Impact of Uninsured Population:
Prepare a respone discussing the potential impact that your proposed trends will have upon the following criteria below. (USE SAME ORGANIZATION MENTIONED BELOW)
• Staffing levels, particularly skilled nursing and other health professionals.
• Human resource management and development.
• Technology advancements
• Organizational restructuring
• Financial solvency
• Development of community health support services
• Communication with key stakeholders in the community, government
Please use the APA format guidelines when preparing the paper.
Please use the APA format guidelines when listing references.
Presbyterian Hospital of Denton.
Summarize the mission, structure, and current community position of the organization.
The mission of the Presbyterian Hospital of Denton is to improve the health care in communities its serves and establish meaningful relationships with patients, families, physicians and employees. The Presbyterian Hospital of Denton has a positive attitude towards serving the community, achieve excellence in professions and serve, develop relationships of care and compassion, have integrity in its relationships and ameliorate the lot of its patients. Presbyterian Hospital of Denton wants to assume healthcare leadership in the region(Presbyterian Hospital of Denton 2008),.
The structure: The Presbyterian Hospital of Denton is managed by a Board of Trustees under the chairmanship of Bill Patterson.. It has eleven members and the day to day management is vested with the CEO Stan Morton. The other top managers are The Chief Operating Officer, the Chief Nursing Officer and Chief Financial Officer. There are three medical staff officers and ten nursing leaders in charge of different services. Eleven physicians form the physician leadership group.
The Presbyterian Hospital of Denton is well positioned in the community; it is responsible for events like health education classes, workshops, free health screenings. and health fairs. The Presbyterian Hospital of Denton also takes help of 70 volunteers who assist patients and staff members. It occupies an important position in the community. Its opening was attended by more than 1,000 persons in 2005 and it threw open its doors to the community to tour the hospital. Since then there have been several events that have brought the hospital close to the student community. For instance, there have been skin cancer screening camps, prostrate cancer screening cams, opening of the center for women, opening of the neonatal intensive care unit, and charitable donations made.
Define key historical impacts (political, economic and legislative impacts) upon the development of the health organization over the last five to ten years.
The Presbyterian name was well known and respected in the area of Denton. There was an acute need for a community hospital that would have the latest facilities. Then a historic partnership between Triad Hospitals and Texas Health Resources took place. This was a strategic partnership between Triad and Texas Heath Resources.
Analyze the population demographics of the service area, detailing the needs and health practices of the uninsured and underinsured.
Texas has the highest rate of residents without health insurance. Almost 5.7 million Texans are without health insurance coverage. In addition, with the reduction in the facilities of the Flow Hospital the problem has increased even more. 82 percent of the uninsured are from working families as only 53 percent of Texan employers provide health coverage. Even now the employer sponsored coverage is falling in Texas (Texas Hospital Association 2008), in Denton alone it is estimated that 7.3 percent of Denton County’s 504,650 residents live below the poverty line(Byline, K.M 2008), The need for care for the uninsured is especially great in the area of Denton. Not only are employers refusing to provide medical insurance, there is a sizable population below the poverty line. The Presbyterian Hospital of Denton has an important role to play in this area. Not only does it accept uninsured patients in its emergency rooms but it also has well defined procedures for taking in uninsured patients.
Propose trends in utilization patterns for the organization based upon the above information. Based on the above information, the situation is that when a person that does not have health insurance needs specialist’s appointment; he is required to wait for a long time. This time level can range from a couple of weeks to ten month. In the interim the patient suffers. Presbyterian Hospital of Denton requires uninsured patients to make a deposit first. This is treated as a down payment and this expedites the appointment of the uninsured. There is no need for low income, underinsured or uninsured Denton citizens to wait for a long time before getting specialist attention. The utilization pattern for Presbyterian Hospital of Denton will increase if there are grants to support the uninsured and underinsured patients. These grants will help reduce the deposit amounts that the uninsured need to pay and increase the utilization of the facilities. Presbyterian Hospital of Denton doctors spend several hours every weak in examining and treating patients referred to them by safety net organizations and community health care centers. Presbyterian Hospital of Denton has facilities for providing uninsured patients surgical procedures and follow up treatment free of cost. Presbyterian Hospital of Denton partners with Denton health centers, public hospitals and community clinics to provide health care services to low income Denton residents.
In Texas there are 5,548,767 that are uninsured (Statehealthfacts.org 2006), if Presbyterian Hospital of Denton wants to make a dent in the uninsured market, it must be able to publicize that it charges extremely low down payments from the uninsured. It is known that supplemental payments demanded from the indigent are in several cases not paid. There are three activities that I propose will improve the utilization of Presbyterian Hospital of Denton facilities by the uninsured in Denton. The first is that Presbyterian Hospital of Denton should host an enrollment event in at least two community centers. This will provide opportunity to the uninsured to enroll with Presbyterian Hospital of Denton and provide them with necessary information to access health care. The second is to organize a health coverage forum that would help Presbyterian Hospital of Denton get grants for supporting the uninsured. The third is to distribute through community care centers information about free treatment programs and low-cost programs offered by Presbyterian Hospital of Denton.
Discuss the financial impact of the uninsured and underinsured on this organization over the last three to five years.
The financial impact of the uninsured and underinsured on Presbyterian Hospital of Denton from 2005 since it started the new hospital should be examined from two perspectives. The first is that Presbyterian Hospital of Denton receives its quota of mandatory emergency room uninsured patients. The emergency department’s 28 beds are accessible direct to the uninsured. There are two trauma rooms, two cardiac treatment rooms and two ob/gyn rooms. The emergency department was designed keeping in mind that this would be accessible to the uninsured. However, the use of these services increases the costs of Presbyterian Hospital of Denton. The second is accepting uninsured patients on payment of deposits. The deposit not only changes with the financial condition of Presbyterian Hospital of Denton but also with the grants available for treating uninsured patients. The system of deposits is such that it has prevented Presbyterian Hospital of Denton from being adversely financially affected by uninsured or underinsured patients. In several situations, deposits equal to the cost of treatment have been demand and recovered from uninsured patients. Such a strategy has been used when grants are not available and financial discipline needs to be ensured.
Treating uninsured or underinsured patients does not mean treating these patients free of cost. Asking for reasonable deposits not only improves the treatment provided to these patients but also helps stabilize the finances of Presbyterian Hospital of Denton. Presbyterian Hospital of Denton has provided uninsured and underinsured patients treatment free of cost but the norm for such patients is that they are required to pay a deposit before they are admitted.
In general, since the economy is deteriorating, there is a larger number of employers that do not offer medical insurance. The result is an ever-growing body of uninsured and underinsured patients. The treatment of these patients should not lead to a financial sickness of the health care industry. The Presbyterian Hospital of Denton presents an excellent model that can be adapted by different hospitals to provide health care services to the uninsured and at the same time protect itself from financial loss. Finally, I would recommend that hospitals like Presbyterian Hospital of Denton should be supported with well timed grants so that they can provide more uninsured and underinsured workers health care services free of charge.
References:
Byline, K.M (2008), Health Clinic Will Help Uninsured in Denton County, Texas, retrieved on May 29, 2008 from;
https://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-7672289_ITM
Presbyterian Hospital of Denton (2008), About Us, retrieved on May 29, 2008, from: https://www.dentonhospital.com/AboutUs/default
Statehealthfacts.org (2006), Health Insurance Coverage of the Total Population, retrieved on May 29, 2008, from:
https://www.statehealthfacts.org/comparebar.jsp?ind=125&cat=3
Texas Hospital Association (2008), State’s Uninsured Crisis Affects Health of All Texans; retrieved on May 29, 2008, from:
https://www.texashospitalsonline.org/PressRoom/StultzSpeaksonUnins09F0.asp