NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2: Needs Analysis for Change Essay

NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2: Needs Analysis for Change Essay

NHS FPX 6008 Assessment 2: Needs Analysis for Change Essay

The current economic changes have significantly impacted the community and health populations. Economic factors such as education, employment, and income also affect people’s ability to pay for healthcare services. Additionally, when community members cannot pay for healthcare services, they may receive poor-quality services and fail to seek them together. Therefore, numerous economic healthcare issues affect healthcare work, organizations, colleagues and communities. This essay presents a needs analysis relating to the previously selected healthcare economic issue conducted on an organization. The needs analysis will entail identifying the socioeconomic or diversity disparities, evidence supporting the need to address the healthcare economic issue, potential change or implementation plans, predicted outcomes, and opportunities for growth based on the proposed change or implementation plan.

Summary of the Healthcare Economic Issue and Its Impact on Work, Organization, Colleagues, and Community

The selected healthcare economic issue is the inability to pay for healthcare services due to a lack of insurance. The issue is mostly felt among minority health populations living in low-resource settings. Healthcare insurance reimbursements are one of the major sources of funding for healthcare institutions. However, lack of health insurance may lead to lower quality of care, especially for healthcare institutions serving minority populations, since their operating costs are high and the revenue is less. The colleagues and the organization’s reputation may also be affected negatively due to poor care quality.

Additionally, community health and wellness deteriorate when minority populations cannot access essential healthcare services such as health promotion. The gap contributing to the selected healthcare economic issue is the socioeconomic status/individual economic factors that lead to the inability to access and afford health premiums, such as the level of education, income and employment. These economic factors may be the obstacles to the accessibility of health insurance, thus preventing members of the population from accessing required healthcare services.

Socioeconomic or Diversity Disparities Existing in the Selected Economic Issue

Several socioeconomic and diversity disparities exist in healthcare insurance leading to poor population health outcomes and decreased quality of life for members of the population. Patients with chronic illnesses or illnesses that require more money to be catered for may face discrimination in getting health insurance coverage since their conditions may require more reimbursements. Additionally, some health insurance plans may ask them to pay more premiums so that the plan can cover additional healthcare services required for chronic illnesses.

However, the fact that a variety of health problems are linked to socioeconomic status, whether assessed by income, education, or occupation. A balance is lacking between the need to pay more premiums and the ability to pay. Health problems associated with low socioeconomic status include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. Most of these conditions require healthcare insurance coverage that caters to extra healthcare services such as follow-ups, scans, and regular check-ups (Zavala et al., 2021). These insurance covers require more premiums, which people from low socioeconomic status cannot pay for, and thus the discrimination.

According to Lu and Myerson (2020), undocumented individuals such as immigrants are usually unable to get health insurance coverage, and even when they get them, some are unable to pay for the premiums due to high costs and coming from poor socioeconomic backgrounds. These individuals end up with Out-of-Pocket costs to cater for their healthcare expenses. Out-of-Pocket costs are not only a financial burden to the individual and the family but also lead to increased debts and the inability to meet other daily living expenses. In addition, patients may shy away from seeking healthcare services due to the high out-of-pocket costs. Thus, the inaccessibility of healthcare services increases the health disparity gap.

The economic and health burden for health populations impacts their health outcomes and quality of life. More so, the unavailability of healthcare insurance increases out-of-pocket costs, thus discouraging individuals from seeking healthcare services and increasing the health disparity gap across health populations. Therefore, healthcare insurance is essential in addressing the gap and is a healthcare economic issue that should be addressed.

Evidence-Base Regarding the Need to Address Health Insurance Issues, the Potential Change/Implementation Plans

  Due to the lack of healthcare insurance for individuals, health populations, care providers, healthcare services, and organizations, there is a need to address the socioeconomic issue. According to Chaudry et al. (2019), there are racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare insurance coverage, with a huge gap between uninsured and insured individuals. For instance, the health coverage insurance disparity gap in America is mainly seen between blacks and whites. Chaudry et al. (2019) note that policies such as the Affordable Care Act were developed after the need to ensure all health populations have health security by providing affordable healthcare insurance covers, thus addressing health disparities, especially among minority health populations. However, the majority of individuals in minority populations, such as African Americans, have not been able to acquire health insurance due to high premium costs (Lu & Myerson, 2020).

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Furthermore, lack of health insurance limits access to healthcare services since some individuals are locked out of the healthcare system and may shy away from seeking healthcare services due to the high costs. Goldstine et al. (2019) state that a lack of health insurance leads to poor health-related quality of life and increased morbidity and mortality rates since patients cannot access healthcare services when needed. Despite the health needs of individuals in minority populations, inaccessibility of healthcare services leads to deteriorating health outcomes and health-related quality of life.

Research shows that a lack of health insurance negatively impacts individuals by increasing the risk of health complications, the possibility of seeking emergency care services, and the readiness to seek specialized healthcare services (Kong & Kin, 2020). Therefore, the individual gets poor health outcomes and a decreased quality of life due to delayed care and missed care services. Therefore, there is a felt need to increase the accessibility and affordability of healthcare insurance, thus addressing the individual and population health problems related to lack of insurance.

It is worth noting that insurance-seeking behavior depends on the knowledge of available health insurance covers. However, some individuals may be aware of the insurance covers but fail to get them due to the high cost of premiums. Additionally, knowledge of healthcare insurance is related to help-seeking behavior (Weedige et al., 2019). Hence, addressing the healthcare economic issue requires interventions to deal with knowledge and affordability of healthcare insurance covers and plans. Potential changes to address the healthcare economic issue include awareness creation among mostly affected minority populations to increase knowledge on available insurance options and advocate for policy changes to address the affordability of the available healthcare insurance covers. The awareness creation intervention can also include the eligibility of these health insurance covers and the advantages of having health insurance coverage. Policy changes to address the affordability of health insurance will also help address the issue among individuals who know about the insurance but shy away due to premium costs.

Healthcare providers can facilitate the implementation of the potential intervention. The implementation should include all the relevant stakeholders and players in health insurance, including the government, policy-makers, and public and private health insurance companies. Healthcare providers are best suited to advocate for policy changes and also use health promotion to create awareness of available health insurance premiums, eligibility, accessibility and the importance of having health insurance coverage.

Predicted Outcomes and Opportunities for Growth as a Result of the Proposed Change or Implementation

The proposed change interventions are health promotion among minority populations to increase their knowledge of health insurance and advocating for policy changes to enhance the accessibility of health insurance. The interventions’ expected outcomes include improved insurance-seeking behavior, an increased number of people getting health insurance, and increased healthcare services-seeking behavior. The overall outcome will be an improvement in the quality of healthcare services and improved care outcomes. The improved healthcare service quality will result from increased funds from insurance reimbursements. Therefore, healthcare organizations will have adequate funds to cater to immediate healthcare needs in their populations. Implementing the proposed intervention will also lead to growth in healthcare organizations since they will be able to cater to the needs of all populations, including minority populations.

Conclusion

Health insurance impacts the health outcomes and health-related quality of life for individuals across different health populations. In minority populations, whereby chronic diseases are more prevalent, health insurance is vital. Interventions such as awareness creation and policy changes can be implemented to reduce disparities in health insurance and increase access to healthcare services across different health populations. Minority populations and populations more affected by chronic illnesses should be treated as a priority in these interventions’ implementation.  

 References

Chaudry, A., Jackson, A., & Glied, S. A. (2019). Did the Affordable Care Act reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health insurance coverage? The Commonwealth Fund, 11. https://collections.nlm.nih.gov/master/borndig/101755573/

Goldstine, J., van Hees, R., van de Vorst, D., Skountrianos, G., & Nichols, T. (2019). Factors influencing health-related quality of life of those in the Netherlands living with an ostomy. British Journal of Nursing (Mark Allen Publishing), 28(22), S10–S17. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2019.28.22.S10

Kong, N. Y., & Kim, D. H. (2020). Factors influencing health care use by health insurance subscribers and medical aid beneficiaries: a study based on data from the Korea welfare panel study database. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1133. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-09073-x

Lu, T., & Myerson, R. (2020). Disparities in health insurance coverage and access to care by English language proficiency in the USA, 2006–2016. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35, 1490–1497. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05609-z

Weedige, S. S., Ouyang, H., Gao, Y., & Liu, Y. (2019). Decision making in personal insurance: Impact of insurance literacy. Sustainability, 11(23), 6795. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11236795

Zavala, V. A., Bracci, P. M., Carethers, J. M., Carvajal-Carmona, L., Coggins, N. B., Cruz-Correa, M. R., Davis, M., de Smith, A. J., Dutil, J., Figueiredo, J. C., Fox, R., Graves, K. D., Gomez, S. L., Llera, A., Neuhausen, S. L., Newman, L., Nguyen, T., Palmer, J. R., Palmer, N. R., Pérez-Stable, E. J. and Fejerman, L. (2021). Cancer health disparities in racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. British Journal of Cancer, 124(2), 315–332. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-020-01038-6

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Assessment 2 Instructions: Needs Analysis for Change

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Complete a systematic evaluation of a unit, facility, or organization with which you are familiar, in an attempt to identify the need to address the economic health care issue.
Introduction
Note: Each assessment in this course builds upon the work you have completed in previous assessments. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.
As a master’s-level health care practitioner, you may sometimes be tasked with the need to complete a systematic evaluation as a way of improving your organization’s outcomes. In this assessment, you will have a chance to practice these skills by completing a systematic evaluation of a unit, facility, or organization that you are familiar with in an attempt to identify the need to address the economic health care issue that you presented in the previous assessment. This systematic evaluation is often referred to as a needs analysis. Understanding how to do a needs analysis will be key as you advance through your career in the health care environment.
Background and Context
As a master’s-level health care practitioner, you may sometimes be tasked with the need to complete a systematic evaluation as a way of improving your organization’s outcomes. In this assessment, you will have a chance to practice these skills by completing a systematic evaluation of a unit, facility, or organization that you are familiar with in an attempt to identify the need to address the economic health care issue that you presented in the previous assessment. This systematic evaluation is often referred to as a needs analysis. Understanding how to do a needs analysis will be key as you advance through your career in the health care environment.
Instructions
Be sure to address each main point. Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide, including performance-level descriptions for each criterion, to ensure you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed. In addition, note the requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.
Overall, you will be assessed on the following criteria:
• Summarize your chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.
o Reiterate your rationale for pursuing this issue, as well as the gap contributing to it that you identified in your previous assessment.
• Identify any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations.
o Use at least one piece of evidence to support this disparity (public health data, aggregated data from an organization, or other scholarly resources).
• Explain the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans.
o For example, if your implementation plan includes the need for increased staffing, you might want to research errors or patient falls that occurred as a result of high patient and low staff ratio in the literature.
o Use at least four evidence-based or scholarly sources that are relevant to your chosen topic to support your explanation.
• Explain the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan.
o Outcomes and opportunities for growth should focus on economic considerations.
• Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.
Additional Requirements
• Length of Submission: 3–5 double-spaced pages.
• Number of References: Cite at least four sources of evidence to support your identification of the gap. This could be public health data, a peer-reviewed journal article, or another scholarly source.
• APA formatting: Titles, headings, resources, and citations are formatted according to the current APA style.
Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center’s Writing Support page.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
• Competency 1: Analyze the effects of financial and economic factors (such as cost-benefit, supply and demand, return on investment, and risks) in a health care system on patient care, services offered, and organizational structures and operation.
o Summarize the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.
• Competency 2: Develop ethical and culturally equitable solutions to economic problems within a health care organization in an effort to improve the quality of care and services offered.
o Identify any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations.
• Competency 3: Justify the qualitative and quantitative information used to guide economic decision making to stakeholders and colleagues.
o Explain the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans.
• Competency 4: Develop ethical and culturally equitable economic strategies to address dynamic environmental forces and ensure the future security of an organization’s resources and its ability to provide quality care.
o Explain the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan.
• Competency 5: Produce clear, coherent, and professional written work, in accordance with Capella writing standards.
o Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.

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Needs Analysis for Change Scoring Guide

CRITERIA	NON-PERFORMANCE	BASIC	PROFICIENT	DISTINGUISHED
Summarize the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.	Does not provide any type of summary of the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.	Provides an unclear or incomplete summary of the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.	Summarizes the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community.	Summarizes the chosen economic issue and its impact on your work, organization, colleagues, and community. Notes the rationale for pursing the issue, as well as a gap contributing to it.
Identify any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations.	Does not identify any disparities that exist with regards to the chosen economic issue.	Identifies disparities that exist with regards to the chosen economic issue. However, does not relate the disparities to any socioeconomic or diversity considerations.	Identifies any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations.	Identifies any socioeconomic or diversity disparities that exist with how your chosen economic issue impacts any particular groups or populations. Supports assertion by using at least one piece of evidence (public health data, aggregated data from an organization, or other scholarly resource).
Explain the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans.	Does not identify the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources.	Identifies the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources, but the relevance to regarding the need to address the chosen issue is unclear or misaligned.	Explains the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans.	Explains the findings of evidence-based or scholarly sources regarding the need to address your chosen issue and pursue potential change or implementation plans. Cites at least four relevant evidence-based or scholarly sources to support explanation.
Explain the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan.	Does not identify possible outcomes and opportunities of growth.	Identifies possible outcomes and opportunities of growth, but their relationship to the proposed change or implementation plan is unclear.	Explains the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan.	Explains the predicted outcomes and opportunities for growth as the result of the proposed change or implementation plan. Notes the specific economic benefits for patients and the organization.
Convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards.	Does not convey purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and writing scholarly standards.	Conveys purpose, in an appropriate tone or style. Clear, effective communication is inhibited by insufficient supporting evidence or minimal adherence to applicable writing standards.	Conveys purpose, in an appropriate tone and style, incorporating supporting evidence and adhering to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards. Attempts to apply APA style and formatting.	Conveys clear purpose, in a tone and style well-suited to the intended audience. Supports assertions, arguments, and conclusions with relevant, credible, and convincing evidence. Exhibits strict and nearly flawless adherence to organizational, professional, and scholarly writing standards, including APA style and formatting. Notes the specific economic benefits for patients and the organization.