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1. Meli
Healthcare stakeholders are those individuals, groups, or organizations from inside and outside of the primary organization who have a stake within the operations and have an interest in the outcomes of an organization (Owen, 2019, p.16) The stake in the organization can range from stakes in financial investments, employment and ethical operations, interest in the care, and even community engagement. There are numerous types of stakeholders within healthcare some are consumers of healthcare like patients and their families, all employees including providers have a stake, investors, those who have an interest in the ethical practices of the organization such as government entities and labor unions, those who supply products to the organization, the media, an organization’s competition, as well community interests and public image (Cho et al., 2020).
All of these stakeholders have different expectations of the operation relating to the type of stakeholder they are.
Stakeholders play an important role in the choices made by healthcare managers and management teams. Managers must look at the needs of the stakeholders and use that knowledge to make decisions on the operation of the business. Unfortunately, managers can’t make everyone happy so there are times when some might not like the outcome, but other potentially more important stakeholder needs are different. But ultimately the stakeholders’ expectations influence the decisions of managers and operational practices (Owen, 2019, p.17).
In my career, our staff had started eating in patient-facing areas, which we had instructed them not to because not only is it unprofessional it posed a safety and compliance issue. Emails were sent and talks were had but there was pushback from staff, ultimately a policy was made to ensure eating was limited to certain areas to ensure OSHA regulations and staff safety. In this instance, the employees are the stakeholder and they want to operate one way, but the government, which has an interest in proper health-related practices, regulations were chosen over employee input. Managers need to determine which expectations that can be met and which may not be able to be satisfied because of it and use these to determine the direction and operations of an organization.
Resources:
Cho, I., Lee, M., & Kim, Y. (2020). What are the main patient safety concerns of healthcare stakeholders: a mixed-method study of Web-based text. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 140.
https://doi-org.ezproxy.umgc.edu/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104162
Peter Olden. (2019). Management of Healthcare Organizations: An Introduction, Third Edition: Vol. Third edition. Health Administration Press.
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2. Dia
The topic that I will be discussing today is “Disparities in Health and Healthcare: United States and Global Views.” There is a surplus of disparities in the healthcare industry in general across the board. With the recent COVID-19 pandemic there has been a huge reliance on technology in the healthcare industry due to the urgency to avoid in-person contact. With this increase came an increased number of disparities in health and healthcare overall. According to (Gupta and Kraschnewski, 2022), It reports that in 2018 only three quarters of adults in the US had internet services at home. There are many people who are less likely to benefit from the transition to telehealth. These include racial/ethnic minorities, older adults, rural residents, and those with limited education, poverty, crowded housing, and income. These can be classified as social determinants of health.
According to (Kim and Burke, 2016), disparities are defined as “an inequality or gap that exists between two or more groups” in their access to and the quality of health care received. Groups like the ones listed above have a harder time accessing healthcare services overall because they face disparities beyond their means. According to (Kim and Burke, 2016), Hispanics are more likely to be uninsured and to underutilize health care services due to limited opportunities. I believe that for the Hispanic population in particular, language and cultural barriers complicate the navigation of the healthcare systems. There should be more money spent on bilingual and interpreting services. Along with the recent disparities revolving around technology, the lack of insurance availability, rural areas, low income, lack of transportation, and etc, heavily affect this population and others. According to (Kronefeld, 2002 p. 4) certain groups such as young adults, Hispanics and African Americans are more likely than others not to have health insurance. This statistic is extremely disheartening because the numbers of uninsured people are continually rising even though the United States is one of the countries spending the most money on healthcare. In 1990, the United States spent over 695 billion dollars on healthcare and by 2000 the projected amount rose to 1,311 billion dollars (Kronefeld, 2002.) This leads me to ask the question, although the United States spends the most money on health care why does the country not have more people covered by health insurance or accessing healthcare services?
I believe more research will be conducted as to why health insurance isn’t accessible to all at an effective cost or even accessible. Consumers deserve to have affordable health insurance despite the social determinants of health they face. Although these disparities/ determinates are present it is important that the health care industry continues to work on ensuring cost effective and equal access care for all, including populations with health disparities. Collaboration and coordination between government agencies and community-based organizations are needed to address the social determinants of health in communities (Tipirneni, 2021). Without collaborative efforts addressing and tackling these SDOH risks and disparities might be long lasting.
References:
Kronefeld, J. (2002). Health Care Policy: Issues and Trends. Praeger Publishers.
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Health Care Policy: Issues and Trends – Jennie J. Kronenfeld – Google Books
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Gupta, N. and Kraschnewski, J., 2022. Addressing Public Health Needs With Health Technologies During COVID-19: A Medical Student Perspective.
Addressing Public Health Needs With Health Technologies During COVID-19: A …: UMGC Library OneSearch
Kim, S. and Burke, S., 2016. Global Concern and Local Practice: an Interdisciplinary, Empowerment Collection of Immigrant/Migrant Hispanic Voices Used to Implement Community-University Collaborative Actions in Suburban Settings. Public Voices, 14(1), p.43.
Global Concern and Local Practice: An Interdisciplinary, Empowerment Collec…: UMGC Library OneSearch
Tipirneni, R., 2021. A Data-Informed Approach to Targeting Social Determinants of Health as the Root Causes of COVID-19 Disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 111(4), pp.620-622.
