The United States of America is the pioneer in biomedical research, medical problem solving, medical technology, and hospitals. The country is focused on ensuring that every citizen has access to the healthcare system and is provided with quality care. This issue is of great concern to both the general public and the policymakers. However, the United States has been experiencing higher homicides, diseases, and transportation injuries. These cases have resulted in higher mortality within the country. A health reform plan must be initiated so that the health status of the citizens is enhanced and prevent high mortality rates.
In the United States, there are many people in the country who have not been insured. Universal health coverage is currently not offered by the government, making access to health care services by the people in marginalized places such as rural areas, slums, and frontier communities difficult (Wilensky & Teitelbaum, 2019). The country has a shortage of family physicians and a weak primary care foundation. Many people in America are dependent on the emergency department for chronic, acute, and preventive care. Many people depend on their pockets to cater to medical expenses such as pharmaceuticals and healthcare services. Many people have reported problems in paying their medical bills, and the problem has dramatically expanded in the country.
Based on the above problems that most American citizens face, it is essential to have a healthcare reform plan. The plan is to solve the problem of universal health coverage and healthcare interventions that reduce the number of deaths from accidents, diseases, and injuries. Currently, there is a conflict between federal and state policies. The federal and the state have debated the distribution of power (Wilensky & Teitelbaum, 2019). The two have a significant impact on the performance of health care. The health care system requires the existence of the two bodies for its full potential. However, the conflict between the federal and the state government negatively affect the healthcare system. For example, the state government regulates the benefits of the healthcare employee, and the federal employee retirement income act limits the state’s ability to regulate. This issue has significantly deterred the regulation in which many employers get health insurance. The national government has taken other practices that were used to be handled by the states, such as regulation of medical drugs sellers. These factors result in conflict between the federal and the state healthcare officials.
The current approach of healthcare focuses less on spiritual, family support, and nutrition. The spiritual belief and culture of the patient are not given much concern when delivering healthcare and are perceived as differences between people. The family support involved during healthcare services is given less consideration, making it ineffective for the patients. The nutritional care provided is not patient-centered as it does not include the patient. However, with the standard care approach, a nutritional support team collaborates with the primary care team to manage the patient’s nutritional support therapy for the patients who require the therapy (Ukleja et al., 2018). Most of the patients who require nutritional therapy usually are not recognized by the healthcare service providers. The nutritional support team focuses on improving the patient’s outcome, reducing hospitalization lengths, and cost-effectiveness (Ukleja et al., 2018). The nutritional team varies their activities depending on the attributes of the hospital. The team is organized with a supervisor who foresees the activities of the nutrition service team.
The nutrition service team is responsible for regularly reviewing the performance, adverse conditions, patient outcome, and the quality indicators related to the nutrition support therapies. The team will generate progress reports to the internal and external stakeholders for review (Ukleja et al., 2018). The team will be providing recommendations on the protocols, procedures, and policies which will aid in the improvement of the nutrition support therapy. The administration of the nutrition care and the nutrition support therapy will use feedback loops (Ukleja et al., 2018). These loops include nutrition screening, nutrition assessment, nutrition care plan development, implementation, patient monitoring, plan evaluation, evaluation of the healthcare setting, and reformulation or nutrition therapy termination.
With family support, the development of Family-centered care (FCC) has numerous benefits to the patient. FCC helps the patient, family, and healthcare service providers make sound decisions significant to the patient’s well-being. This approach focuses on planning, evaluation, and delivery of healthcare on mutual benefits. Through this, the healthcare relationship is redefined by concentrating on the collaboration among all ages, in every healthcare system, and at all levels (Cates et al., 2018). In this healthcare model, the families and the patients decide on their participation strategy in decision making with the main agenda of promoting the well-being and health of the patients. FCC focuses on the significance of the families and the patients on ensuring safety through education, research, policy development, and facility design (Kim et al., 2019). Patient- and family-centered care positively impacts health outcomes, staff satisfaction, improved patient, resource allocation, and family experience of care. The main concepts of FCC include dignity and respect, information sharing, participation, and collaboration.
There has been rising concern on the spiritual impact on the healthcare of a patient. Through spiritual identity, the comprehension of illness varies depending on the religious group. For example, individuals who engage in church activities influence their perception of certain diseases (Taylor, 2019). For example, diseases that are associated with sexual intercourse have a different understanding of the religious section. The spiritual journey of patients is impacted by the disease and the type of treatment employed. Spiritual beliefs play a critical role in medical decisions because a patient may conflict about a particular treatment, which affects the compliance to those treatments. Religious practices such as prayer significantly impact the patient’s knowledge regarding the illness, treatment, and coping with overall health outcomes. To enhance the performance of the patients, patient-centered approaches have been considered the best solution as it involves analysis of the patient’s culture and spiritual beliefs that affect personal and community level (Taylor, 2019). Through the employment of health promotion efforts, religious institutions in a community play a crucial in promoting the change of behavior and attitude towards healthcare.
Public health providers have a significant role in protecting, improving, and promoting people’s healthcare and community. In this reform plan, public health officials have to be prepared in case of an emergency or disaster. The reform plan incorporates coordinated training that will help public health in such times. Health facilities differ in their way of operation from one state to another. The variation in their operation has been a significant challenge in public health preparedness (Salarvand et al., 2017). The reform plan incorporates various strategies that aid in promoting health preparedness. In this plan, non-health sectors are involved in assessments, planning, and intervention that help in strengthening public preparedness. Health issues are not perceived as the sole duty of healthcare alone. Other organizations are involved in enhancing healthcare performance, despite collaboration of health sectors with other sectors being a problem, strategic plan and involvement aids in solving the issue.
Legislation of the reform plan through the implementation of policies is significant in enhancing public health preparedness. Such legislation includes roles and responsibilities in an emergency. Furthermore, the reform plan incorporates progress measurements which helps in promoting accountability in emergency preparedness (Wilensky & Teitelbaum, 2019). The government will spend approximately 6.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on implementing this healthcare plan (Wilensky & Teitelbaum, 2019). This percentage will help the healthcare facilities promote and enhance their services, thereby promoting the health status of the citizens.
In conclusion, there has been a medical disparity in the United States of America. The country is focusing on ensuring that every citizen has access to quality healthcare. This is because there is a higher prevalence of diseases, homicides, and transportation injuries that require a reform plan. Many people have not been insured, making access to quality healthcare a significant problem. The majority of people who suffer much are from marginalized places. Creating a reform plan is vital in solving the current problems of health coverage and healthcare intervention. However, the conflict between the state and federal systems has a critical impact on healthcare performance. The current healthcare approach has focused less on the relationship between nutrition, family support, and spiritual beliefs. These factors are significant in ensuring the well-being of the patients and healthcare at large. The standard approach considers the impact of nutrition, family support, and spiritual beliefs in delivering quality healthcare to patients. To ensure healthcare preparedness in times of disaster and emergency, the reform plan includes non-healthcare sectors to aid in assessment, planning, and intervention. Additionally, legislation is also incorporated to ensure accountability in emergency or disaster strikes.
References
Cates, D., Gomes, P., & Krasilovsky, A. (2018). Behavioral health support for patients, families, and healthcare workers. Bioemergency Planning, 195-214. Web.
Kim, G., Choi, E., Kim, H., Kim, H., & Kim, H. (2019). Healthcare transition readiness, family support, and self-management competency in Korean emerging adults with type 1 Diabetes Mellitus. Journal of Pediatric Nursing, 48, e1-e7. Web.
Salarvand, S., Azizimalekabadi, M., Akbari Jebeli, A., & Nazer, M. (2017). Challenges experienced by nurses in the implementation of a healthcare reform plan in Iran. Electronic Physician, 9(4), 4131-4137. Web.
Taylor, E. (2019). Health outcomes of religious and spiritual belief, behavior, and belonging: Implications for healthcare professionals. Spirituality in Healthcare: Perspectives for Innovative Practice, 67-82. Web.
Ukleja, A., Gilbert, K., Mogensen, K., Walker, R., Ward, C., Ybarra, J., & Holcombe, B. (2018). Standards for nutrition support: Adult hospitalized patients. Nutrition in Clinical Practice, 33(6), 906-920. Web.
Wilensky, S., & Teitelbaum, J. (2019). Essentials of health policy and law (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.