This study uses a population health method to assess the healthcare organization described in the Integrated Safety-Net Health Care System case study for its cultural competency. Care management is just one of the many services offered by Montefiore Care Management. Montefiore Treatment Management provides services to help people with chronic illnesses live better lives, get the best possible care, better grasp their illness, and spend less time in the hospital or emergency room. To complete the study on Montefiore Medical Centre and its relationship to the essential components, the study will be discussed (Interpreting Services Program, 2022). Improving cultural competency will be a major topic of discussion, along with patient engagement and communication, health promotion and illness prevention, financial incentives and quality improvement, and some suggestions for implementing these. Customer service and patient happiness are two areas that need standard operating procedures. Patients in the local area get priority at Montefiore Medical Centre, which prioritizes them by hiring only the most qualified doctors and nurses and providing them with patient education materials and language services.
Engagement and Communication
Translation Services
Patients and their loved ones who are deaf, hard of hearing, deafblind, or otherwise restricted in their English skills may take advantage of the translation and interpretation services provided by the Montefiore Medical Center in New York City. The medical facility and its affiliated locations provide the services of various interpreters at no cost. According to Interpreting Services Program (2022), by calling a toll-free number, customers may talk with a qualified translator fluent in any of more than 150 supported languages. There are no established procedures for dealing with the situation when a language is not supported. However, workers are encouraged to bring up queries or problems with translating services. As stated by the Interpreting Services Program (2022), if healthcare systems manage population health in various situations effectively, all stakeholders must play a part. The primary role of physicians, nurses, and other healthcare team members is to provide patients with medical treatment and coordinate that care while also working to keep costs down and expand access.
Educational Resources
Consistency in care and treatment may be improved via patient education. Care managers at CMO help members with complicated situations get the care they need and connect with the organizations that can provide it. Montefiore helps patients’ social and economic lives by providing them with cutting-edge community programs. Even after patients have finished seeing their doctors, Montefiore keeps in touch to strengthen their intervention plans and ensure they continue to live healthy, productive lives. According to the provided case study, Montefiore has created educational resources to communicate with the varied requirements of the people according to cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. Interpreters for the deaf and hard of hearing, American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters, text telephone (TTY) services, amplified telephones, closed captioning for television, and other auxiliary aids are also available (Interpreting Services Program, 2022). They also provide transportable, dual-handset phones with splitters to further facilitate conversation.
Training
The team at Montefiore is always being trained on new methods to expand services to underserved communities and expand opportunities for those already there. Montefiore Medical Center offers many allied and other healthcare professional educational programs for clinical healthcare professions independent of dentists, nursing, and medicine. Given that some of these occupations are more specialized, they should comply with national education and training requirements criteria and their professional area of practice. They cannot provide top-notch service if they haven’t received enough training. Their employees are obligated by law to provide reasonable accommodations for their patients and offer the necessary resources to ensure all patients’ communication needs are satisfied. To treat patients with complex medical and social needs, MMC personnel must go beyond the box of conventional medicine (Chwastiak, 2017). Candidates for residency programs are evaluated on their clinical expertise and potential to employ social medicine methods to address patients’ underlying social problems (Interpreting Services Program, 2022).
Gaps or Deficiencies
Montefiore has achieved financial and organizational sustainability due to its dedication to providing care via patient participation and communication. Care management is effective in reducing hospital readmissions for patients with chronic conditions. Chwastiak et al. (2017) claim that in patients discharged from the hospital, nurse phone calls are directed at identifying gaps in care and providing patient education. New research suggests that the pediatric department altered its internal practices to have the asthma controller medicines, and not simply rescue medication, administered and prescribed upon discharge rather than waiting for a follow-up visit from the main care physician, which caused the delay in commencing maintenance therapy, (Moore, & Ewa Szumacher, 2018). The readmission rates at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore have dropped because of this initiative and provider education (Moore, & Ewa Szumacher, 2018). The dropping in admission might have been attributed to various factors. Montefiore Medical Centre’s Attending Service Medicine Division is the nation’s oldest and largest department dedicated to physician assistant care. This could have been attributed to the dropping in admissions of patients.
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention and Management Strategies
Lee et al. (2021) found that around 12% of Bronx adults have diabetes. The Montefiore Diabetes Leadership Group is an organization that promotes diabetes awareness and provides community-based nutrition and education initiatives Belyeu et al., 2017). Workers in the field of public service have collaborated with the local parks department to provide free memberships to people with diabetes. They have created educational materials that cater to the requirements of a wide range of demographics. They have collaborated with local organizations to encourage the growth of “green” markets throughout the Bronx and have opened weekly farmers’ markets to provide fresh produce to the area.
When it comes to clinical healthcare careers that aren’t dentistry, nursing, or medicine, Montefiore Medical Center has you covered with a wide range of allied and other healthcare professional programs. Some of these occupations are more specialized than others. Thus, national qualifications and education criteria must be met, as well as limits on what professionals can do in these fields. The goal of Montefiore’s To one’s Health! Associate Fitness’s initiative is to foster a work environment that prioritizes employees’ emotional and physical health and motivates them to adopt a healthier way of life to serve their patients’ needs.
Disease Prevention
Besides encouraging healthy habits, MMC has also done excellent work in illness prevention. An estimated 40% of Bronx children are overweight or obese (Gelfand et al., 2020). To aid in the battle against obesity, certain educational institutions have launched public health campaigns encouraging low-fat milk in school lunches rather than high-fat milk. Because of the increased likelihood of contact with others, the homeless population is also at a greater risk of contracting infectious illnesses (Chwastiak, 2017). Most people in these situations are so preoccupied with meeting basic needs like food and shelter that they don’t give much thought to their health, which may lead to delayed medical care, worsened conditions, and even death (Interpreting Services Program, 2022). Montefiore has set up mobile clinics at Bronx homeless shelters to offer on-site medical care for those with certain types of illnesses.
Non-Programmatic Services
Efforts are being made to improve healthcare, government, and social services separately. The Family Health Center is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, particularly those of Hispanic and Vietnamese descent, to serve the community’s cultural competence needs better ((Defining Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, 2018). This electronic health record for outpatients facilitates data collection and sharing among healthcare professionals.
Montefiore Care Management is a CMO that offers programs to help people living with complex diseases live better lives, get the best possible care, have a better grasp of their illness, and use medical facilities like hospitals and emergency rooms less frequently. Managers at CMOs ensure that members with complex ailments have access to the required treatment. Members of CMO’s health plans who enroll in Complex Care Management have access to an Accountable Care Manager who coordinates care between the patient, the patient’s primary care physician, and any specialists the patient sees.
Gaps or Deficiencies
Integrating outpatient data into a single electronic health record is still an open problem. For Montefiore, this has been a very slow procedure. To get the most out of the system, it is necessary to educate employees and modify certain processes to meet data input, access, and reporting demands (Chase 2010). Due to its size and, in part, its complicated patient group, the leadership has not been able to locate an EHR that satisfies the demands of its complex system. Dr.Kalkut, “Integration is key, and you can’t find a HIT system that can address asthma, transplants, and other conditions that move across the delivery system. We have to build what we need ourselves.”
Financial Incentives & Quality Improvement
Policies
Montefiore has enhanced the quality of care and treatment it offers by adopting a strategy for using health information technology. Due to its potential to improve patient care and security, this data system has been adopted by pharmacies, laboratories, hospitals, radiology centers, outpatient clinics, and even their data warehouse and patient portal (Chwastiak, 2017). Clinicians, nurses, physicians, and IT experts work together to find new methods to improve their information systems, leading to better treatment and greater patient safety.
Montefiore Medical Center has developed a patient-centered care system tailored to the specific needs of its low-income, vulnerable population regarding access, delivery, and information systems. As the Bronx is home to a diverse population, MMC has successfully attracted and retained employees of all ethnicities.
Patient-centered Approach
Health care at Montefiore is a community-based and patient-centered approach. Referring doctors are highly respected at Montefiore, collaborate closely with them to provide comprehensive care for our patients. Through a dedication to patient-centered treatment and attention to the community’s social needs and access issues, they are working to alleviate suffering among the most marginalized members of society (Belyeu, 2017). Using two primary care clinics that prioritize medical, administrative, and social efforts, MMC hopes to develop patient-centered medical homes Chase,2010). Dr.Steven Safyer, MMC’s president and CEO, attributes the institution’s success to its emphasis on the well-being of each individual patient and innovation, efficiency, breadth of specialized services, and patient-centered care. According to him, the company would rather concentrate on the patient’s needs than on the insurance they may or may not have.
The focus of patient-centered care is on the individual’s experience as a patient rather than on predetermined standards of care (Chwastiak et al.,2017). They form a collaborative relationship with their doctors who treat them holistically (in all senses of the word): physically, mentally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, and monetarily. A person’s actions directly result from
Strategies
Several methods have been used at Montefiore Medical Centre to reduce expenses and raise standards of care. Access to primary care and ambulatory care is being expanded to more parts of the population with the goal of better managing chronic conditions (Interpreting Services Program, 2022). One method for ensuring patients get consistent treatment, Montefiore, ensures an increase in the proportion of their population who visit the same providers. This method helps hospitals make better use of their intensive care unit beds by bringing critical care services closer to patients’ bedsides in other medical and surgical units (Belyeu et al., 2017). Care management at MMC uses a telehealth program and quality improvement initiatives to keep tabs on patients with long-term illnesses. The overall improvements in quality of life, efficiency, chronic illness management, and healthcare costs are much appreciated as a result of this breakthrough.
Improvements in asthma, diabetes, and heart disease treatment have resulted through telemedicine, telehealth, and clinics in schools and homeless shelters. Moreover, they have taken the lead in expanding their efforts to the whole community by collaborating with other local hospitals to share data (Defining Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, 2018). Some initiatives include setting up primary care clinics in schools and encouraging local businesses to provide better food options. Montefiore’s new pediatrics chairman, Phillip Ozuah, altered the institution’s policies so that patients are given asthma medication before leaving the hospital rather than having them follow up with their primary care doctors.
Gaps or Deficiencies
The hospital is strengthening its weak spots, adapting to the specific requirements of its patients and the community, and refocusing its efforts on performance improvement. With the safety measures taken by the hospital, there are some areas in which the hospital has not put much effort into bringing the well conversant experts in telehealth programs. With telemedicine, for instance, yearly expenses for illness management have dropped by 32% (RHI Hub, 2018). After just a year of participation in the CMO, home calls program, hospital admissions, ER visits, and overall expenses were decreased by one-third for participating patients (Interpreting Services Program, 2022). The 30-day readmission rate was reduced from 19.9 percent to 13.2 percent after a group of patients over the age of 70 who had been discharged from the hospital received nurse calls to identify gaps in care and provide patient education. This study was conducted in 2009 and lasted only a few weeks (Chase,2010). Every new initiative undertaken by Montefiore Medical Center has been designed for the well-being of patients and the local community.
Recommendations
Cultural Competence
The continued recruitment and retention of minority employees and the provision of training to develop cultural awareness are two strategies that might assist in boosting MMC’s cultural competency with patient involvement and communication. Marketing and advertising may be tailored to a particular culture, and patients’ loved ones and community members can be included in their healthcare decisions. To provide care sensitive to the patient’s values and beliefs, cultural competence necessitates a cultural assessment as the first step in developing a treatment strategy (Belyeu et al., 2017). Staff members who take the time to learn about their patient’s cultural backgrounds are better equipped to provide individualized treatment and see favorable results.
Health status
The goal of health promotion and illness prevention initiatives is to maintain a healthy population. Health promotion initiatives aim to empower individuals and communities to adopt positive lifestyle changes that reduce the prevalence of preventable illnesses. Communication aimed at increasing public knowledge of the need to lead healthy lifestyles is one method for advancing health promotion and illness prevention (Defining Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, 2018). Promotional activities may include newsletters, media campaigns, and health fairs.
Approach
Improving public health will lead to fewer unnecessary trips to the emergency room and save money overall. Adding nutrition lessons to their culinary demonstrations will benefit the community’s health as a whole (Defining Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, 2018). With this, consumers can locate nutritious food selections and develop better eating habits, lowering their risk of diabetes and obesity (Belyeu et al., 2017). Introduction of the new technologies will be essential in decreasing patients as they avoid unnecessary doctor’s appointments, urgent care center visits, and hospital stays. The hospital should develop a new approach to training programs to integrate all the current and old-fashioned technologies. When the above measures are implemented, they will be very effective and help the hospital handle urgent and complicated issues.
References
Belyeu, B., Chwastiak, L., Russo, J., Kiefer, M., Mertens, K., Chew, L., & Jackson, S. L. (2017). Barriers to engagement in collaborative care treatment of uncontrolled diabetes in a safety-net clinic. The Diabetes Educator, 43(6), 621–630.
Chwastiak, L. A., Jackson, S. L., Russo, J., DeKeyser, P., Kiefer, M., Belyeu, B., Mertens, K., Chew, L., & Lin, E. (2017). A collaborative care team to integrate behavioral health care and treatment of poorly-controlled type 2 diabetes in an urban safety net primary care clinic. General Hospital Psychiatry, 44, 10–15.
Gelfand, Y. J., De la Garza Ramos, R., Benton, J., Echt, M., Yanamadala, V., & Yassari, R. (2020). P92. Does BMI over 40 have a significant risk in spine deformity patients?The Spine Journal, 20(9), S190-S191. Web.
HUB, R. (2018). Rural health information Hub. Retrieved from Rural Health Information Hub: Web.
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Lee, C. G., Heckman-Stoddard, B., Dabelea, D., Gadde, K. M., Ehrmann, D., Ford, L.,… & Temprosa, M. (2021). Effect of metformin and lifestyle interventions on mortality in the Diabetes Prevention Program and Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study.Diabetes care, 44(12), 2775-2782. Web.
Moore, C., & Ewa Szumacher, M. D. 2018 International Cancer Education Conference.Journal of Cancer Education, 33(1), S1-S48. Web.