The health care system should be improved to achieve the best results. Spreading of information concerning health care is considered to be an essential element that will minimize costs and will significantly improve the health care system. Many successful implementations of the IT technology in the health care system prove the importance of experiencing the same way of health care improvement worldwide, highlighting the fact that the usage of the information technologies in dealing with the health disparities has already received the highest priority.
Governments across the globe spend a tremendous amount of money to promote different IT programs in health care. Blackford Middleton, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Medical Informatics Association stated:
The value of healthcare information technology has never been more important. Identified as a key component of healthcare transformation to reduce costs and improve quality, deriving maximal value from considerable healthcare information technology investment in both the local office or hospital setting, as well as the national or societal context remains difficult (Kaye, Kokia, Shalev, Idar & Chinitz, 2010, 164).
It should be stated that the minority of American people face the problem of getting less or low-quality health care. The reason for this fact appears to be controversial and complex. Every country wants the population to live a prolific, healthy, and long life; however health disparities are considered to be the obstacle on the way to achieving the above-stated goal. It should be pointed out that health disparity is a difference in the health condition of people belonging to different subgroups. The disparity is often considered to be the consequence of severe economic or social surroundings (Elimination of Health Disparities, 2014, para. 1). Health disparity impacts people who had health difficulties based on their religion, gender, socio-cultural status, cognitive or physical disabilities (Elimination of Health Disparities, 2014, para. 1).
For people to get the same high-quality service, no matter their race or place of origin the health care system should be reformed. Inasmuch as every state should change the health care policy; they need to follow the example of the successful reform implementation. In Massachusetts, the health care reform law gave expanded access to health care. As a result, more than 400,000 uninsured people got a chance to attend medical institutions (Poghosyan et al., 2013, 7).
Physician assistants and nurses can ease the system of the primary care work; however, it should be stated that their practice is limited by the regulation of the state (Gadbois, Miller, Tyler & Intrator, 2014, p. 200). According to the report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health made by the Institute of Medicine the major component of the future changes in the sphere of healthcare is considered to be the nurse practitioner. By providing the nurse practitioners with the needed qualification the health care system will benefit in a significant way. First of all, it should be pointed out that it will apply the patient-centered approach and will dramatically increase the quality standards. There are more than 15% of nurse practitioners who work in the primary health care system, and the number of workers is growing every day. According to recent research, nurse practitioners contribute to the improvement of the health care system by providing high-quality care and cost minimization. Although nurse practitioners are beneficial for medicine, there are a lot of obstacles to implementing them into the system. The primary barriers are considered to be the following: cooperation with physicians while prescribing the needed medicine and lack of ability to sign specifically for the patients (Poghosyan et al., 2013, 7). However, it is significantly important to incorporate community health workers into the health care system, as it will be a new step in addressing the underserved populations (Allen, Himmelfarb, Szanton & Frick, 2014, 313).
People who provide health care should become role models for those who need treatment, as the behavior-changing process is necessary not only for nurses and doctors but patients as well. It is to make an accent that the primary barrier to improving smokers’ treatment is the smoking behavior of the providers (Schult, Awosika, Hodgson & Dyrenforth, 2011, 1143). The health behavior of the Veterans Health Administration differs depending on the occupation. It should be stated that licensed practical nurses and nursing assistants experience unhealthy behavior more often than those people who work in higher positions. Having lower income in the nursing profession and less studying process licensed practical nurses may face disparities. There is a connection between the index of people who smoke and their ethnic group (Schult, Awosika, Hodgson & Dyrenforth, 2011, 1143). Such disparities prove the importance of the promotion the health care programs and IT technologies.
In conclusion, it should be stated that the issue concerning the disparities is urgent and needs to be solved immediately as barriers affect human health in a significant way. The socio-cultural, political, religious, or ethnic question should never stand between a human being and health care providers.
References
Allen, J., Himmelfarb, C., Szanton, S., & Frick, K. (2014). Cost-effectiveness of Nurse Practitioner/Community Health Worker Care to Reduce Cardiovascular Health Disparities. The Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing, 29(4), 308-314.
Elimination of Health Disparities. (2014). Web.
Gadbois, E., Miller, E., Tyler, D., & Intrator, O. (2014). Trends in State Regulation of Nurse Practitioners and Physician Assistants, 2001 to 2010. Medical Care Research and Review, 72(2), 200-219.
Kaye, R., Kokia, E., Shalev, V., Idar, D., & Chinitz, D. (2010). Barriers and success factors in health information technology: A practitioner’s perspective. Journal of Management & Marketing in Healthcare, 3(2), 163-175.
Poghosyan, L., Nannini, A., Smaldone, A., Clarke, S., O’rourke, N., Rosato, B., & Berkowitz, B. (2013). Revisiting Scope of Practice Facilitators and Barriers for Primary Care Nurse Practitioners: A Qualitative Investigation. Policy, Politics, & Nursing Practice, 14(1), 6-15.
Schult, T., Awosika, E., Hodgson, M., & Dyrenforth, S. (2011). Disparities in Health Behaviors and Chronic Conditions in Health Care Providers in the Veterans Health Administration. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 53(10), 1134-1145.