The outcomes management method is based on four principles initially formulated by the original movement of medical professionals that promoted this approach to providing quality and effective therapy and care in the mainstream healthcare discourse. The first one is “greater reliance on standards and guidelines” (Quality of care and the outcomes management movement, n.d., para. 3). Our medical facility strictly follows the fundamental technical and ethical rules and regulations for providing appropriate treatment and support prescribed by the responsible American National Organizations and promptly adjusts itself to each current change. The second principle is “routine and systematic interval measures of patient function and well-being, with disease-specific clinical outcomes” (Quality of care and the outcomes management movement, n.d., para. 3). Our personnel has the human and technological capacities to utilize various multifaceted modern models of continuous assessment of the quality of care and the physiological state of patients.
The last two principles are yet to be fully implemented in the primary functioning mechanism of our healthcare facility. These are “pooled clinical and outcome data, and appropriate results from the data base analyzed and disseminated to meet the concerns of each decision maker” (Quality of care and the outcomes management movement, n.d., para. 3). While the vast majority of staff and management understand the need to connect and combine these types of patient information, the current established electronic document and records management system is still not set up to function in this way. Qualitative steps towards adapting and improving the system would be an appropriate upgrade of the software, advanced training of responsible technicians, strengthening the organization’s technical capacity, and a more engaging approach to organizational decision making.
Stress is a concomitant and influencing factor in a person’s physical and mental state when they are involved in any professional human activity. Its impact is admittedly negative on the organism and mind of the individual and, consequently, their performance (Patel et al., 2019). In health care in general, and care management specifically, low performance means worsening patients’ diseases and disorders, especially chronic and complex ones, and even increased mortality. I believe the occupation-related stress that medical professionals experience during care management practices and activities is the most urgent problem in this field.
The significance of the problem of receiving an incredible amount of stress by health workers is due to the broad scope of care management. According to experts, “population health is central” to this method of providing therapy and support (Care management, 2018, para. 1). The degree of effectiveness of health specialists is of critical importance there since it directly affects patient outcomes in all communities and social strata. Therefore, reduced performance due to the stress experienced leads to an overall decline in the quality of provided treatments, services and poorer population health on the institutional scale due to “a sense of reduced accomplishment” (Patel et al., 2019). Consequently, the institution becomes overburdened and negative phenomena such as skyrocketing prices and limited patient access to healthcare emerge. There are specific stress relief and coping techniques designed for medical professionals, but the difficulty with them lies in their subjectivity, as some professionals are not able to find the right and effective one. Another practice pitfall is the inability to avoid significant stress due to the scope of care management responsibilities and challenges.
References
Care management: Implications for medical practice, health policy, and health services research. (2018). Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Web.
Patel, R. S., Sekhri, S., Bhimanadham, N. N., Imran, S., & Hossain, S. (2019). A review on strategies to manage physician burnout. Cureus, 11(6), 1-10.
Quality of care and the outcomes management movement. (n.d.). American College of Emergency Physicians. Web.