Healthcare Systems in the Chicago City

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Introduction

Healthcare systems are bodies mandated to deliver medical services with a view of curbing diseases. The US government has strived to establish more health programs to promote the well-being of the ever-increasing population in the Chicago City. This essay provides an insight into the healthcare systems of the city by analyzing various needs of the people, policies, facility overviews, roles, and structures.

Major Healthcare Needs of Chicago City

The healthcare needs of the Chicago City are determined by analyzing various factors that include accessibility, cost of services, and sources of funding healthcare in both private and public facilities. Healthcare insurance is an aspect that is prioritized in the city.

Accessibility of Health

Authorities at the Chicago City are striving to improve the availability of healthcare services for its residents. This situation is ensured through the provision of quality and comprehensive healthcare, including primary care services (Fossett et al., 1992). The number of uninsured and underinsured people has been increasing regardless of the growth of many insurance firms in the city. Therefore, there is a need to encourage people to enroll in health insurance in an attempt to reduce costs that are incurred in hospitals. This situation will increase accessibility of healthcare to many citizens who dwell in the city (Luo & Wang, 2003).

Costs of Healthcare in Chicago City

Hartman, Martin, Nuccio, and Catlin (2010) reveal that the overall cost of healthcare services in Chicago City has been amplifying in the last rise in the last decade. It is approximated that the expenditure will increase to about 5 trillion dollars by 2021 (Hartman et al., 2010). This situation will account for about 20-percent of the country’s GDP.

Government Progress in Healthcare Services

The government has been implementing health policies and education programs. (Fossett et al., 1992). It has also strived create awareness of the importance of health cover amongst the city residents. Current health programs that are in place include Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, and High-Risk State Pools among others. The government plans to spend on medical care among its residents through the PPO. The PPO can offer deductibles, pay for care, and negotiate health care costs among others. This situation will ensure minimization of expenses (Hartman et al., 2010).

Figure 1: A graph showing how various strategies have been implemented in Chicago City to increase accessibility to healthcare. (Hartman et al., 2010).

Funding and Economic Indicators of the Chicago City

An economic indicator provides information on the economic performance of a given entity. It determines the future economic situation of a country or town. Various indicators in the economy include indices, salary and wages reports, consumer pricing indices, leveraging ratios, bankruptcy, gross domestic product, and stock markets among others (Hartman et al., 2010).

Various governmental agencies that seek healthcare funds include the Medicaid and CHIP. The two organizations fund Medicare and High-Risk State Pools (HRSP). Additional funds are also received from employers, associations, and higher learning institutions among others. The government of Chicago ensures that healthcare is supported through efficient management of resources. Partnerships are also established to solicit funds from investors.

Analysis of healthcare policies in both state and locality

The authorities of the Chicago City have implemented public health policies to guide delivery of medical services. An example of such policies includes the Patient Protection Policy Act (ACA) of 2010, which ensures public access to healthcare insurance. The person in charge of all public policies that are related to healthcare services is Jeremy Barewin. He is also the Vice President in charge of Marketing and Community Engagement at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (Luo & Wang, 2003).

Facility Overview

Relief Care Clinic

The Relief Care Clinic is a convenient type of healthcare facility that is located at the central business district of the Chicago City. The facility has been established to handle minor illnesses. It also serves as a collection point of samples that are used in laboratory analysis. This facility provides minimal services that lie between 15 and 25 of common diagnoses. The Relief Care Clinic is operates for about six hours in a day for five days in a week. It has six nurse practitioners with three assistants. The main service provided in the facility is treatment of both children and adult patients who are infected with common illnesses such as flu, cold, minor injuries, burns and scalds, allergies, physical therapy, and skin rashes among others.

Challenges to Providing Care in the Facility

Size of the Population and Behavior

The Relief Care Clinic operates in a densely populated area that demands better healthcare services. As a result, the management is striving to handle up to 500 patients per day. However, situations that are more complicated are referred to other healthcare facilities.

Challenges of behavior among children and adolescents

The behavior of children and adolescents has various implications for healthcare provision. They require a wide range of services that encompass developmental and behavioral care needs. Furthermore, provisions are supposed to be community-based, in-home, out-of-home, and support services. In most cases, the Relief Care Clinic refers such instances to well-developed healthcare centers and departments that provide behavioral health and developmental disability services to children and adolescents.

Resources Available, Cost, and Funding

An issue of inadequate resources leads to poor quality healthcare delivery. Most of the healthcare managers try to equip their facilities to serve the ever-increasing number of patients in the town efficiently. Funding for the Relief Care Clinic is a bit cumbersome. However, the current sources of funding are well-wishers, donors, personal savings, and the surrounding community members who wish to support the facility. Donors and well-wishers also subsidize some of the resources. This situation has minimized the overall expense made by the patients.

Challenge of Prevalence

Although the clinic has been successfully managing common infections, cases of new diseases that are related to lifestyle and complicated situations that crop up are always handled at referral hospitals.

Role and structure of information technology in the health facility

Information technology currently plays a vital role in improving the relationship between various individuals who are part of healthcare sectors. These individuals range from patients, their families, nurses or caregivers doctors, and any other person who is in the health service system.

Role of Information Technology in the Healthcare Facility

Various roles of IT in healthcare facility include communication, effective data management, and improvement of the relationship with patients and staff among others within the healthcare facility.

Structure of IT in the chosen Relief Care Clinic

The prospective IT structure will encompass a centrally placed server computer. This computer will store all the information in the hospital. Various departments will also have different computers, but the information will be delivered from the main source. The centrally placed computer will also ensure that the information from all the departments is stored collectively.

Strategy for IT implementation for Patient Record-Keeping

The prospective strategy will be robust and realistic. At the outset, a committee will be formed to handle the task of ensuring efficient IT systems, evaluation practices, and procedures. It will also encourage teamwork, allocation of enough resources, the storage and filing systems for all the departments will then be improved and stored digitally on the hospital website, and a periodic review will be conducted to ensure that the strategy of IT works efficiently.

IT strategy for Communication and Knowledge Access

A central computer that supplies the entire departments with information will be put in place. A link for communication with other computers in the various departments will then be created to ensure networking so that staff can access information required by the department with ease.

Reliance on Consultants and Vendors

Implementation of the IT strategy requires proper planning. Therefore, the entity management will consult various institutions and experts who can effectively install a feasible IT system. The equipment will also be outsourced from registered information technology vendors to provide proper equipment needed.

Funding Information Technology

Funds have to be obtained from personal sources, friends, well-wishers, and donors to ensure successful implementation of the strategy. In addition, the government will play a vital role in financing the implementation of information technology in the healthcare facility. Funds can also be obtained by acquiring loans from banks and other financial institutions.

A Vision Statement for the Facility

Relief care clinic will offer quality healthcare services to its clients to about 40 percent in the coming one year to be recognized as the leading healthcare service provider for all types of patients in three years’ time with fully equipped bed capacity of 200 for in-patients.

Conclusion

The essay has elaborated various healthcare needs in Chicago city. It also explains the policies that ensure accessibility of healthcare insurance to the city residents. It also focused on a number of challenges that healthcare institutions and patients face amidst the ever-increasing medical costs. As a result, there is a need to establish proper health insurance plans to curtail such problems in the near future.

Reference List

Fossett, J., Perloff, J., Kletke, P., & Peterson, J. (1992). Medicaid and access to child healthcare in Chicago. Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, 17(2), 273-98.

Hartman, M., Martin, A., Nuccio, O., & Catlin, A. (2010). Health spending growth at a historic low in 2008. Health Affairs, 29(1), 147-55.

Luo, W., & Wang, F. (2003). Measures of spatial accessibility to healthcare in a GIS environment: synthesis and a case study in the Chicago region. Environment, Planning B Planning, and Design, 30(1), 865-84.

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