Government Impact, Innovation, and Accountability Essay

Government Impact, Innovation, and Accountability Essay

Government Impact, Innovation, and Accountability Essay

Hospitals and other healthcare institutions must provide quality care and ensure they meet the needs of all population members in their communities. Additionally, special focus should be given to vulnerable populations in the community of service, ensuring that health disparities are minimized and health equity is promoted. The Institute of Medicine is a non-governmental body that works to improve health through shared knowledge, providing authoritative and unbiased advice to healthcare decision-makers (Lebano et al., 2020). This discussion explores how healthcare settings ensure they meet the needs of vulnerable populations in the communities they serve and the factors that should be considered to ensure that nurses working in acute care settings meet the six Institute of Medicine (IOM) aims for improving healthcare quality.

Enhancing health equity and reducing health disparities is an issue of social justice and ethic. Hospitals, therefore, must have a way to ensure they address the needs of the vulnerable populations in the communities they serve, promote social justice, and maintain ethical standards. There are various approaches that hospitals can take to ensure they meet the needs of vulnerable populations. One of them is initiating vulnerable population-targeted programs. Hospitals develop programs to promote health and educate vulnerable populations on different aspects of health and health conditions. According to Cheng et al. (2020), vulnerable populations are often at an increased risk of health conditions and thus have more health needs. Hospitals use targeted programs to improve health literacy for these populations, thus assisting them in reducing health risks.

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Hospitals also ensure their staff are culturally sensitive and provide language access services. Most members of vulnerable populations are often from other cultures or have limited English proficiency. Meeting their needs, therefore, requires hospital staff to be culturally competent and sensitive. Additionally, the availability of translation and interpretation services in hospitals encourages members of the population to seek health services in the institution, thus addressing their needs and promoting better health outcomes.

Furthermore, hospitals can meet the needs of vulnerable populations by easing access to care services. Lebano et al. (2020) note that vulnerable populations do not easily access healthcare services due to cost and other related restrictions. Therefore, hospitals provide links to health insurance and waivers for vulnerable populations who cannot cater for healthcare expenses, thus meeting their needs.

The six IOM aims for improving healthcare quality are effectiveness, safety, patient-centeredness, timelessness, efficiency, and equitability. They are also known as the six domains of healthcare quality, noting that healthcare should be safe, effective, patient-centered, efficient, timely, and equitable (Leatherman & Berwick, 2020). The factors that should be considered to ensure that nurses working in acute care settings meet the six IOM aims of improving healthcare quality include knowledge of the six aims, clinical competence of the nurses, the physical ambiance of the acute care setting, and amenities available in the setting.

Nurses must be aware of the six IOM aims of healthcare quality, thus helping maintain them in all their actions. Additionally, nurses’ clinical competence dictates whether they can maintain healthcare quality. It is worth noting that acute care settings are critical and need specialized skills and competence. Thus, competence is vital in maintaining quality care. The amenities available and the ambiance of the acute care setting can also motivate the nurses to maintain quality care and thus meet the IOM aims. These factors enable nurses to provide safe, efficient, effective, timely, equitable, and patient-centered care.

Hospitals play a significant role in addressing the needs of vulnerable populations in the communities they serve. They use targeted programs, health promotion, and financial assistance to reduce health disparities and promote equity. Nurses working in acute care settings should meet the IOM aims of improving healthcare quality.

References

Cheng, C., Beauchamp, A., Elsworth, G. R., & Osborne, R. H. (2020). Applying the Electronic Health Literacy Lens: Systematic Review of Electronic Health Interventions Targeted at Socially Disadvantaged Groups. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 22(8). https://doi.org/10.2196%2F18476

Leatherman, S., & Berwick, D. M. (2020). Accelerating global improvements in health care quality. JAMA, 324(24), 2479-2480. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.17628

Lebano, A., Hamed, S., Bradby, H., Gil-Salmerón, A., Durá-Ferrandis, E., Garcés-Ferrer, J., Azzedine, F., Riza, E., Karnaki, P., Zota, D., & Linos, A. (2020). Migrants’ and refugees’ health status and healthcare in Europe: a scoping literature review. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1039. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-020-08749-8

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Discussion Question:

How do hospitals ensure they are meeting the needs of vulnerable populations within the communities that they serve? What factors should be considered to ensure that nurses working in acute care settings meet the six Institute of Medicine’s (IOM) Aims for Improving Healthcare Quality?