Submission Date

7-21-2017

Document Type

Paper- Restricted to Campus Access

Department

Health & Exercise Physiology

Faculty Mentor

Michelle VandeBerg

Comments

Presented during the 19th Annual Summer Fellows Symposium, July 21, 2017 at Ursinus College.

Project Description

A study conducted by the International Common Wealth Fund in 2014 ranked the United States (U.S.) healthcare system last overall compared to ten other developed countries. Shockingly, the U.S. ranked behind these countries on many measures of care quality, efficiency, and outcomes considering that it spends more money than any other country (percent of GDP) on healthcare. In efforts to “provide affordable, quality health care for all Americans and reduce the growth in healthcare spending,” The Affordable Care Act was drafted and placed into effect in 2010. This legislation launched the attack on the huge problem of preventable errors which, according to John’s Hopkins University in 2015, is the 3rd leading cause of death in the U.S. Due to the U.S. healthcare system’s poor outcomes, poor quality, and inefficiency, a cultural transformation has, is, and will take place. An emphasis on clinical transparency, publically reported data, and patient centered care dominate the health care scope. Quality improvement strategies implemented pay for performance models linking hospitals’ Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) payment to metrics such as hospital readmissions and hospital acquired conditions. As CMS financially incentivizes quality improvement, hospitals leverage technology at the point of care aimed at improving competency and engagement minimizing underperformance and the impact of CMS financial penalty. As policy continues to evolve and new strategies emerge, how will the various verticals of the healthcare system adapt to these current and future changes?

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