Aspen N502 Full Course Latest 2019 September

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 1 Assignment

Health care
planners could be more effective and efficient if they used the concept of the
natural history of disease and the levels of prevention to design services that
intervene at the weakest link in the chain of progression of specific diseases.
Instead, most focus on high-technology solutions to preventable problems.
Assess the characteristics of the medical care culture that encourage the
latter approach.

Hospitals
and other health care institutions, whether voluntary or for-profit, need to be
financially solvent to survive growing market pressures. Describe how this
“bottom line” focus has changed the nature of the US health care
system.

The
insurance industry plays a huge role in the American health care system and
absorbs a significant portion of the health care dollar. A single payer system,
whether it is a private company or the US government, would eliminate the
complex insurance paperwork burden and free substantial funds that could be
diverted to support care for the under-served. Why do you believe that so much
resistance to a concept used in every other developed country has continued in
the U.S.?

Please
submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the
title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of two scholarly
sources, in addition to the textbook.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 2 Assignment

Professional
Development Assignment

Based on
what you have learned so far this week, create a PowerPoint presentation with
detailed notes for each slide that addresses each of the following
points/questions. Be sure to completely answer all the questions. Use clear
headings that allow your professor to know which bullet you are addressing on
the slides in your presentation. Support your content with at least four (4)
citations throughout your presentation. Make sure to reference the citations
using the APA writing style for the presentation. Include a slide for your
references at the end. Follow best practices for PowerPoint presentations (an
example is located in the Resources tab) related to text size, color, images,
effects, wordiness, and multimedia enhancements.

Title Slide
(1 slide)

For a
hospital to operate efficiently and effectively, the three important influences
in its governance, medical staff, board of trustees, and administration, must
work together in reasonable harmony. What factors contribute to the tension
that usually exists among them? (4 slides).

Organizations
such as the LeapFrog Group represent a growing trend to survey and report on
the quality of hospital care and to make the findings available to the public.
What are your opinions about the public’s readiness to deal with having this
information available and using it to make choices about medical care? (2-3
slides)

Hospitals
are facing unprecedented financial challenges from entrepreneurial physician
initiatives that are establishing competitive, free-standing diagnostic and
treatment centers and specialty hospitals. What are the advantages and
disadvantages to these developments from a patient perspective? (2-3 slides)

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 3 Assignment

Given the
increasing longevity of Americans and the costs of providing long-term care,
anticipation of the costs should be a major element of every family’s financial
planning. Current information suggests however, that very few families or
individuals give this consideration. What factors might impede this advance
planning? What measures might be effective in raising awareness among Americans
about this important matter?

Identify
the major factors that have resulted in the shift in utilization from inpatient
hospitalization to ambulatory care services. What are the implications of this
shift for hospitals, consumers, and the health care delivery system as a whole?

The
recipients of mental health services in the US represent only a small
percentage of those in need of services. Discuss the factors that impede access
to mental illness treatment.

Please
submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the
title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of two scholarly
sources, in addition to the textbook.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 4 Assignment

Professional
Development Assignments

Based on
what you have learned so far this week, create a educational presentation with
detailed notes and recorded audio comments for all content slides that
addresses each of the following points/questions. Be sure to completely answer
all the questions. Use clear headings that allow your professor to know which
bullet you are addressing on the slides in your presentation. Support your
content with at least four (4) citations throughout your presentation. Make
sure to reference the citations using the APA writing style for the
presentation. Include a slide for your references at the end. Follow best
practices for PowerPoint presentations (an example is located in the Resources
tab) related to text size, color, images, effects, wordiness, and multimedia enhancements. Use the audio recording feature with the
PowerPoint. Alternatively, you may use a smartphone or tablet to record
yourself speaking, should you be unable to use the audio feature within
PowerPoint.

Title Slide
(1 slide)

The various
kinds of health professionals are educated in separate schools but with
considerable overlap in curricula and training requirements. They are, however,
expected to integrate their training and work together after graduation.
Identify the advantages and disadvantages of this approach to professional
education in terms of costs, educational efficiency, and patient care
quality.(4 slides).

An
oversupply of physicians in many urban regions contrasts with continuing
problems of access in rural and inner-city areas. Why does the mal-distribution
of physicians persist in spite of the number of physicians graduated? (2-3
slides)

The health
care delivery system now places increased emphasis on maintaining wellness and
on promoting disease avoidance through healthy behaviors and lifestyles. What
challenges does this new orientation pose for our existing system of medical
education and training? (2-3 slides)

References
(1 slide)

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 5 Assignment

Compare and
contrast each of the three questions related to Managed Care Organizations,
Medicare, and Medicaid with one another and explain how they were similar and
different to each other.

Managed
care organizations emphasize physicians’ responsibilities to control patient
access to expensive hospitalization and specialty care, a principle dubbed
“gatekeeping.” Some argue that “gatekeeping” is unethical
because it introduces financial factors into treatment decisions. Others say it
improves quality by promoting the use of the most appropriate levels of care.

Medicare is
an area that often gets overlooked and is seen as a burden financially. Discuss
alternatives to ease the drain on Medicare resources.

Medicaid is
shouldering an ever-increasing burden of cost for long-term care for the
elderly, with enormous impacts on state budgets throughout the nation. Discuss
alternatives to ease this drain on Medicaid resources.

Please
submit one APA formatted table, (minimum 750 words) that highlights the above
content make sure to include a title and reference page. The assignment should
have a minimum of two scholarly sources, in addition to the textbook.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 6 Assignment

Professional
Development Assignments:

Public
health efforts and those of private medicine complement each other and together
serve the spectrum of health service needs of American society. Why, then, has
their relationship been so contentious?

The
Institute of Medicine report of 1999 cites two major studies that establish
medical errors as one of the leading causes of death and disability in the
United States. Should the federal government take the necessary steps to
monitor the status of this high-risk situation, as it does with other
epidemics, or should the government continue to trust the providers of health
care to deal forthrightly with the problem?

Analyze why
legislative attempts to address only one of the trio of rising costs, lack of
universal access, or variable quality of health care only worsens the remaining
two.

Please
submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the
title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of two scholarly
sources, in addition to the textbook.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 7 Assignment

Definitions
of the quality of medical care are no longer left to clinicians who decide for
themselves what technical performance constitutes “good care.” What
are the other dimensions of quality care and why are they important? What has
changed since the days when “doctor knows best?”

Quality in
medical care may be defined as achieving the greatest benefit at the lowest
risk. How have the priorities of our health care system and the allocation of
resources addressed this goal?

Contrast
the definitions of implicit and explicit criteria in assessing health care quality.
How is each type of criterion useful in quality assessment?

Please
submit one APA formatted paper between 1000 – 1500 words, not including the
title and reference page. The assignment should have a minimum of two scholarly
sources, in addition to the textbook.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 8 Signature Assignment

Signature
Assignment: Improving Health Care Delivery

Presentation:

Among
various stakeholders, the registered nurse is an advocate for patients, their
health and the care delivered to them. There is a need to evaluate the health
status of vulnerable populations, to assess nursing’s role in health
initiatives, and to find ways that we can help improve health. This
presentation enables students to assess the role of organized efforts to influence
health care delivery, and the contributions of medical technology, research
findings, and societal values on our evolving health care delivery system.

This
presentation will examine the role of the nurse as a health professional and
leader.

Choose a
high-risk risk population

Address a
health care need for this population

What
resources are provided for this population

What are
the economic priorities, challenges, and issues for this population

What are
the major ethical, societal, professional, and legal system-level issues
confronting providers, insurers, public policymakers, and organizations
regarding the care for this population

How could
nursing intervene or advocate to improve the health care delivery for this
population

This
PowerPoint® (Microsoft Office) or Impress® (Open Office) presentation should be
a minimum of 20 slides (maximum of 30 slides), including a title, introduction,
conclusion and reference slide, with detailed speaker notes and recorded audio
comments for all content slides. Use the audio recording feature with the
presentation software. Use at least four scholarly sources and make certain to
review the module’s Signature Assignment Rubric before starting your
presentation. This presentation is worth 400 points for quality content and
presentation.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 1 Discussion

With so
many different stakeholders in the health care system, many with powerful
political lobbies, it is understandable that the government has been unable,
until the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, to effectively
address the problems of cost, access, and quality. Despite this recent
legislature, employers and the public have deep concerns about the
ever-increasing costs of health care. Physicians, hospitals and other providers
continue to voice displeasure with managed health plans’ requirements and
restrictions, while employers and the insured are railing against potential
huge premium increases. Should government continue to take an aggressive role
in reshaping the health care system or should the economy be allowed to
continue exerting market-driven reforms? Please take a stance of either
pro-government or pro-free enterprise factions and explain how the public will
fare in each situation. How are the problems of cost, access, and quality
likely to be addressed in each circumstance?

OR

The
practice of medicine, long valued for individual entrepreneurship and physician
control, has undergone dramatic change. Physicians now face vexing oversight of
case and utilization management and loss of control over the allocation of
health care dollars. Managed care organizations control health costs by
arbitrarily refusing reimbursement for certain medical procedures and reducing
payments for others. Since medicine is now a less attractive career option,
will fewer high performing individuals choose to become physicians? What are
the implications for the quality of care?

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 2 Discussion

As nursing
has become increasingly “professionalized” through advanced degrees,
specialization, and clinical practice, nurses’ salaries and responsibilities
have also increased. Now, hospitals substitute non-nurses for nurses to perform
all but the most technical tasks. What are the implications for the nursing
profession? Have nurses lost their traditional role of hands-on patient care
and, if so, is that to the profession’s and the patients’ advantage or
disadvantage?

OR

With
significant oversupply of hospital beds in the United States, what is the
rationale for taxpayer support of the separate and costly hospital system of
the Department of Veterans Affairs?

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 3 Discussion

Ideally,
our long term care system would provide a seamless continuum of services which
are accessible and affordable for all older adults, with the goal of enabling
them to remain in the community for as long as possible. These “aging in place”
programs (PACE and NORCs) provide such a model. Given what you now know about
the components of our health care delivery system and how they are administered,
delivered and paid for:

Identify
health care system barriers to achieving the seamless continuum

Identify
social, family or other “non-system” barriers.

Propose
ways in which community organizations or the government might assist in
overcoming the barriers you have identified.

OR

Hospital
emergency departments continue to be used as a source of primary medical care
by large numbers of the community’s medically underserved population. What are
the implications of this practice for the patients, and on health care costs
and quality of care? What would you propose as a means to change this
situation?

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 4 Discussion

In 1992,
medical residency programs in the U.S. were described as “responsive
principally to the service needs of hospitals, the interests of the medical
specialty societies, the objectives of the residency program directors, and the
career preferences of the medical students.” In fact, there are so many
more residency programs than can be filled by American medical school
graduates, that an annual influx of foreign educated physicians has been
required to satisfy the service needs of many hospitals. In addition, until
recently, there has been no attempt to match America’s needs for various kinds
of specialty and generalist physicians with the hospital-based training
programs that were producing them. In light of these facts, pose an opinion on
this question:

Few
graduates of medical school choose primary care, and instead flock to
specialties with greater pay and prestige. Since primary care is the basis for
maintaining health and early diagnosis of potential health problems, who should
be responsible for rectifying this misplaced emphasis of health care…….
insurers…medical schools…the government…the AMA…others?

OR

In 1992,
medical residency programs in the U.S. were described as “responsive
principally to the service needs of hospitals, the interests of the medical
specialty societies, the objectives of the residency program directors, and the
career preferences of the medical students.” In fact, there are so many
more residency programs than can be filled by American medical school
graduates, that an annual influx of foreign educated physicians has been
required to satisfy the service needs of many hospitals. In addition, until
recently, there has been no attempt to match America’s needs for various kinds
of specialty and generalist physicians with the hospital-based training
programs that were producing them. In light of these facts, pose an opinion on
this question:

Since there
are not enough American medical school graduates to fill the residencies of the
smaller non-teaching hospitals, would not the employment of nurse
practitioners, physician assistants, or young physicians starting practice be
considered first, before recruiting foreign medical graduates?

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 5 Discussion

Many
consumer and health care advocacy initiatives are converging toward a mandate
to provide public access to many types of information about managed care
organization (MCO) performance, costs, and quality. In fact, employers in the
many parts of the country who are the major purchasers of health insurance are
now requiring MCOs to make “health plan performance data” available to
subscribers to facilitate their choice of plans.

Discuss and
provide the rationale for your opinion on providing data in areas such as
patient outcomes, compliance with national standards for preventive and chronic
care, and comparative costs to the public.

What
obligation, if any, does an employer, and/or MCO have to educate subscribers in
how to interpret performance data? At whose expense should such education be
provided?

What are
the possible benefits or disadvantages to making such performance data
available to the public?

OR

Select ONE
of the topics below and describe how it has affected the costs of health care
in the US?

The health
insurance industry

Advances in
medical care technology

Changes in
U.S. demographics

Government
support for health care

Consumer
expectations

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 6 Discussion

After
reading the WHO (2008) Copenhagen Conference document “Health systems, Health
and Wealth: Assessing the Case for Investing in Health Systems”, consider the
following dilemma. Health policy-makers have been under enormous pressure in
recent years over concerns about financial sustainability and cost-containment.
The resources available to any society are finite, but emerging evidence is
recasting health systems not as a drain on those resources but as an
opportunity to invest in the health of the population and in economic growth.
Health systems, health and wealth are inextricably linked in a set of mutually
reinforcing and dynamic relationships. This new paradigm offers an opportunity
for a fundamental reassessment of the role of health systems in society. Please
expound upon these three questions:

How can we
improve health, wealth and societal well-being by investing in health systems?

How can we
ensure that health systems are sustained in the future?

How can we
monitor, manage and improve performance so that health systems are as effective
and efficient as possible?

OR

It is
unfortunate that it requires a new threat or epidemic to halt the demise of
organized public health and restore an effective public health structure. Why
does public health have so much difficulty maintaining governmental support of
its central role in maintaining the health and well-being of the American
people?

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 7 Discussion

For many
years, hospital accreditation bodies assumed that if the structural criteria
were met, that is, that the physical plant, the qualifications of the staff,
and the necessary equipment were in place, the quality of the services would
automatically be acceptable. Subsequently, accreditation groups decided that
they had also better look at the medical records to see how the services were
being provided. They assumed that, if the necessary structure was in place, and
the required services were delivered as prescribed, the quality of care would
be acceptable. Now, these same accrediting groups find it necessary to look at
the outcomes of care as well.

Describe
“structure, process, and outcome” in the assessment of the quality of
medical care, and provide examples of each dimension.

How are the
three dimensions related?

Can these
relationships be trusted to assure the quality of care in the complex,
high-tech world of modern medicine? If not, why?

OR

Hippocrates,
who admonished physicians to “first, do no harm,” also stated, “in abundance,
there is lack.” Interpret the latter in regard to American health care.

N502 Health Care Systems

Unit 8 Discussion

Please
reflect upon this dilemma: How should this country address the problem of the
approximately 47 million uninsured or underinsured Americans?

What is
society’s obligation to ensure access to a basic level of health care for all
its citizens and how can it be accomplished?

Should
health care be a basic individual right just as is education, police
protection, and legal counsel? Why does the United States consider health care
an open market commodity when all other developed countries guarantee their
citizens some basic level of health care?

OR

The wisdom
of depending on International Medical School Graduates (IMGs) to fill gaps in
physician supply, while US medical schools hold class size constant, is
questionable. In addition, the aging of the physician workforce, the decreasing
hours worked by both physicians in practice and physicians in residency, and a
20 percent reduction in the effort of the increasing proportion of female
physicians, will result in a significant decrease in the “effective” supply of
physicians. Should the gap be filled by a major substitution of nurse
practitioners, physician assistants, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and others,
or are there alternatives?