Free Essay. Regulatory Agencies and Quality

Regulatory agencies are responsible for the enforcement of necessary requirements in healthcare. They play a significant role in insurance coverage and the overall healthcare industry. Regulatory organizations care for the community from possible risks of health and also provide various programs for communal health and welfare. Regulations in healthcare are not only applied by the government organizations, but also the private organizations. All through, these regulation agencies aims at improving the quality of health provided to the public at any level. They observe physicians and health facilities, provide the necessary information on modifications in health, encourage welfare, and make certain legitimacy compliance and quality services. The federal, state, and local regulatory agencies regularly institute rules and regulations that govern health care facilities. The paper shall discuss the roles of regulation in healthcare to ensure a quality healthcare. Regulations are essential at ensuring that the public receives quality healthcare and protects them from the possible risks of health care.

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Historical review of healthcare

Before the introduction of modern medicine, the understanding of ailments and other corporeal associations in health was based on concepts that existed about 2,000 years ago though they lacked the necessary scientific ground. Many of the people living in western countries, including medical personnel believed that diseases came as a result of imbalance or disturbances within the body. Environmental influences such as bad odor in the air, contagious diseases, and other forms of environmental factors causes the imbalance in the body. The cure for body imbalance implemented during this colonial era included removal of the causal substance through some orifices in the body such as the nose, mouth, the skin, or the rectum. This was done using different drugs or by blood removal. This method of treatment was among the main therapies that succeeded in orthodox and folk practices for spans. During the 1800s, the understanding of pathogens attacking the body or mosquitoes and fleas carrying disease causing pathogens was not yet established.

In the colonial era, most Americans physicians received their training in Europe or were apprenticed to those who received their education there. The procedures followed were approved globally and were legitimately reasonable. Many people could not afford health care due to the highly charged fees. Thus, they relied on natural means of healing, home remedies, midwives, local traditional healers, for instance, the African- American community relied on obeah or magicians. These healers charged little and imitated the conventional methods of healing (Marjoua, & Bozic, 2012). The educated doctors were seen as educated men of elite status and displayed a sense of social authority due to their social class. However, the physicians in the years before revolution should be respected because of their excellent work.

After independence, the personalities of doctors changed and lost their exclusive social status. Some went to Europe for further studies which resulted in a dramatic decline in the standard of medical education in America. This was because those who went to study were cut off from the development of their country (Dewan, Goldmann, & Lorenzi, 2014). Also, the trained physicians opened their medical schools as a business venture which was stimulated by the commercially growing and covetous social environment. These schools disregarded traditional academic requirements. During this era, there was no certification and licensing of medical practitioners. Science did not apply in American medicine, and they denied it vigorously. For instance, when the idea of germs as causal disease organisms came from the efforts of Koch and Pasteur, the Americans rejected the idea.

The modern-day health care is far much better than it used to be in the past due to the advancements in technology and reliable methods of disease diagnosis due to the growth of scientific researches in the medical field recently. There have been various advancements in medical care which have resulted in quality care provided and also improvement in the quality of life. The regulatory bodies have also be mandated to ensure the security of citizens in health cases. This has seen a significant decrease in mortality rate since most diseases that used to be deadly such as malaria during the pre-science era. The antiscientific, narrow-minded, and high business atmosphere that triumphed the 19th century was the primary factor that led to the retardation of the American medicine which also constituted in the drop in this vocation. The reputation given to doctors was deteriorating, and their political clout seems to reduce at the same too. They were no longer relevant in the Boards of Health where they worked as inspectors. The attempts of controlling educational standards or licensing medical persons failed due to the opposition of the laws that restricted the communal freedom.

Regulatory agencies

A deemed status is a rank under which a healthcare facility may be relieved for the unchanging surveys done by the department. The AHRQ is an agency that is categorized under the US department of health and human services. This body also researches the ways of enhancing quality healthcare, and reduction of the cost, and addressing the patients' wellbeing and medical faults.

The joint commissions developed it's own National Patient Safety Goals that aids the approved organizations to handle a variety of areas of concerns in health and also tries to solve some of the concerns. Hospitals chase authorization since it is required before receiving payments from national funded medication and Medicaid programs. Once a healthcare institution or any other accredited agency meet the state's requirements, quality of health is promised by helping the organizations lay their primary focus on the safety on wellbeing, decreasing the cost of healthcare due to the reduced risk resulted by the increase in the management practices that result from being official. Accreditation has also played a more significant role in solidifying the position of an organization individually as the types of hospitals that provides quality healthcare (Wan, 2010). More so, it led to improve an element of health care access to requirements. Those that receive healthcare from facilities that have been credited are assured of receiving excellent and quality healthcare. Approval ensures high-quality results for the patients and the society served by the community. Though accreditation of a health institute is voluntary, many care facilities view it as crucial. When a hospital reaches the national health and quality and safety standards, the patients treated in these facilities are assured of a more secure and generally the best type of health care.

Improvement of the quality of care through understanding history

Currently, healthcare is undergoing some upgrades in infrastructure. This shows the century-long experience of cumulative efforts in health. The origin and evolution of the quality management came as a way of gradually encircling and selecting quality improvement and the development systems that observed, enumerate, and incentivize the growth of quality in healthcare (Turner, & Hurley, 2002). Over the past centuries, the quality of healthcare which involved rearrangement and re-engineering of the systems of healthcare delivery, encourage the advancement of the multidimensional works that aim at improving the healthcare quality.

Conclusion

In summary, the paper confirms that the necessary advancements that have been made in the health industries aim at improving the quality of medical and Medicaid services that promotes the well-being of the patients. However, previously the efforts of improving the health sector encountered various challenges in the 19th century era. This was as a result of ignorance and consistent denial of science in treating healthcare. However, after embracing the scientific evaluation of disease treatment methods, patients are seen to be showing the positive results of science and modern technology that advanced greatly recently.

References

Dewan, N. A., Goldmann, H. H., & Lorenzi, N. M. (2014). Behavioral Healthcare Informatics. New York, NY: Springer.

Marjoua, Y., & Bozic, K. J. (2012). Brief History of Quality Movement in US Healthcare. Current reviews in musculoskeletal medicine, 5(4), 265-273. doi:10.1007/s12178-012-9137-8

Turner, H. S., & Hurley, J. L. (2002). The History and Practice of College Health. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky.

Wan, T. T. H. (2010). Improving the Quality of Care in Nursing Homes: An evidence-based approach. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins Univ. Pr.