There are many different collaborative practice models in healthcare. These include the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) model and others. For your initial discussion post, identify one model and examine how it could be applied to improve the design of a healthcare program. The articles located in the module resources section will assist you in this discussion. Be sure to include concepts from the class in support of your initial post and provide evidence by way of peer-reviewed sources to support your post.

Module Resources:

Collaborative Practice Models

This module will introduce you to the concept of collaborative practice models and how those models relate to the development of healthcare programs. While it is easy to think of healthcare programs in silos (nursing, laboratory, physician, pharmacy), effective programs are rarely effective when delivered in silos. Scarce resources are best allocated and utilized by collaborative teams of practitioners when addressing healthcare transformation. You are introduced to a number of different collaborative models in this module. These resources will encourage you to integrate the idea of clapboard of practice into the design of your final project.

Health Disparities and Disparate Populations

Health disparities are often regarded as referring only to populations who are socioeconomically disadvantaged. In reality there are many types of health disparities in the U.S. and global health economies. As outlined by Healthy People 2020, the simple reality of a condition or disease occurrence being different in genders of the same socioeconomic group can create a significant disparity (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015). Thus, when you think about how to design and play healthcare programs, the challenge has to do with thinking about diverse populations and the realities of differences in society. Factors that create disparities may be as broad as considerations related to geography and will access populations, gender, educational level, or sexual orientation. When leaders design healthcare programs aimed to assist disparate populations, they must keep in mind that the deployment of those programs must be done in as ethical a manner as possible.

Blending Programs Into Existing Workflows

It is challenging to develop programs for many disparate populations and incorporate those programs into the existing flow of healthcare organizations. When you look at practical matters such as the onslaught of volumes into the healthcare system as a result of the Affordable Care Act, you have to consider the tolerance of existing healthcare infrastructure (Medicaid, 2015). The number of primary care visits is expected to increase from 15 million visits per year to 24 million visits per year in the year 2019 from the onset of the Accountable Care Act alone (Hofer, Abraham, & Moscovice, 2011). This module addresses some of these types of issues related to the deployment of classic healthcare programs, such as vouchers and their effect on healthcare utilization and volumes. The reality is that the healthcare manager’s role is to create innovative ways to blend these programs into existing healthcare workflows, creating as efficient a new process as possible.

Challenging Old Paradigms

In this module, you are given the opportunity to think critically and evaluate current program models such as voucher programs. As you progress into increasingly stringent requirements around healthcare resources and accountability, it is imperative that you, as a program manager, are able to critically assess programs and their value. Some of the old paradigms that are held true do not necessarily apply to evolving healthcare models that are focused less on volume and more on outcomes. Therefore, as you look at a model as traditional as a voucher program that increases service utilization, you have to ask yourself whether the current systems can adequately address increased utilization. Are there ways in which you can leverage in different healthcare providers to more cost effectively and efficiently address some of the traditional program models? Can you shift some of the activities of administering a program to the patient/client as a collaborator?

This module challenges you to apply a collaborative care model to your program idea. You should ask yourself if the practice of collaboration between different healthcare providers improves the possible performance of your program idea? Are there nontraditional ways that elements of your program can be delivered to patients (such as using providers in an innovative manner)? What are the roles of providers, such as a pharmacist in the coordination of care? What is the role of the patient’s family member or caregiver in the collaborative practice model? All of these questions help you apply the ideas of collaborative practice to your evolving program and improve the creative elements of that program.

References

Hofer, A., Abraham, J., & Moscovice, I. ( 2011). Expansion of coverage under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and primary care utilization. The Milbank Quarterly, 89(1), 69–89.

Medicaid. (2015). Affordable Care Act. Retrieved from http://medicaid.gov/affordablecareact/affordable-careact.html

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2015). Disparities. Retrieved from http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/foundation-health-measures/Disparities