Communication and Collaboration in Healthcare Systems

Communication and Collaboration Within and Across Healthcare Systems

Question 1

A healthcare system can be described as an organization of various institutions, people, and resources required and crucial to delivering healthcare services to a given population. This mostly focuses on a target population, which have a given set of health needs. Various types of healthcare systems have been widely adopted by different across the world by different countries. However, most of them are developed and maintained according to the needs of the target population and the available resources. Planning with all the relevant stakeholders in the healthcare system is very important to ensure that a country can meet the health needs of its population (Brill, 2015). Some of the stakeholders who play an important part in the healthcare system are the federal government, the trade unions, religious organizations and the charities, which have been established for various reasons.

Question 2

Various interdisciplinary groups are involved in the healthcare system. These groups use the approach, characterized by collaboration and improved communication with all the healthcare professionals involved. To achieve integrated healthcare systems, all the professionals who are involved ensure that the right information is shared with all the team members mostly on issues relating to patient care, the establishment and implementation of a treatment plan to address all the needs of the patients (Bryan, 2013). This interdisciplinary group mostly includes the physicians, social workers, and psychologists among others who respond to the needs of the patients. An integrated healthcare has some benefits to the caregivers and the patients. For instance, it effectively reduces all the symptoms associated with depression. It also enhances access to the healthcare systems by the patients, improved and affordable quality care to patients.

Question 3

Various components make up a successful healthcare system. These components ensure the well-functioning of the healthcare system by ensuring that the patients can get quality and affordable healthcare services in their countries. The healthcare systems should also meet the needs of the patients as well as their expectations. The first component of an effective healthcare system is the improvement of health status of individuals and communities in a given country. This is because people mostly fall in due to various reasons and they should be treated to ensure a healthy living. Therefore, access to quality healthcare and improvement of their health should be the primary goal of their healthcare system. Secondly, a healthcare system should be able to defend a given population against all factors that threatens the health of its population (Winston, 2012). This means formulating and implementing measures that will enhance the prevention of what threatens the health of its population. This involves a collaboration of all caregivers, the government, and the patients to ensure that they maintain a healthy population. Further, it is the stakeholders’ role to ensure that people are protected against all the financial consequences of the ill health. This is achieved by ensuring that people can receive affordable healthcare plans mainly through implementing the managed healthcare plans. Additionally, it is the role of the federal government and other stakeholders in the healthcare system to ensure that they provide equitable access to the healthcare system in the country.

Question 4

Collaboration can be explained as creating a relationship between the parties for strategic reasons whose main aim is cooperating to achieve a given set of objectives (Stukenberg, 2011). The main collaborators in the healthcare system are the federal government, health professionals, trade unions, charity organization, and religious organizations.

Question 5

There are various components of effective communication. To start with, an individual should comprehend of the expected results before passing any message to the intended audience. He or she should also create a purpose of the message to ensure that the main objective is achieved. This should be followed by structuring the message in a way, which the intended audience can be able to understand (Cobley & Schulz, 2013). All the irrelevant details should be avoided. Finally, an individual should focus on the results.

Question 6

The electronic medical records have improved the health care systems in various ways. To start with, it enables the parties involved to track data over a given period. It also helps in the identification of patients who are due for the preventative visits and the screening. Further, it helps in the monitoring of the patients and the improvement of the quality care by the health professionals.

References

Brill, S. (2015). America’s bitter pill: Money, politics, backroom deals, and the fight to fix our broken healthcare system. New York: Random House Publishing Group.

Bryan, K. (2013). Communication in healthcare. Oxford, England: Peter Lang.

Cobley, P., & Schulz, P. (2013). Theories and models of communication. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Stukenberg, C. (2011). Successful collaboration in healthcare: A guide for physicians, nurses and clinical documentation specialists. Boca Raton: CRC Press.

Winston, W. J. (2012). Professional practice in healthcare marketing: Proceedings of the American College of Healthcare Marketing. New York: Taylor and Francis.