Issues in Health Care Reform Assignment Paper

Issues in Health Care Reform Assignment Paper

Issues in Health Care Reform Assignment Paper

Healthcare reform refers to federal or state government policy that affects the delivery of health care. It involves restructuring the healthcare system through changes that impact the ever-escalating national healthcare costs. Health reforms seek to increase the number of individuals that access health care coverage, improve access to healthcare providers, improve the quality of healthcare, and lower healthcare costs. In the past weeks, I planned a meeting with a state legislator in Arizona to discuss a healthcare reform issue of interest. The purpose of this assignment is to provide a summary and analysis of the interview and explain the health care reform issue.

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The State Legislator

I arranged a meeting with Rep. Eric Meyer (D) who represents District 28 in the Arizona House of Representatives. Meyer serves as an elected representative in the Arizona state legislature. He also acts as the Minority Whip in the House and is a member of the Education and Health committees.  He was selected because he is a physician having obtained a Medical degree from the University of Arizona Medical School. Meyer’s post-graduate training was in Emergency medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. Besides, he practiced Medicine in Portland’s Providence Emergency Department and was the departmental Director from 1993 to 1995. Dr. Meyer’s unique background in medicine gives him an upper hand and the ability to understand and address the increasing problems of access to quality, affordable health care.

Summary of the Interview

Rep. Meyer’s office secretary was in charge of scheduling meetings and I reached out to her to explain why I wanted a meeting with Meyer. I explained that I needed to discuss a policy proposal that would significantly impact the delivery of healthcare in the state.  The secretary was convinced that the meeting was important and scheduled a one-hour meeting on 18^th June 2022 at 10 a.m. I met Dr. Meyer and explained the purpose of the meeting which was to present a policy proposal that will improve the welfare of healthcare providers in Arizona.

I proposed to enact a policy that will protect healthcare providers from assault by mandating every healthcare employer to implement a workplace-violence program. I explained that the policy will require healthcare employers to develop and execute an assault prevention and protection program and maintain records of assaults against staff. Besides, the program should be based on regular assessments of security and safety in the facility, which will measure the frequency of staff assaults and identify their causes and consequences (Wirth et al., 2021). In addition, I expounded that the policy will require the workplace-violence program to address the physical attributes of the facility; personnel policies; staffing, including security staffing; first aid and emergency interventions; procedures for reporting assaults; staff education, and training.

I explained to Rep. Meyer that healthcare providers are frequently assaulted by patients due to anger, long wait times, alcohol and drug intoxication, and mental disorders (Al-Qadi, 2021). Therefore, having a policy mandating a workplace-violence program by employers would reduce the assault cases and promote a safe and healthy working environment for healthcare workers. Healthcare providers’ safety directly affects patient safety and outcomes since they cannot provide quality and safe care in an environment in which they do not feel safe or where they are frequently assaulted by their patients (Marquez et al., 2020). If the policy is enacted and implemented effectively, it will prevent violence and protect health workers, which is crucial for their physical and mental wellbeing and their productivity.

Potential Challenges

We discussed with Rep. Meyer the potential challenges to implementing the reform.  We identified that lack of action after reporting an assault case and different perceptions of what constitutes healthcare assault are potential challenges to implementing the policy (Marquez et al., 2020). Besides, money and profit-driven management models in hospitals and lack of accountability by the organization’s management may impact effective policy implementation and hinder the attainment of improved safety for healthcare workers. Furthermore, we identified that some healthcare facilities have a strong focus on customer service, which may hinder reporting and implementation of the workplace-violence program (D’Ettorre et al., 2018). Lastly, we identified that the state has weak law enforcement approaches to patients with mental illnesses resulting in the lack of action after reporting assault cases.

Feedback from the Legislator

Rep. Meyer expressed her satisfaction with the policy proposal and agreed that it would significantly improve the safety of healthcare workers in Arizona. He mentioned that he will go through the proposal draft and make any corrections to ensure that it will receive a large number of proponents when introduced in the House. He also promised to arrange another meeting after he is done looking over the draft.

Conclusion

The proposed health reform is to have a policy mandating healthcare employers to implement a workplace-violence program to protect healthcare providers from assault. I presented the proposal to Rep. Meyer and we discussed the benefit of enacting the policy in reducing cases of assaults on healthcare workers. Besides, we discussed potential challenges to implementing the policy like lack of action, accountability, and weak law enforcement.  

References

Al-Qadi, M. M. (2021). Workplace violence in nursing: A concept analysis. Journal of occupational health, 63(1), e12226. https://doi.org/10.1002/1348-9585.12226

D’Ettorre, G., Pellicani, V., Mazzotta, M., & Vullo, A. (2018). Preventing and managing workplace violence against healthcare workers in Emergency Departments. Acta bio-medica: Atenei Parmensis, 89(4-S), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.23750/abm.v89i4-S.7113

Marquez, S. M., Chang, C. H., & Arnetz, J. (2020). Effects of a Workplace Violence Intervention on Hospital Employee Perceptions of Organizational Safety. Journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 62(12), e716–e724. https://doi.org/10.1097/JOM.0000000000002036

Wirth, T., Peters, C., Nienhaus, A., & Schablon, A. (2021). Interventions for Workplace Violence Prevention in Emergency Departments: A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(16), 8459. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18168459

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Issues in Health Care Reform (Interview): This project aims to develop your understanding of issues present in current health care reform efforts. You will interview a state or national politician, policy maker, or policy maker’s aide. Establish a time to interview this individual between Week 2 and Week 8 of the course. Please keep in mind it may be difficult to fit into their schedule so contact their office by the end of Week 2. You will write a 3-page paper based on the information provide in the interview.
Notice to writer-
You can choose any topic- This is a nursing paper and require creative writing- you chose any health care reform topic- please look up any state political health care leaders and speak on their stand on the topic you select and write to include interviewing.

Please support this paper with at least 3-4 most recent articles within united states