Running head: ROLES OF HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS 1

Roles of Healthcare Professionals

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Introduction

Healthcare professionals play a critical role in the healthcare sector. They make sure that

patients have the chance to receive health care services. Mostly, health professionals work in

hospitals and community health settings where they perform healthcare activities like patient

assessment, diagnosis, prescription of medication, and providing patient education. However,

healthcare professionals' roles are categorized based on the level of education and expertise that a

person possesses. For example, nurses and physicians may have different roles, but at the end of

it all, there is only one goal, which is caring for the patient. Traditionally, healthcare workers

worked in silos. That is, every healthcare professional concentrated on his/her work without

having the desire to know what others were doing. Patient information gathered in particular

healthcare departments never reached other departments. However, new modifications in the

modern healthcare system have caused healthcare professionals' work environment to change

from silos to value-based care. As a result, healthcare workers are experiencing new

contemporary roles in health care.

How Value-Based System May Improve Healthcare System

It has not been long since the United States started to transition from volume-based to

value-based care. The former became difficult in the modern world as patients continued to

demand quality but cheaper healthcare services. In volume-based care, patients pay healthcare

providers charges based on the services given rather than the achieved outcome. As a result, this

system concentrates on profit rather than the quality of care. It also makes the healthcare

providers measure their success based on the number of patients served rather than the number of

patients who have healed. The disadvantage of volume-based care is that it does not promote

collaboration in healthcare. It adopts the silos model where a healthcare provider does not work
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along with other providers to get more profit than others. It also deteriorates patients' health

because healthcare providers care about accumulating more money by treating as many patients

as possible.

In order to avoid the disadvantages associated with the volume-based system, the

healthcare system can switch to value-based care, which presents the most effective way of

providing the best health care to patients. In a value-based system, patients pay for healthcare

services based on quality. It promotes specialized care to patients while reducing the cost of care.

Value-based care also focuses on preventing illnesses to promote good health and reduce

hospital readmission. Unlike working in a silo, a value-based system promotes collaboration

between the involved departments. It is because the system allows all departments to share risks

by cutting the cost of care while improving quality. It also gives patients the freedom to choose

which services they want from healthcare providers and the ones they do not need. Therefore,

patients can save on the cost of care by avoiding unnecessary healthcare services.

Therefore, if a value-based system gets implemented in the United States, it might

improve health in the following ways. First, it would promote interoperability in healthcare. It is

because the system requires all the departments to share information to improve the quality of

health while minimizing risks (Adler-Milstein, Embi, Middleton, Sarkar, & Smith, 2017).

Secondly, it would promote transparency. In volume-based care, patients paid for services

without seeing the benefits of the care given. However, the cost paid in valued-based care must

correspond to the quality of care offered. Third, the system would promote connected services

that span across all the stakeholders. That is, through the sharing of information, patients can

move from one provider to the other and receive the same services. Also, all the stakeholders can
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make informed decisions because the system would allow them to receive updates on what is

happening in all parts of the healthcare system.

Moreover, the United States has experienced many hospital readmission cases in the past

few years (Herrin et al., 2015). The main cause of hospital readmission is healthcare providers’

failure to provide quality care. Therefore, a value-based system would help to minimize the

number of hospital readmissions in the country. It is because the system promotes collaboration

in the healthcare sector, where information from one provider can get to another provider. This

kind of collaboration helps healthcare providers to understand their patients better, thus

enhancing evidence-based care.

How Current Policy Has Transformed the Current Healthcare Practice

The adoption of a value-based system resulted from the current healthcare policy. It is

because the policy has changed the way healthcare professionals used to work. The

implementation of the Affordable Care Act advocated for a closer relationship between patient

and healthcare providers (Franz, Skinner, & Murphy, 2016). As a result, healthcare practices

have expanded from a clinical setting to a community setting. There are new actors introduced in

the workforce in order to meet the goals of ACA. For instance, social workers have become part

of healthcare professionals. Their role includes discharging patients and ensuring that patients

are recovering even after they leave the hospital.

ACA policy also ensured that healthcare reach as many people as possible. As a result,

health providers have focused on providing quality healthcare to avoid hospital readmission. It is

because readmission would lead to overcrowding in hospitals. After all, ACA helped to increase

the number of people who visit hospitals in the United States. With the ACA policy, which
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focuses on quality but cheap healthcare services, physicians became very keen on their work

because their earning depend on the quality of the care they provide. ACA aimed at promoting

the health of the whole population (Franz et al., 2016). As a result, nurses have focused on

providing patient education to every patient. Patient education ensures faster recovery as well as

reducing hospital readmission. Therefore, ACA's implementation guarantees the achievement of

value-based care, which is needed in the United States today.

Difference between Physicians Working In Fee-For-Service and Value-Based Care

The transition from volume-based to value-based care has revealed the differences

between healthcare providers operating in the two forms of healthcare systems. First, healthcare

provides who operate under the fee-for-service have less use of electronic health records. It is

because the data they collect never gets out of the organization since there is minimal sharing of

information with other organizations. After all, they aim to make a profit without considering

whether the care is of high quality or not. On the other hand, healthcare providers who operate

under the value-based system use electronic health records. It is because information sharing

cannot be effective without the digitization of patient records. For example, nurses in hospitals

must record everything, including patient admission data and medication provided to the patient

during his/her stay in the hospital.

Secondly, healthcare providers who work in a fee-for-service system encounter

inefficiency issues more than those working in a value-based system. In a fee-for-service

healthcare system, healthcare providers give services to receive payment in return. It is more like

a trade because after the patient receives the paid service, the healthcare provider stops caring for

the patient until the next time when the patient will be willing to pay. On the other hand, value-

based care focusses on disease prevention and wellness of all people (Salmond & Echevarria,
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2017). Therefore, healthcare providers in this system prioritize the quality of care instead of

profit. As a result, physicians collaborate with patients to ensure that the given care is effective.

For example, every patient in value-based care must be given education before discharge. Such

interventions help prevent further illnesses, leading to more healthcare costs if the patient gets

readmitted.

Shared Power between Physicians and Nurses

Today, value-based care requires all healthcare professionals to collaborate. For example,

one professional can consult or ask for information about a patient from another professional

within the organization. Based on this kind of collaboration, the whole organization operates as

one entity, which helps to minimize risks. However, effective collaboration requires all

professionals to have different roles in the organization. That is why there has been the sharing

of power between physicians and nurses. From my point of view, the shared power can

guarantee patient satisfaction. It is because when nurses have the power to make decisions, they

can adjust the implementation of nursing care based on patient preferences.

Besides, the shared power between nurses and physicians promotes the quality of care.

According to Elsous, Radwan, and Mohsen (2017), healthcare is becoming much complex in the

modern world. This complexity can only end by spreading the goals and objectives of healthcare

among different professionals. Therefore, when someone has limited roles, cases of overworking

would become minimal, hence promoting efficiency. Moreover, shared power enhance

collaboration through the inclusion of every healthcare professional in decision-making and

planning. Once every professional is included in decision-making, productivity increases, thus

promoting the quality of care.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the roles of healthcare professionals have changed. It is because their work

environment has changed from silos to the value-based care system. Working in silos made

healthcare professionals enhance independence because there was no collaboration required

between healthcare providers. However, with the new system of value-based care, healthcare

professionals have become more collaborative. It is because the government has created new

policies that advocate for a high level of collaboration among healthcare providers. Besides,

government programs like Medicare and Medicaid pay the healthcare providers based on the

quality rather than the care quantity. Moreover, the current healthcare system requires nurses and

physicians to share power. This approach encourages value-based care because when healthcare

professionals work together, they promote care quality while minimizing the cost.
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References

Adler-Milstein, J., Embi, P. J., Middleton, B., Sarkar, I. N., & Smith, J. (2017). Crossing the

health IT chasm: considerations and policy recommendations to overcome current

challenges and enable value-based care. Journal of the American Medical Informatics

Association, 24(5), 1036-1043.

Elsous, A., Radwan, M., & Mohsen, S. (2017). Nurses and physicians’ attitudes toward nurse-

physician collaboration: a survey from Gaza Strip, Palestine. Nursing research and

practice, 2017.

Franz, B. A., Skinner, D., & Murphy, J. W. (2016). Changing medical relationships after the

ACA: Transforming perspectives for population health. SSM-population health, 2, 834-

840.

Herrin, J., St Andre, J., Kenward, K., Joshi, M. S., Audet, A. M. J., & Hines, S. C. (2015).

Community factors and hospital readmission rates. Health services research, 50(1), 20.

Salmond, S. W., & Echevarria, M. (2017). Healthcare transformation and changing roles for

nursing. Orthopedic nursing, 36(1), 12.