Healthcare delivery

INNOVATIONS IN HEALTHCARE DELIVERY. Proceedings of a conference held Brussels, 14th-15th... 

As one of her first initiatives after being sworn in as FDA Commissioner, Dr. Jane Henney established a Task Force to evaluate the system for managing risks of FDA-approved medical products. The Task Force assessed risk-management practices within the overall healthcare-delivery system, focusing on the roles and responsibilities of each participant. The Task Force s report Managing the Risks from Medical Product Use Creating a Risk Management Framework found that a systems framework for medical product risk... 

The current system is in crisis. The system has failed to address the needs of the developing world and it is in danger of failing to address the needs of the developed world too. But we know from the loM s report on the healthcare delivery system and from observations on the way complex adaptive systems behave that all the components of a system must share a goal in order to achieve it. So we know that reframing the obligations of one component of the system, the pharmaceuticals, will not be enough to achieve the outcomes we want. 

Phillips KA, Veenstra DL, Ramsey SD, Van Bebber SL, Sakowski J. Genetic testing and pharmacogenomics issues for determining the impact to healthcare delivery and costs. Am J Manag Care 2004 10 425-432. 

Prezant, D. J., Clair, J., Belyaev, S., Alleyne, D., Banauch, G. I., Davitt, M., et al. (2005). Effects of the August 2003 blackout on the New York City healthcare delivery system A lesson for disaster preparedness. Critical Care Medicine, 33, S96-SlOl. 

A Healthcare Provider Gains Strategic Marketplace Advantage. Kaiser Permanente, headquartered in Oakland, CA, a private not-for-profit healthcare provider serving 8 million members in 11 states and a leader in the healthcare delivery field, follows CSR recommendations wherever possible. Kaiser began efforts to replace PVC in carpets, vinyl composition tiles, and particleboard several years ago. 

Additional research efforts conducted at the Medical Affairs divisions of pharmaceutical companies include the study of Health Economics and Clinical Outcomes Research, which examines the effect of drugs on the cost of healthcare delivery, as... 

Based upon how these healthcare delivery and financial management strategies are designed and implemented, MCOs are classified into different types or models - HMOs, PPOs, point-of-service (POS) plans and integrated service networks. In addition, pharmacy benefit management organizations provide specialized services to managed care. 

Improving access, fostering appropriate use, and reducing unnecessary expenditures continues to be a challenge for the poor, the uninsured, minority groups, rural and inner city residents, and other priority populations. The agency supports studies of access, healthcare utilization, and expenditures to identify whether particular approaches to healthcare delivery and payment alter behaviors in ways that promote access and/or economize on healthcare resource use. 

AHRQ will promote the use of information systems to develop and disseminate performance measures, create effective linkages between health information sources to enhance healthcare delivery and coordinate evidence-based healthcare services, and promote protection of individually identifiable patient information used in health services research and healthcare quality improvement. 

With the most comprehensive food knowledge base and set of program features, Nutritionist Pro provides thorough analysis of diets, recipes, and menus. The intuitive user interface design and powerful functionality of Nutritionist Pro can help ease the workload and boost the productivity of nutrition professionals in virtually any healthcare delivery, food service, or educational setting. 

Site visits and confidential consultations in various healthcare delivery settings and throughout the healthcare industry. 

The Commission chose to define the environment as encompassing the healthcare delivery system, health professions education, the academic health center and research enterprise, and the related social, economic, and political forces which impact these three areas. It has did so by recognizing that this did not constitute the entire environment which could be considered in such a discussion. 

Creation by colleges and schools of action-oriented business plans that result in effective partnerships with practice organizations and healthcare delivery systems. 

Indicators provide a quantitative measure of an aspect of patient care that can be used in monitoring, evaluating, and improving the quality and appropriateness of healthcare delivery. An indicator may serve as a screen or red flag to identify a potential problem (postoperative infection rate, number of serious medication errors) or measure progress toward an established goal (percent of patients with atrial fibrillation who are anticoagulated). 

The objective of the conference was to identify the critical issues facing the pharmacy profession in the next 15 to 20 years. Keynote speakers described trends relating to public policy, technology, healthcare economics, and healthcare delivery. C. Douglas Hepler, Ph.D. presented an address coauthored by Linda M. Strand, Pharm.D., Ph.D. on pharmacy s opportunities and responsibilities in healthcare. This presentation was a milestone for pharmacy and defined pharmaceutical care as the responsible provision of drug therapy for the purpose of achieving definite outcomes that improve a patient s quality of life. ... 

The monetary costs to society due to these ADRs are equally hard to assess accurately, but recent studies have estimated the costs to range from 75 to 180 billion each year for adults alone. When compared to the costs of treating diseases such as diabetes ( 45 billion), cardiovascular disease ( 120-150 billion), or cancer ( 130-195 billion) we begin to truly realize the impact of this aspect of pharmacology on healthcare delivery. Yet another way to demonstrate the impact of ADRs is to realize that approximately 5% of all hospital admissions are a direct result of ADRs, and unfortunately incidence has not changed over the past 30 years. 

For the pharma-industry, the definition might be around the identification of a new product to promote at a time when pressures on margins and difficulties in research and development spell out an uncertain future. For health providers it might be a management-based approach to what has been traditionally a clinical-based service—and that spells erosion of power and influence. For politicians it can mean decoupling from the traditional path of healthcare delivery, spelling out patients worries, voter concerns, and re-election uncertainty. 

The foundation of DM is in well-honed contracts for service, a model that suits the US healthcare delivery mechanism and business methodology well. It is precisely because of its US antecedents that many NHS policy makers see DM taking us closer to a US model of healthcare that is, in the UK, widely perceived to have failed. This is a prejudice that is not without some foundation, when taking into account the concept of universality of access to healthcare that is a cornerstone of the UK system, and substantially missing in its US counterpart. 

From this, two facts emerge. First, it is not the best use of its time for a health service to focus on cutting expenditure on the drugs budget, since this is a tiny proportion of the cost. Second, it is inappropriate for the pharma-company to seek to increase market share in such a tiny market. Pharma-companies would do better to find ways of participating in the wider aspects of healthcare delivery— because that is where the money is DM, with its multifaceted and comprehensive approach, provides that vehicle. 

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