HP 609 Week 2 Assignment 1 Cost or Quality? Which is the Right Focus for Health Policy? Instructions Reflecting on the information found in the videos from Week 1 Learning Materials, write a two-page paper about the fact the current health policy discussions are focused so heavily on cost and relatively little on quality.

Both patients and healthcare providers must take responsibility and be committed to promoting the quality of healthcare services delivered by the healthcare institutions. Therefore, the nurses, among other healthcare providers, should be able to identify the patients’ needs and advise them accordingly to facilitate quick recovery. Proper coordination and relationship between the healthcare provider and patients guarantee better outcomes. The current study identifies patients’ health problems and how they affect the quality and cost of medication.

Explanation of How Patient Problem Impact Quality and Cost of Healthcare

Healthcare systems experience continuous transition and change processes that aim at improving the quality of healthcare delivery to the patients. The outcome of the treatment process depends on the contribution from various players in the healthcare system including the healthcare providers, the patients, and their families. Furthermore, nursing theories explore the various factors influencing the healing process of the patients. The holistic theory states that human beings are made of systems that work together; therefore, an alteration in any of the systems could result in illness. Additionally, the tenets in the theory guide the processes and approach healthcare providers should engage to promote the quality of healthcare delivery to the patients. Both patients and healthcare providers’ interactions and the medications administered influence the health outcomes. For example, delays in the emergency room readmission predispose the patients to adverse health outcomes and thus compromise the quality of the healthcare delivered. On the other hand, poor adherence to medication especially among the patients with chronic illnesses due to drug and substance abuse also impacts their health outcomes negatively.

In this case, the main patient problem of interest is drug and substance abuse. During the practicum experiences, one of the patients presented to the emergency room with symptoms of myocardial infarction. The patient’s history indicated that he was diabetic and presented with hyperlipidemia. The patient was on various medications to help manage his blood pressure and sugar level. However, he had been occasionally rushed to the emergency rooms because of extremely high blood sugar levels and hypertension. The further assessment indicated that the patient had a history of alcohol consumption and this could affect his level of adherence to the medications. The patient reported going to hang out with friends on weekends and would spend her entire following day sleeping because of the hangover. The case provides a typical example of patients’ problems that impact the quality of healthcare delivery negatively.

Poor adherence due to drug and substance use results in a poor prognosis for the patients. Besides, the patients may have to be admitted from time to time due to the complications arising from their chronic conditions (Dillon, et al., 2018). Such admission has significant implications on the medication costs. Other than increasing the individual medication costs, poor adherence due to drug and substance abuse also affects the health system costs (Turcu-Stiolica et al., 2018). For example, an increase in the number of patients admitted to the emergency rooms will require more healthcare providers to minimize delays in the department.

According to Cutler et al. (2018), the medication regimen for chronic illnesses requires regular follow-up and de-prescription of re-prescriptions. Most of the treatment failures result from poor adherence and this means that patients may have to be re-hospitalized from time to time. Furthermore, the study indicates that almost 50% of the adult populations in the U.S have chronic illnesses that require regular medical check-up. Medical adherence refers to the extent to which the patient’s behaviours match the physicians’ recommendations. Also, the prescriptions must consider the significance of the patients’ decisions and the modifiable aspects of their non-adherence. Considering that the proportion of people who never adhere to medical prescriptions continue to rise, there is a need to develop proper strategies to improve health outcomes. The study reports that about $100 to $290 billion are used in the U.S to cater for non-adherence medications. Furthermore, the study indicates that a typical non-adherence case may require three extra visits annually. Improving adherence among the patients could reduce the medication costs among diabetes patients by about $661 million to $1.6 billion annually (Cutler et al., 2018). Therefore, it may be difficult to address the increasing cost of medication without addressing the issues of quality service delivery to the patients.

Role of Board of Nursing