Health Organization Evaluation – Kaiser Permanente

Health Organization Evaluation – Kaiser Permanente

Grand Canyon University: NRS-451VN

Health Organization Evaluation – Kaiser Permanente

A health system as an organization, that includes at least one hospital and at least one group of physicians that provide comprehensive care, including primary and specialty care, who are connected with each other and the hospital through common ownership or joint management and employ medical professionals such as nurses, physicians, and pharmacists. The World Health Organization defines a health care system as one, that consists of all organizations, people and actions with the goal in promotion, restoration, or maintenance of health that also includes efforts in influencing the determinants of health and direct health-improving activity (WOHOHHO, 2007). Kaiser Permanente’s dedication to patient care innovations, clinical research, health education, and improvement of community health is the vision of this organization and has been recognized as one of America’s leading nonprofit health care organizations and are a trusted partner in total health, collaboration with people to help thrive and create communities that are among the healthiest in the nation.

Health Organization Kaiser Permanente

Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente is recognized as one of America’s leading health care organization and not-for-profit health plan and currently serves approximately 12 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia (Kaiser Permanente 2020). The primary focus of the organization, is a patient-focused approach along with guidance of a multidisciplinary team. Kaiser Permanente strives for the commitment of care innovations and health education, continuous clinical research, and the support of community care (Kaiser Permanente, 2019). The establishment of a very distinctive and structured delivery of health care collaboration approach between the health care plan and the hospital with its medical team, provides a well-rounded benefit in patient care.

Readiness to Meet the Needs of Members of Kaiser Permanente

An enormous focus of Kaiser Permanente has been prevention, health education, and care management. Thru the application of the developed program, mortality rates from cardiovascular diseases and colon cancer, are considerably under the California average (Kaiser Permanente, 2019) and is dedicated to care for its members and communities’ health needs by addressing the social and environmental elements that generate barriers to a positive health outcome. A Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) is conducted by Kaiser every three years by collecting data, including online surveys and public data in efforts to identify the health needs of their members (Kaiser Permanente, n.d.). This information provides the organization with a stronger partnership to set improvement goals and implement changes needed in the community, but also provides data on needed community investment planning, designed to support economic opportunity more intentionally. An estimated 211,000 employees work for Kaiser, 39 hospitals and 680 medical offices were built, and 4,000 research studies are accounted for (Cooke, 2018). The economic growth is important to individual health of an organization, as well as the community health, as Kaiser Permanente partners with organizations of the community, city leaders, and public health advocates, the organization endeavors to incorporate the values, considerations, and health status into the public policy to grow as a community(Kaiser Permanente, n.d.).

Telemedicine Strategic Plan Implementation

Telemedicine is known as a remote delivery option of healthcare service, which in include assessment or consultations, as it permits healthcare providers to do evaluations, diagnosis, and treatment of patient using every-day technology without a face-to-face office visit. With help of such technology use, common barriers caused by either distance, lack of reliable, or overcrowded offices or emergency rooms, are made possible to overcome. It is also a convenient and time-saving way for patients to seek medical attention for minor and non-urgent needs. Using Telemedicine gives the Kaiser organization the capability to improve the patient’s quality of care for both medical and mental health conditions. A recent study results revealed a 38% lower admission rate and a 31% lower re-admission rete to the hospital. It also provides with 63% shorter hospital days compared to others, with higher engagement in the healthcare needs of patients and an estimated 19% savings for the organization over inpatient costs (Pande, Morris, Spettell, Feifer, & Gillis, 2015). With the support of Telemedicine within the Kaiser organization, immense cost-saving opportunities are established and makes it more convenient for members to stay engaged through their health care plans. Additionally, it can be very challenging, stressful, and often overwhelming to accommodate and average of twelve million members within the healthcare network. The accessibility of telemedicine can provide and ease on providers and healthcare workers, which improves job satisfaction and a healthier workplace.

Kaiser Permanente Network Overcrowding

Overcrowded emergency rooms and very long waits can make an important impact on a patients’ experience and satisfaction. This often leads to negative outcomes, which include possible healthcare complications and additional fees due to prolonged stay or additional testing. The most recent strike in California of an estimated 4,000 Kaiser mental health employers, was the result of staffing shortage and difficulty of patient to make appointment within a reasonable timeframe. Adults and children were presented with difficulties and no other options given, to seek proper mental health services. In many cases this delayed treatment and recovery of their mental health issues, causing an increase morbidity and mortality rates (Klivans, & Leitsinger, 2019). Use of Telemedicine is able to address staff concerns by providing enough time to take part in important patient care while providing the best possible patient care and safety. Many benefits of Telemedicine do not just affect patients, but also the organization itself and the healthcare professionals providing care to these patients. Use of the technology offers the ability to increase the number of patients seen, while lowering the number of clinicians needed for these patients and a faster access to specialists due to less wait time. Overall, this allows health care professional to prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, readmission, and transfers and make the organization more efficient and profitable.

MAST Model to Support Telemedicine

The introduction of a new multimodal telemedicine assessment tool, called Model for Assessment of Telemedicine Applications (MAST), was presented and provides the multidisciplinary assessment capability of telehealth technology systems within an organization. Three components are part of the assessment process. Through a preliminary assessment of the technology and the organization using such, the maturity of the technology is assessed. Next, outcomes of the multidisciplinary assessment in the application of Telehealth with seven domains are assessed. The domains are as followed; health problem and characteristics of the application, safety, clinical effectiveness, patient perspectives, economic aspects, organizational aspects, and sociocultural, ethical, and legal aspects. Last, an assessment of transferability is conducted in which the manageability of the evidence to the organization is considered (Dinesen, Nonnecke, Lindeman, Toft, Kidholm, Jethwani, … Nesbitt, 2016). Kaiser Permanente will gain a high-level of guidance and direction with the framework of the MAST model. Priorities of what is important to be measured when implementing telemedicine and how measurement should take place to assess its impact on healthcare delivery and patient outcomes are provided. It is important for a new technology application to accommodate the user needs and analyze tele medicine solutions at several levels. The technology also much be able to be user-friendly and engaging for the patient to use, to complement the patients care and strengthen the collaboration with the health care system to be effective.

Conclusion

Kaiser Permanente prides itself with the importance of advance in health standards to their members and the community. Providing strategies to form a strong framework with performance, growth, and leadership skills and continues to set standards for patient-centered, team-based, technology-enabled, culturally accessible, and evidence-based patient care.

References

Cooke, K. (2018). Kaiser Permanente: Integration, Innovation, and Transformation in Health Care. Retrieved from https://www.himss.eu/sites/himsseu/files/community/community_presentations/Kaiser_03-02-2018%20KP%20Cooke%20Overview.pdf

Dinesen, B., Nonnecke, B., Lindeman, D., Toft, E., Kidholm, K., Jethwani, K., … Nesbitt, T. (2016). Personalized Telehealth in the Future: A Global Research Agenda. Journal of medical Internet research, 18(3), e53. doi:10.2196/jmir.5257. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4795318/

Helbig, J. (2018). Reengineering Health Care Management. Nursing Leadership & Management: Leading and Serving. Retrieved from https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-and-serving/v1.1/#/chapter/5https://lc.gcumedia.com/nrs451vn/nursing-leadership-and-management-leading-and-serving/v1.1/#/chapter/5

Kaiser Permanente. (2019). Health Care Model. Retrieved from https://thrive.kaiserpermanente.org/care-near-you/northern-california/santarosa/about-us/health-care-model/

Kaiser Permanente. (n.d.). About Us: Advancing Innovation. Retrieved from https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/community-health/advancing-innovation

Klivans, L. & Leitsinger, M. (2019). KQED. The California Report. Kaiser Permanente Therapists Hold One-Day Strike in San Francisco Over Staffing Shortages. Retrieved from https://www.kqed.org/news/11760375/kaiser-permanente-therapists-hold-one-day-strike-in-san-francisco-over-staffing-shortages

Pande, R., Morris, P., Spettell, M., Feifer, R., & Gillis, W. (2015). The American Journal of Managed Care. Leveraging remote behavioral health interventions to improve medical outcomes and reduce costs. 21(2): e141-51. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26065105

World Health Organization. (2007). Everybody’s Business. Strengthening Health Systems to Improve Health Outcomes: WHO’s Framework for Action. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/healthsystems/strategy/everybodys_business.pdf