- Please respond to this 4 peers’ Discussion Prompts
- Respond to at least two (2) of your classmates’ or your instructor’s posts. Your responses should include elements such as follow-up questions, a further exploration of topics from the initial post, or requests for further clarification or explanation on some points made.
peer# 1
Social determinants of health, SDOH, are the conditions in the environments where people are born, live, learn, and age that affect a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes and risks (CDC, 2021). SDOH can be grouped into five domains: economic stability, education access and quality, healthcare access and quality, neighborhood environment, and social context (CDC, 2021).
My hypothetical female patient is an African American living in a low income, urban community. Her background and social determinants of health will have a negative impact on her management of diabetes and the state of her health. 1 in 5 African American people are living below the federal poverty level, meaning that many of them cannot afford the nutritious food, safe exercise opportunities, and healthcare needed to manage diabetes (Kenney et al., 2021). According to Kenney et al. (2021), people of color in America are also more likely to be unemployed. Unemployment can affect a person’s access to health insurance, and with the high cost of healthcare, a lack of health insurance can mean lack of preventative healthcare. Even for people who have insurance, the costs of diabetes care and diabetes-friendly nutrition plan can be challenging for people with low incomes (Kenney et al., 2021).
Segmenting patients with common health conditions can improve their care management. If care is to be truly centered on the patient, the patient’s specific care needs and other characteristics must be addressed (Vuik et al., 2016). Though it is practically impossible to develop care models for each individual, programs can be created for groups of patients with largely similar characteristics (Vuik et al., 2016). By segmenting patients with common health conditions, their healthcare needs can be optimally met and care is more patient centered. When a population is segmented into groups with similar patterns of healthcare needs, policymakers may better understand a heterogeneous population, thus facilitating the planning of healthcare resources and interventions (Chong et al., 2019).
peer# 2
Background I have chosen for this female patient with type II diabetes is Hispanic that lives in an urban community and has a faith of Christianity. There are many social determinants that have impacted this female’s diagnoses. U.S. adults already have a 40% chance of developing type II diabetes, however, if you’re Hispanic, that chance increases to 50% more likely to develop diabetes and also at a younger age (CDC, 2020). Some sociocultural factors that increase Hispanics for type II diabetes are genetics, food, weight/activity, decreased access to education and healthcare and lower income.
According to the NIH, genes play a major role as a determinant in that genetic susceptibility to obesity and higher insulin resistance is at a higher rate in Hispanics than other races, increasing their chances of developing type II diabetes (Aguayo, et al, 2019). The foods Hispanics eat as part of their lifestyle and culture include foods that are high in fat and calories. Hispanics also tend to be less physically active than other races that increases their chance of diabetes as well (CDC, 2020).
Segmenting patients with others who have diabetes can positively help influence their day to day care and lifestyle overall. Different prevention strategies based on certain medications, lifestyle modifications and educational programs can help with group sessions (Aguayo, et al, 2019). Also, patient teaching and educating on diabetes self-management education (DSME) is a crucial element for people who have diabetes and is considered to greatly improve patient outcome.
peer# 3
Yes, healthcare professionals should always be prioritizing quality of care. And yes, quality must be a hard task to deliver at times, making consistent solutions even harder. But that should still always be at the forefront. As a future healthcare administrator, I do believe I can affect the quality of care a patient receives. Honestly, I think this is done simply by doing their job as honest and true as possible with the patient in mind. For example, part of the duties of the administration team is productivity. This refers to the overall efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the hospital (Langabeer &Helton, 2016). Assuming that the three factors of this concept (labor, capital, and management) meet an excellent standard, I don’t see why quality of care would be insufficient. Obviously, meeting these three factors at such a level of quality is very hard. And thus, we have different levels of satisfaction for all of these, bleeding into the satisfactory data of care.
I also believe KPI’s effect and ultimately improve outcomes for patients. Examples of KPIs include the three variables of productivity above: labor, capital, and management. These KPIs are able to steer the organization in the right direction and using the five principles of productivity management can help to keep the variables as high as possible. Assuming this is all in place, then I’m not sure I would see a reason for quality of care to be significantly low.
peer# 4
I do believe that a healthcare administrator can affect the quality of care a patient receives by how they have the capability to change patients’ lives with the use of informatics. With the use of informatics, it could help to improve clinicians’ ability to diagnose a patient (Doyle, 2019). Healthcare administrators also use technology aids to foster a healthy living habit, and the implementation of programs to help support patient’s personalized medicine (Doyle, 2019). In addition, healthcare administrators look for opportunities for sustainability in an organization which could lead to benefiting the overall quality-of-care patients receive (Doyle, 2019). This helps by increasing efficiency in an organization and saving on costs which then lead to help lower overall operational costs and allow a hospital to fund more money into their patient care (“Do Patient’s Think”, 2019). As for key performance indicators (KPI) I believe they help to improve outcomes for patients by helping to provide essential navigational tools for hospitals (Pourmohammadi et al., 2018). With the use of KPIs, hospital managers are able to identify the strengths and weaknesses and improve managerial performance in order to help better the overall outcomes of patients (Pourmohammadi et al., 2018). KPIs are helpful to an organization by helping them reach the specific goals they are trying to obtain through the observation and overall health of their business.
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