MBA621 Healthcare Systems: Case Study - Nursing Home Care Analysis

This case study provides an in-depth analysis of nursing home care in Australia, examining its effectiveness, efficiency, and equity in the context of an aging population. It begins by describing the services offered by nursing homes and their impact on the elderly, highlighting the combination of medical, social, and personal care provided. The analysis delves into the clinical and population effectiveness of nursing home care, addressing concerns about service quality and the increasing preference for home-based care. Efficiency is evaluated from both clinical and population perspectives, considering production and allocation efficiency, with a focus on government funding and regulatory reforms. The study also assesses procedural and substantive equity in service delivery, addressing disparities and the importance of fair treatment. Recommendations are made to improve service quality, ensure equity, and enhance government oversight to prevent fraudulent activities and improve the overall healthcare experience for the elderly in Australia. Desklib provides various resources including past papers and solved assignments for students.

NURSING HOME CARE
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Introduction
 A nursing home is a high-quality institution that is
highly regulated for the care as well as treatment of
the older population.
 These people have physical health issues, mental
complications or cannot get care at home.
 Changes in the Australian nursing homes have been
attributed to government regulations as well as
consumer pressures among other factors.

Description of Service and impact on
Australia's ageing Population
 Nursing home care is a combination of different services that are
offered at a nursing home.
 This care involves a comprehensive scope of medical, social and
personal services which are coordinated to meet the physical,
emotional as well as the social needs or people that are either
chronically ill, disabled or lack proper care at home (WebMD, 2018).
 Characteristics of nursing home care include:
1. it is meant for the elderly.
2. involves a wide array of other services which focus on the on the
physical, social and emotional needs of their patients
3. personal care is also offered such as bathing, dressing as well as
toilet assistance, and Room and Boarding are offered.

Description of Service and
impact on Australia's ageing
Population Cont. The provision of these types of services has had a significant impact
on the aging population of Australia.
 Over the years, the government has strived to ensure that these
services are kept to a certain standard and that it is affordable for the
citizens.
 The government endeavors to improve the quality of services in
nursing homes have seen more people to be committed to these
facilities.
However, this has not come without challenges. According to Wynne
(2006), some home care businesses have been accused of engaging in
fraudulent activities, extorting the elderly and their families for
services and medication that are not necessary.

Effectiveness of Nursing Home Care
i) Clinical Effectiveness
 Serious concerns have persisted over the quality of services offered to
individual patients in nursing home care.
 In some areas, however, the quality of care in nursing homes might have
improved even though the facilities are now serving a sicker population
(Stadnyk et al., 2011).
 It is the duty of the health care providers at these facilities to ensure that
the elderly do take their medication at the right time and that this process is
not skipped as it is geared towards maintaining their well-being health wise.
 The physical services such as bathing, dressing as well as toilet assistance
are implemented in the nursing care and therefore provide excellent
attention to the patients.

Effectiveness of Nursing Home
Care Cont.
i) Clinical Effectiveness cont.
 Apart from medical services, there are additional services that are
offered such as physical and social services.
The physical services such as bathing, dressing as well as toilet
assistance are implemented in the nursing care and therefore provide
excellent attention to the patients.
social services ensure that the nursing homes do not only create a
sense of a medical facility but rather a retirement home for the
elderly where they can engage in various activities during their stay
and therefore making this service quite effective.

Effectiveness of Nursing Home
Care Cont.
• ii) Population Effectiveness
 Nursing home care can also be channeled toward improving the
health of populations via medical or non-medical services
 In Australia, many elderlies are now opting for home-based care
rather than nursing home cares.
 home-based care has proven effective since the practitioners have
been in a position to help the population through the elderly when
they visit their homes either through medical or non-medical services.

Efficiency of Nursing Home Care
I. Production Efficiency (Clinical Perspective)
 It is commonly believed that the inefficiencies that are occurring in a
nursing home and healthcare facilities are mainly contributed by the
dramatic increase in the cost of healthcare in the recent years.
 Nursing homes in Australia have had a great deal of expenditure that
approaches 1% of the Gross National Product (GNP) and thus
represent an important industry.
 For this reason, many people are shying away from accessing these
services for the financial burden on them and prefer care at home.
However, since the government has devoted special funds for the
elderly in Australia, now more people can afford the care than before.

Efficiency of Nursing Home Care
Cont.
I. Production Efficiency (Clinical Perspective) cont.
When funds are provided, the quality of service offered in a nursing
home is set to rise as resources for the improvements can now be
acquired.
 This is of particular importance since government reforms have
made it possible for more people to afford the care services and for
the facilities to improve the quality of their service by ensuring the
staff is sufficiently competent to handle patients (Clauser & Harris,
2002, p.9). Doing this ensures that facilities adhere to strict law
structures.

Efficiency of Nursing Home Care cont.
ii. Production Efficiency (Population Perspective)
 While the consumers are demanding for a more flexible way of providing
nursing home care services, structural reforms have resulted in the health
providers adopting new methods of operating.
 The federal government of Australia at one point found out the extortion
that was happening in nursing home facilities and thus discovered that
the population was losing a lot of money for inferior services.
 For this reason, to ensure that the community gets the value for their
monies and that they do not pay more than what they are supposed to
pay, the government amended the laws to ensure that the funds that
were provided to the facilities from the government were cut.

Efficiency of Nursing Home Care
cont.
ii. Production Efficiency (Population Perspective)
 when the government found out about the allegation against these
facilities, the money was instead given out to individuals in the society
who were in need of the health services making it easy to prevent
extortion by the facilities.
 This move has proved to be efficient in the provision of better
healthcare since now more people can afford nursing homes and
when they pay, their money is specifically geared towards ensuring
that the needs of the elderly are met.

Efficiency of Nursing Home Care
cont.
iii) Allocation Efficiency (Population Perspective)
 In Australia, the government has been crucial in the corporatization
of aged care, and therefore the story of allocation efficiency cannot
be told without analyzing the role of the government.
 In the U.S, it was the financiers as well as businessmen that have
driven the marketization of such welfare services for the aged
population.
 In addition to this, their government has offered their support,
influence, and credibility to a great extent.