It’s no secret that today’s healthcare environment predicts an unsteady future for Americans, making physician outsourcing an attractive solution for hospitals, and healthcare facilities.
The Institute of Medicine, a nonprofit organization, with its mission being to serve as adviser to the nation, in order to improve health, advocates change, according to a recent study reported by The John A. Hartford Foundation. The IOM’s vision incorporates six essential elements of quality: effectiveness, efficiency, safety, timeliness, patient-centeredness, and equity. While these elements of patient care might seem like obvious healthcare fundamentals to physicians, I’d be willing to bet that performance measurements from a substantial number of American hospitals would prove that the obvious, is often overlooked.
Effectiveness, efficiency, safety, timeliness, patient-centeredness, and equity are the guiding principles behind a standard of care that many dictionaries and references sites, including Wikipedia, call “healthcare team work.” It is defined as, “a dynamic process involving two or more healthcare professionals, with complementary backgrounds and skills, sharing common health goals, and exercising concerted physical and mental effort in assessing, planning, or evaluating patient care.” Wiki goes on to say, that team work is, “increasingly advocated by healthcare policy makers as a means of assuring quality and safety in the delivery of services regarding patient care.”
The Foundation’s study determined that, according to the IOM, until more studies are confirmed, the team care model has yet to be established as the standard of care. In efforts to prove the model successful, the IOM has been encouraging team care grantees to develop measurable models, illustrating real medical situations.
The IOM recognizes the team care approach as the ideal change needed in today’s healthcare forum. Because the organization is a major player in U.S. healthcare, I understand the significance of outsourced physician services and how such service providers can easily be the fix to mend hospital-related issues. Maybe successful companies that are currently practicing this model will be the push that makes the team care approach the new standard of care. Until then, the future of healthcare for hospitals and patients, alike, will most likely remain shaky.