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Global Health Care

Decent Essays

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the principal government agency in the United States working to improve the health of all Americans despite their economic, social and educational status. HHS has identified three national goals of global health, including strengthen health care, advance scientific knowledge and innovation, and advance the health, safety and well-being of Americans (Secretary, 2014). The first goal to strengthen healthcare refers to HHS's push in making health insurance affordable for all Americans. This will increase access to preventative care as well as ensuring assess to high quality, culturally competent care. This goal focuses on improving transitions in care across the continuum, which in …show more content…

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (2015), "care coordination involves deliberately organizing patient care activities and sharing information among all of the participants concerned with a patient's care to achieve safer and more effective care". This multidisciplinary team usually includes nurses, patients, physicians, social workers, physical therapists, pharmacists, etc. Care coordination across the continuum improves communication, quality of care, patient safety and patient satisfaction while reducing admissions and readmissions and medical costs. Another activity, public health nursing involves collaboration and partnerships with communities and special population, with a focus on health promotion and preventative care (Kulbok, Thatcher & Meszaros, 2012). Public health nursing includes home care, clinics, case management, and local and state health departments, etc. Finally, nurses joining committees is another way to strengthen healthcare. For example, a readmission review committee involves nurses from the hospital, case managers, social workers, hospital physicians, skilled nursing facility physicians, etc. who come together to review patient cases and identify why patients were readmitted, what fell through the cracks and then develop workflow/protocols to minimize the chance for future readmissions. Committees like these improve patient care and

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