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Sadly, we’ve been in last place for awhile. The Commonwealth Fund analyzes and compares the health systems of seven industrialized countries each year — Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. The US was last in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010, despite spending almost twice as much per capita ($7290 vs. $3837 for the Netherlands).
Researchers observe that the universal healthcare systems in the other six countries encourage a close relationship between patients and a medical “home base.” Many are also ahead in the use of information technology, which can streamline patient care and improve diagnosis and treatment.
Interestingly, some Americans believe nurses can act as “home base” for patients here in the United States. A recent New York Times article detailed the efforts of one insurance company to cut costs. They did it by hiring nurses. According to the Times, the nurses “full-time job is to help patients with chronic diseases stay on top of their conditions, and, ideally, out of the hospital.” So far, it’s worked: hospital admissions are down 18 percent, while medical expenses decreased seven percent. Patients are pleased with the system as well.
What do you think of the “home base” idea? Do you believe nurses are key to real healthcare reform?
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I think that nurses are the ideal “home-base” for patients. Through the years of changes to health care and its environment, nurses have remained the steady patient advocates. However, nurses are increasingly spread thinner and thinner… leaving us with little time to do what we know is right for our patients. This has lead to demise in many areas of nursing and health care as a whole. If the nation wants improvement in health care, a definite line needs to be drawn in how thin nurses can be spread.
Registered nurses, along with advanced practice nurses, could be the “hub” of nursing centers that deliver health promotion, disease prevention, and health literacy to consumers. The APNs could deliver primary care when needed, thus increasing access and greatly reducing costs created by inappropriate use of the current “sickness care system.” The problem lies in the many barriers erected in different states to prevent such a model of “health care” from fully functioning. Turf wars cloud what should be a common sense answer to a system that is unable to sustain such high costs – keep people healthy in the first place and use resources wisely when needed! Nurses are the IDEAL professionals to be the “home-base!”