The healthcare delivery system is made up of complex elements that work together through coordination in order to form a spectrum of facilities. The spectrum of facilities offers a number of locations of discharge locations. The discharge locations are available to increase the effectiveness of a patient’s hospital course. The significance of understanding the various care facilities is based on the fact that transition of patients that is effective is a salient part of providing quality healthcare (Heery, et al., 2015). As such, this essay seeks to develop such understanding of the various care facilities that exist in the United States. The paper discusses the spectrum of health care facilities, their goals and purposes, their methods of coordination, their leadership, and their similarities and differences. The knowledge gained is specifically important for the development of transition models for patients through the identification of the best discharge location.
Discussion
The spectrum of health care facilities in the United States includes a diverse structure that seeks to offer quality healthcare services to patients. The current facilities include all services from primary to secondary healthcare, which involve both the private and public institutions. The main facilities include; aged care, ambulatory surgery, behavioral health management facilities, outpatient facilities, palliative care facilities, maternity and child care facilities, and psychiatric health facilities. The structure of the facilities ensures effective transition of patients from one facility to the other following on referrals. The facilities are structured around the primary and secondary healthcare services offered. In addition, there are a number of special facilities that are dedicated to specialized care models such as assisted living programs and assisted living residence facilities. The specialization of the different facilities ensures access to specialized care for the patient. This increases the quality of health outcomes of the country (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017).
The purpose of the aged care facilities is to offer specialized care to elderly and aging individuals by increasing their quality of life. The purpose of the ambulatory surgery facility is to offer outpatient surgical services to the patient, where the procedure does not require overnight boarding. The purpose of behavioral health management facilities is to offer long-term care services to patients with advanced behavioral issues such as aggression and disruptive behaviors. The comprehensive outpatient facilities have the main purpose of offering alleviative and preventive care services to the patients. The purpose of the palliative care facilities is to offer a wide variety of clinical services to the patient in order to improve their quality of life. The purpose of maternity and childcare facilities is to offer preventive and curative services to expectant mothers and newborns. Lastly, the psychiatric health facilities offer specialized care services including rehabilitation with primary psychiatric conditions through inpatient care (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017).
The different facilities work together through referrals. This occurs where a patient with care needs beyond the current form of care is transitioned to a different facility. The facilities collaborate through patient information sharing between the different specialists. In addition, the facilities work together by offering interdisciplinary healthcare services where it is required. Through this process of collaborative decision-making and intervention implementation, the various health care facilities achieve holistic care models. Holistic care models are where different models of care are integrated into a single model of care in order to achieve overall health outcomes. Holistic care approaches ensure that the individual does not achieve differentiated healthcare outcomes across the different aspects of health. In some cases, institutions would have a combination of some of the significant facilities within one organization in order to allow effective transition between facility spectrums (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017).
Leadership and management of facilities is a key aspect of achieving the required and projected levels of care. However, given the difference of services offered by the different facilities, the individuals responsible for the oversight of the facilities would require different professional knowledge and leadership styles (Slayton, et al., 2015). In the United States healthcare industry, the facility oversight is a complex process which fosters regulation. While complexity hinders efficiency of the organization, the United States system of oversight allows for the development of public confidence in the organization. This is due to the ability of responsibility reporting and the identification of culpability. The complexity of the regulation sees to it that the healthcare industry is focused on quality of patient care and safety. The facilities are therefore under the responsibility of the regulatory body established to monitor the actions of practitioners specialized with the care model offered by the facility.
The similarities of the healthcare facilities are based on the objective of the process of care. This is due to the fact that the overall purpose of the healthcare industry is governed by the federal government which develops national security objectives as concerns national health outcomes. Additionally, the industry objectives such as patient safety and the processes of achieving such objectives are also similar across the different facilities. However, there are differences in the method of care intervention between the different facilities. For instance, the method of care intervention for palliative care is the improvement of quality of life of patient, while that of an ambulatory surgery facility is to alleviate issues through outpatient surgeries. As such, the differences emerge from the methods of practice that is employed in the organizations. Another difference is with regards to the staffing structure of the facilities. Given the differences in care practices, the practitioners required to deliver the care would be different in-between different care models (National Center for Health Statistics, 2017).
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- National Center for Health Statistics. (2017). Health, United States, 2016: with chartbook on long-term trends in health. National Center for Health Statistics.
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