Introduction
The quality of health services offered in rural areas is crucial to practitioners and patients; the functioning of the whole health care system determines the quality of health care the rural residents receive. Persons that need special care most of the time are forced to travel long distances to get the care required. Policymakers and leaders should give maximum attention to rural hospitals so that rural healthcare does not constantly rely on urban care. Quality assurance ought to be equally significant to rural health facilities clients as it is to urban hospitals. The paper is a case study on improving quality health care in state X. A billionaire intends to donate $3 billion; thus, it is upon the governor and aide to formulate a clear plan on how issues on health care, patients’ experience, and overall health of the state’s population are improved.
A detailed assessment strategy should be a crucial component of the entire project plan. The main objective is to ensure quality health care and patients’ experience. Therefore, the plan’s viability evaluation will be based on data collected from patients’ reports on their experiences, the wait times before being attended to, and satisfaction levels. Others are how their questions on current visits were handled by practitioners, their understanding of prevention plans, diagnosis, screening alternatives, or treatment choices provided during visits. Likewise, surveys are utilized to find outpatient-practitioner interaction and how they felt concerning the care offered. Another critical factor that involves efficiency that is analyzed is the number of visits regarding a client’s similar complaint. For example, if the site’s efficiency reduces, and if the same client is seen over and over for the same illness.
Where the Main Shift of Resources Will Occur
Since the state is represented, it is vital to be aware of the state’s role in health care. In line with the U.S. Health Department (2018), the state is supposed to fund and run Medicaid, health practitioners’ provider licenses, and mental healthcare that is customer driven. Those areas in which the government is in will have major resource shifts. The extra shift in resources is witnessed in early intervention and illness prevention. Patient education, including illness prevention and maintenance, should be emphasized more. For instance, a patient newly diagnosed with Hepatitis C virus should enrol in a class on cure and prevention of the reoccurrence of the virus to avoid further transmission to other individuals.
Knowledge and awareness of their ailment can improve patient satisfaction since they will better understand their situation. Besides, the number of transmitted infections will reduce since Hepatitis C patients will be cautious enough not to infect others. Suppose patients can effectively manage their Hepatitis C virus infections. It could assist with lowering costs since there will be no new infections translating to fewer interventions and medications. This will eventually lead to a general improvement in the state’s health and decrease related health care costs. Analysis of long-standing results of hospitalized persons can help evaluate the success of this resource allocation plan.
How the Billionaire Can Assess If the Governor’s Plan Is Satisfactory
The billionaire and the governor might have different viewpoints on what makes good healthcare. They are various stakeholders within the government, and their ideas of what is satisfactory could be different. The central state interest could be providing better medical and preventive care access to the underprivileged. In contrast, the billionaire’s satisfaction could only come from adopting improved technology and state-of-the-art equipment at the health facility. But again, since there is only one goal: to ensure the quality of health care with improved patient experience, the billionaire and the governor might have the same mindset. The only sure way is to ask the billionaire what will bring satisfaction. The goals of the billionaire will determine the level of satisfaction. The billionaire can assess the state plan on various factors; how the health facility utilizes resources, the satisfaction level of patients, the general cost of health services, cost incurred by each patient, and outcome of results such as prognosis and rate of illness.
To develop effective healthcare plans for the state, there is a need to identify key areas of strengths and improvements concerning the present structure of the health facility. Afterwards, a comparison is made on the currently existing medical plans that have been a success in the country, especially those utilized for urban areas. Comparing and contrasting different medical plans will enable state X governor to develop a unique plan that perfectly fits the needs of the state.
One way of evaluating the plan’s success is by including patient survey questionnaires. This can be used to gauge various aspects comprising care quality offered, access to care, prognosis, affordability rate, ease of treatment, nature of communication with health practitioners, customer service, cost transparency and satisfaction of patients. Assessing patient satisfaction is a critical part of a patient-centred plan. Patient contentment is used to evaluate and advance health facility services, compare various approaches and systems, and identify areas that need improvement (Almehman et al., 2019). Highlighting areas of improvement is significant for the state and other parties interested in the healthcare system. It is also crucial for patients to know their experiences and opinions are valued.
Actions Following the Delivery of Funds
The governor should increase access to health care performance. Most patients at the state level have problems with transportation since many finances at the state level are set apart for Medicaid. Therefore, mobile medical clinics will be sent to areas of need, day clinics will be built near local churches, and schools or new clinics will be built in regions that need immediate health services. Likewise, since clients will be near the health facilities, offering healthcare services will be easy if consumers are healthy. In the U.S., illnesses such as diabetes, liver-related diseases, cancer, COVID-19 and hypertension are associated with high-cost of treatment (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022). Thus, the state X governor will establish a change that will ensure a focus on disease prevention instead of waiting for the client’s subsequent treatments.
The long-term effect will be the prevention of expensive diseases to manage, reducing expenses incurred in the long run. To develop patient-based education, the program should aid in adverts such as billboards, T.V., booths, churches, schools, grocery stores, and malls. Significantly, the activities are incorporated into the overall plan to ensure high patient compliance due to awareness and understanding. Public policymakers and other supporters of health facilities development must comprehend the needs of both practitioners and customers to come up with a plan that can deliver better health facility care.
The public can easily perceive a reduction in cost and increased taxes negatively. The best approach to conducting a sustainable healthcare performance is reducing healthcare demand. Reducing demand for health care is achieved by promoting a healthy standard of living together with early preventive care. On the supply part, practitioners should utilize the evidence-based medication for the most cost-effective plus general efficient treatment, as allocating the health facility funds will keep the costs within manageable budgets. The best way of creating equality and retaining the highest number of satisfied clients is by balancing the demand-supply curve. Streamlining the health facility delivery channel is significant in achieving a successful improvement via the executed plan. Patients cannot get constant and coordinated care as the delivery channel of health care is fragmented.
Conclusion
The paper has discussed how the governor can improve quality health care in State X, a rural state in the U.S. Criteria for assessing the plan’s viability are conducted. Evaluation of the plan’s viability will be based on data collected on patients regarding their experiences and level of satisfaction. The billionaire sponsoring the project must be able to state common goals to ensure the governor delivers a good plan. There are many actions undertaken to provide health care performance after the delivery of funds by the billionaire. They are focusing on disease prevention, patient-based education programs, and making mobile units for the delivery of health services readily available to curb the problem of transportation to the nearest health centre. Alternatively, day clinics are established near facilities like schools and churches if the need arises. The state should ensure the supply-demand curve is balanced to keep a large number of consumers satisfied.
References
Almehman, B. A., Mikwar, Z., Balkhy, A., Jabali, H., Hariri, B. S., & Baatiah, N. Y. (2019). Measuring patient satisfaction and factors affecting it in the general surgery setting in Jeddah. Cureus, 11(12), e6497.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Leading causes of death.
U.S. Health Department. (2018). Reforming America’s healthcare system through choice and competition.