Effective Communication and Care Coordination

Answer

Effective Communication and Care Coordination

The National Quality Strategy establishes three objectives, six priorities, and nine levers to promote quality improvements (Sadeghi, Barzi, Mikhail, Shabot, 2012). This document will explore how effective communication and care coordination, as a critical priority of the National Quality Strategy, seeks to promote quality in health care system.

To advance the goals of the National Quality Strategy that include; better care, healthy communities, and affordable care, I present effective communication and care coordination as a critical priority of the National Quality Strategy. From my personal experience, I have noted that the United States has a fragmented Health Care System that is complex for navigation by the caregivers, patients, and families given the many inefficiencies (Laschinger, Smith, 2013). In most cases, I have seen the lack of effective communication resulting in poor care coordination that has posited serious implications such as medical errors, unnecessary suffering and pain for patients and hospital readmissions (Laschinger, Smith, 2013). I have also observed that lack of care coordination induces higher costs of medical services due to expenses on the preventable readmissions and the subsequent treatment costs.

Therefore, I call upon all the stakeholders to endorse effective communication and care coordination across the healthcare system by focusing on the aforementioned three major goals of the National Quality Strategy. Effective communication and care coordination are significantly important in reducing errors in care and overutilization of services (Laschinger, Smith, 2013). This is because patients often interact with many physicians, medical assistants, nurses, and other trained professionals across multiple settings.

Enhanced communication strategies through elaborate discharge processes and the adoption of health information technologies have improved measures of care coordination (Sadeghi, Barzi, Mikhail, Shabot, 2012). Notably, the discharge instructions are crucial forms of effective communication and care coordination. For instance, discharge instructions for patients with chronic illness is a critical form of communication to home care providers and significantly helps to coordinate care plans between the discharging health professional and the intended home care providers. This strategy has improved the quality of health care provided as posited by the increased percentage of patients with heart-related diseases who got complete written discharge instructions between 2005 and 2012 (Sadeghi, Barzi, Mikhail, Shabot, 2012).

 Finally, I have noted that meaningful use of electronic health records of patients is effective communication strategy that involves using certified electronic health record technology to improve efficiency, safety, quality, and reduce health disparities by improving care coordination, engaging patients and family and improving population and public health. It also facilitates maintenance of privacy and security of patient’s health information (Sadeghi, Barzi, Mikhail, Shabot, 2012).

In conclusion, effective communication and coordination strategy is critically important not only to the health care system but also to all other industries and organization. In any organization, effective communication is key to the organizational success. 

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