Health Care Services at Public Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics in US

Health Care Services at Public Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics in US

One: Fortunately, this week’s discussion truly hits close to home. As I mentioned in my introduction, I work full time at a Skilled Nursing Facility. One that had gone through Chapter 11 for over 3 years, yet was abruptly bought by a new company this past Friday. Although we knew we were for sale, it was still rather abrupt as there was no notice to employees until the day after the building’s name changed. In any case, in my first four days of working for this company I can tell that they take a much more complex systems approach to all aspect of healthcare delivery.

For example, though I am currently the Social Services Director and have been for almost 11 months, I was the business office manager for approximately 3 years. That said, I have a vested interest in the position as it was my pride and joy for that time frame, a position that I worked diligently at improving, reshaping what it was prior to my time to improve for the best. ALL that being said, when I met our knew boss I asked how Accounts Receivable was going to be taken care of from ALL of the insurances that we’ve been accepting. With our prior company they did somewhat centralized billing, somewhat decentralized billing which led to role ambiguity left and right within the position. I was stunned with his response. He said a third party was going to take care of all of the billing procedures with the facility. “A third-party company is better able to focus on making sure claims are resolved with minimal hassle, as they have no other job duties splitting attention away from the job of claims processing.” (Eckman, 2019)

Furthermore, along with being the Social Services Director I am also the HIPAA compliance officer. We had an hour long conference call with the third party that will be assisting us with any of our compliance issues (should there be any). Prior, our corporation just let us do whatever we wanted when it came to that responsibility. Whatever we saw fit for lack of better words.

The absent systems in place prior are likely what not only led to Chapter 11 but also subpar patient care.

References

Justin Eckman (2019) “The Convenient Function and Practical Value of Third-Party Medical Billing” Retrieved from https://fixmyclaim.com/the-convenient-function-and…

Two:A complex system is one in which there are so many interacting parts that it is difficult, if not impossible, to predict the behavior of the system based on knowledge of its component parts” (World Health Organization. The healthcare industry is forever adapting and involving to its people and surroundings. Technology, medications, and clinical trials are paving ways to new vaccines, cures, surgeries, medications and more. “The healthcare system, as a whole, is an example of a complex system” (Burns, L. R., Bradley, E. H., & Weiner, B. J. 2018). This year has put not only the United States through a crisis but the entire world with Coronavirus aka Coivid-19. It completely halting and changed most people if not every single person’s day to day life. Healthcare professionals were pushed to endeavor a new normal. Always adapting to new protocols and procedures. Covid-19 pushed the healthcare industry like no other illness/disease in the past, putting the whole world on lock down. Complex systems help healthcare staff have a better understanding of their everyday protocols and procedures and how to better implement them into their day to day tasks. “The pandemic will shift the paradigm of where our healthcare delivery takes place” (Politico Magazine). The pandemic has created a frenzy among people, pushing people to their limits. New protocols have been instilled in my facility among other facilities, creating a new norm for employees and patients. For example, my couple makes patients wait in their car before retrieving the patient for the office. There is no patient waiting in the front lobby, or any patient to patient contact. Patients comes straight from their car to one of our rooms. Patients that do not need an ultrasound or procedure done will have a telemedicine conference with our physician through a zoom call. This is a new policy put into place so there is less foot traffic in our office. We have implemented these polices for the safety of our patients and staff. Between patients we wipe, mop clean every inch of the room. Yes, this takes time, but it is for the greater good to keep my staff and patients clean. Before patients walk through the door, we take their temperature and go through a Covid-19 questionnaire. My company including myself have taken many steps to avoiding any kind of Covid-19 transfer. Covid-19 has created better complex systems within my company. Complex approach systems have created a better, safer environment for not only my company but for other companies across the globe.

References:

Burns, L. R., Bradley, E. H., & Weiner, B. J. (2018). Shortell & Kaluzny’s Health Care Management:

Organization Design and Behavior (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage.

Politico Magazine. 3/19/2020. Coronavirus Will Change the World Permanently.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/03/19/coronavirus-effect-economy-life-society-analysis-covid-135579#gov

World Health Organization. 2012. Systems and the effect of complexity on patient care.

http://www.who.int/about/licensing/en/index.html