Cost And Quality In Healthcare

Cost and Quality Analysis

Health care cost and quality are two essential domains that carry a huge impact in the world of health care system. To understand the complex relationship between cost and quality, defining each term facilitates an understanding of how each domain functions. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) defines quality of care as “the degree to which health services for individuals and populations increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge” (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018, para. 3). According to Ryan and Tompkins (2014) in a paper report commissioned by the National Quality Forum (NQF), cost of care “measures total care spending . . .

. . by providing for effective health and human services and fostering advances in medicine, public health, and social services” (HHS, n.d., para 1). The department collaborates with other federal departments and agencies, such as the President’s Management Council and Federal Interagency Workgroup, in order to improve health services outcomes (HHS, n.d.). The HHS updates its strategic plan every four years, which addresses the current health and human services issues. The Strategic Plan, FY 2018-2022 consists of five strategic goals with respective strategic objectives to be carried out by all operating and staff divisions within HHS (HHS, n.d.). One of the strategies that addresses the cost and quality in health care is the Strategic Goal 1: Reform, Strengthen, and Modernize the Nation’s Healthcare System (HHS, n.d.). The goal encompasses four objectives with its purpose of providing affordable, high-quality, and accessible health care services; improving health care outcomes across lifespan in all health care settings; and strengthening and expanding the health care workforce in partnership with government and private sectors (HHS,

Nurses, equipped with knowledge and skills, are positioned to contribute and lead the changes that are occurring in the health care environment. The IOM Future of Nursing report (2010) emphasizes the importance of nurses to lead the transformation and assume a leadership role in meeting the demands of the changing health care system of America into a high-quality and affordable delivery of health care. Furthermore, the movement toward evidence-based practice (EBP) creates a quality-improved health care environment in cost-effective services (Gillam & Siriwardena, 2014). Nurse leaders in their strategic position in building and investing a supportive culture for EBP facilitates optimum patient health outcomes (Melnyk, Fineout-Overholt, Gallagher-Ford, & Kaplan, 2012). The success of health care reform does not solely rely in the hands of nurses, but it is a unified contribution of health care professionals, policymakers, and public and private health sectors to work together in their full scope of practice to achieve toward a common