitioners

• Ayurvedic
• Chinese medicine
• Chiropractors
• Homeopaths
• Hypnotists
• Naturopaths

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Ayurvedic Practitioners

• Use an ancient philosophy, ayurveda, developed in
  India to determine a persons predominant dosha
  (body type) and prescribe diet, herbal treatment,
  exercise, yoga, massage, minerals, and living
  practices to restore and maintain harmony in the
  body

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Chinese Medicine

• Use ancient holistic-based healing practice based
  on the belief that an life energy (Chi) flows
  through every living person in an invisible
  system of meridians (pathways) to link the organs
  together and connect them to the external
  environment or universe
• Examples acupuncture, acupressure, tai chi, and
  herbal remedies

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Chiropractors

• Believe that the brain sends vital energy to all
  parts of the body through nerves in the spinal
  cord
• Use spinal manipulation, massage, and exercise to
  adjust the position of the vertebrae and restore
  the flow of energy

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Homeopaths

• Believe in the ability of the body to heal itself
  through the actions of the immune system
• Use minute diluted doses of drugs made from
  plant, animal, and mineral substances to cause
  symptoms similar to the disease and activate the
  immune system

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Hypnotists

• Help an individual obtain a trance-like state
  with the belief that the person will be receptive
  to verbal suggestions and able to make a desired
  behavior change

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Naturopaths

• Use only natural therapies such as fasting,
  special diets, lifestyle changes, and supportive
  approaches to promote healing
• Avoid the use of surgery or medicinal agents to
  treat disease

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NCCAM

• Because of the increased us of CAM therapies, the
  federal government established the National
  Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine
  in 1992.
• Purpose is to research the various therapies and
  determine standards of quality of care

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AND.

• We are done with another one! ?