How HealthCare Systems Operate

Yours Truly,Kaila Beckrow

Article Overview➔ Breaks down the HealthCare System into four components

◆ The individual Patient

◆ The Care Team

◆ The Organization

◆ The Environment

➔ Under each component, the article goes into detail about how they play a role in the HealthCare system.

Article Overview➔ Within each component, the article also tells how communication

and information flows in and out of each system.

➔ The article gives a good Four-Level Model of the HealthCare System to help break down how all of the components mold together.

System Components➔ Systems are many different parts, in the simplest terms

➔ In an organizational system, people and departments are the components that make up the system.

➔ There are three concepts that characterize system components◆ Hierarchical ordering

◆ Interdependence

◆ Permeability

Hierarchical Ordering➔ Components that are arranged in a complex way that contain

subsystems and supersystems.

Interdependence➔ The functioning of one component within the system relies on

other components of the system.

Permeability ➔ Allows information and materials to flow in and out of a system.

➔ A system could be open or closed.◆ Open: all sorts of information and people are constantly moving in and out

◆ Closed: not so much collaboration with anyone/thing outside of the system

The HealthCare System➔ There is a four-level healthcare system that gives adequate

examples of hierarchical ordering, interdependence, and permeability when each system is broken down.

◆ Level 1: The Individual Patient

◆ Level 2: The Care Team

◆ Level 3: The Organization

◆ Level 4: The Environment

The Individual Patient➔ Patients rely on hospitals and doctors when they are having

health issues.

➔ During critical circumstances, patients have to delegate someone to make an important decision for them whether it be a family member or a clinician/counselor.

➔ Patients need a free exchange of information and communication with physicians and other members of the care team whether it is from the same care team or a care team they were previously associated with (Permeability)

The Individual Patient➔ Clinicians/counselors and family members also need access to

educational, decision-support, information-management, and communication tools that help relay important information from different sources.

Interdependence➔ Interdependence shows when focusing on the patient because a

nurse could find something wrong with a patient so the patient goes to a doctor at the hospital and from there the patient might get referred to a specialist depending on the severity of the situation.

The Care Team➔ Basic building block of a “clinical microsystem”- “the smallest

replicable unit within an organization or across multiple organizations that is replicable in the sense that is contains within itself the necessary human, financial, and technological resources to do its work” (Hierarchical Ordering)

◆ However, sometimes they have to reach out to other organizations for patient information- Permeability

The Care Team➔ Consists of the individual

physician and a group of care providers (Interdependence)

➔ The physician may need to contact another physician or doctor that the patient has seen in the past to get medical records (Permeability)

(EXCUSE THE BLUR)

The Organization➔ Hospital, clinic, nursing home

➔ Uses decision-making systems, information systems, operating systems, and process to coordinate activities of multiple care teams and supporting units and manages the flow of human, material, and financial resources and information in support of care teams

The Environment➔ Includes regulatory, financial, and payment administrations and

entities that influence the structure and performance of healthcare organizations directly and all other levels of the system

➔ Patients can influence the political and economic environment for healthcare.

Breaking It Down➔ If you break down hierarchical ordering and look at it in regards

to the HealthCare industry, you can see it when you think about all the subsystems in a hospital: ER, labs, offices, recovery units

➔ You can also look at it in broader terms and see the organizations- clinics, nursing homes, hospitals- as subsystems of the HealthCare industry

Breaking It Down➔ When thinking about The Care Team, we can look at

surgeons/doctors. The doctor would not know what to do to a patient without the nurse telling them what is wrong or from the lab results.

◆ This is a prime example of interdependence because one part of the whole system is relying on the other to operate.

Breaking It Down➔ Hospitals are constantly utilizing permeability and ultimately

could not function without it.

➔ They need to order materials and sometimes consult with other specialists/doctors about their patient.

➔ Information between many hospital units is constantly being shared with one and other to facilitate the flow of people, information, and materials.

Questions➔ In regards to the system components, how did they know those

were the best for a hospital? Why not some other approach?

➔ If these systems of operation seem to work so well, why is it that often times information about a patient is miscommunicated or not communicated at all in a hospital?

Thoughts➔ Giving my thoughts about my previous questions, I believe they

use the system they do because a hospital contains many parts, and they cannot just get alone with on operator and no help from the outside.

➔ I believe mistakes are made in hospitals even while using what seem like a perfect and efficient system because people are human; we over look things; we forget things; we misinterpret things; ultimately, we make mistakes.

Works Cited

National Academy of Engineering (US) and Institute of Medicine (US)Committee on Engineering

and the Health Care System. (1970, January 01). A Framework for a Systems Approach to

Health Care Delivery. Retrieved March 08, 2017, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK22878/

P.S. I had a lot of questions on how to approach this project, so I did what I thought was right. I hope you liked it :)