Comment 1Many provisions are being done to the affordable care act most of which are trying to demonstrate reducing the cost, which is not proving to be enough. Another approach that is becoming primary is focusing on the overall quality, and coordination of the patients care. By focusing on the overall quality of care, this includes everyone who is involved in the care of the patient. Medical/Health homes are homes that provide patients with a central primary care practice or provider.

The homes allow providers to focus on preventative care and chronic care management. This program will also help reduce dependence on specialist and emergency care. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act authorizes who how contracts directly with the state to establish community-based interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams in supporting the patients’ primary care. The interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams may then decided if medical specialist, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, dieticians, social work, behavioral health and mental health providers are necessary for care.I believe that this can be beneficial to patients and healthcare in the fact that it reduces that amount of emergent and acute care issues. If a patient is coming into one provider for preventative care check with hope to detect symptoms early and treat with a primary doctor avoiding the need to see a specialist reducing the cost to the patient and the healthcare provider. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act determines who is eligible for an interdisciplinary team so not everyone will be at the mercy of the team also reducing the cost. The quality of care should remain at the same level the Medical/Health Homes just won’t be utilizing as many providers if the patient does not require them. Not to mention patient will have access to Medical/Health 24/7 interviewees reported that 24/7 access to a care provider is also an essential element of the medical home equation even if only through telephonic or electronic means, helps reduce reliance on emergency rooms and resultant preventable hospitalizations (ANA, 2010).According to Nester (2016), succeeding in the current care environment can only be possible if inter-professional teams will come together and work as a unit. As such, the inter-disciplinary or interprofessional Practice Model as emphasized in the Institute of Medicine report can be termed as innovative.Comment 2One innovative health care delivery model which incorporates an interdisciplinary care delivery team is a systematic approach to the flow of care. First a patient presents with certain symptoms or complaints related to his or her health. There might be positive screenings from tests they have already received related to their symptoms. Following a diagnostic workup, a tentative diagnosis regarding their concern can be made. Following this diagnosis, it might be necessary to send the patient to a medical/surgical bed or ICU. They might require medical or surgical intensive care, or simply be sent home. Each stream follows a different set of procedures and personnel responsible for determining the correct path for each patient.

This is advantageous to patient outcomes because it ensures that they receive the optimal treatment for their ailments. Standardizing the process and keeping it organizational will greatly benefit patient outcomes and ensure that there is no delay in care. “Each of these steps potentially involves a myriad of options, each of which is directed by a different specialist. This can sometimes result in care that is not clinically appropriate” (Osarogiagbon et. al, 2016, p. 984). All members of the interdisciplinary team need to communicate with one another, rather than just making care decisions based on individual assertions and collecting data together. This can cause disjunction in critical information, delay treatment, and have adverse effects in patient outcomes.

Discussion:Provisions to the Affordable Care Act

Discussion:Provisions to the Affordable Care Act

Comment 3As science has advanced to allow for more treatment options and cures for patients, providers have found themselves providing a more distanced type of care. With the distance of care, patient and families have been left less educated of their health status and reason for treatments leaving the patients to not feel as secure or in control of their health (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). In the Institute of Medicine report called Crossing the Quality Chasm, the IOM attempted to introduce an approach to assist in the reform of health care by explaining patient-centered care (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). The IOM described patient-centered care as care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs and values (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). This care model calls clinicians to work as partners and coaches in a patient’s health care journey rather than as a dictator (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012).

Such a care model asks patients and their families to become allies with the health care team in designing, implementing and evaluating medical options (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). Treatment and interventions must be presented to the patient as an option as they always have a choice, especially when options are deemed to have consequences.As clinicians relinquish their authority role of decision making and move towards a shared-decision making approach they are more equipped to view the experience through the patient’s eyes (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). This will allow providers to be more responsive to patient’s needs and treat their patients better. Also, clinicians are able to embrace the ethical principles of autonomy and beneficence with this type of model (Reuben & Tinetti, 2012). Patient centered and shared decision care benefits patients by increasing their knowledge of their disease, allow decisions to be aligned with their values, reduced internal conflict and more inclined for positive outcomes when patients are actively engaged (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012). One of the largest barriers to goal-oriented and shared-decision modeled patient care is that medicine is deeply rooted in a disease-outcome–based rather than asking what patients want; the culture values managing each disease as well as possible according to guidelines (Reuben & Tinetti, 2012).

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

 

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.