Introduction
The National Steering Committee is a committee that deals with the issues concerning health care. The committee gives guidelines and recommendations to be adopted by all the healthcare providers to facilitate their processes in the field. The body also ensures that patients, in all communities have adequate access to health care services at all times.
The National Steering Committee recommendations
The National Steering Committee in 2006 gave seven recommendations that can be adopted by hospitals in order to improve public health and recreate the public health infrastructure. These were or them to eliminate disparities, coordinate care, promote primary prevention, optimize access to care for all, advocate payment for prevention, build the community’s capacity to stay healthy, and finally to support recreating the public health infrastructure and expanding capacity (Schwartz, & Tumblin, 2002).
There is however a gap between what the committee recommends and the reality of the current state. On the coordination of care, the ideal state should be where the health care system faultlessly offers all forms of health and social services to patients who have complicated conditions. These include a patient-based approach in the care plan in which every patient gets well-coordinated care despite the patients’ point of entry into the system. The system should be having a structure that will connect the hospitals, doctors, nursing homes, and other caregivers for purposes of sharing information on clinical, financial, and administrative issues. The current system is however divided into self-reliant care provider sectors rendering it challenged in addressing the chronic conditions of the patients (The Health Research and Educational Trust, 2006).
On the recommendation of Optimizing access to care for all, the committee gives an example of the United States where every person has access to health care of their highest potential. They all have access to the care they require in terms of prevention, acute, and rehabilitation services. But in the current state, there is no access to care for families, members of society, and the community at large. There are barriers to proper health care which include the availability and the location of the health facility, lack of transport, and lack of community awareness on the available facilities. On the recommendation to build the community’s capacity to stay healthy, the committee gives an example of America where the country has got the potential of producing good health care services for its nationals hence ensuring that all stay healthy (Anderson, 2006). y. This they achieve by establishing the root determinants of good health such as good housing and availability of fresh foods. However, the current state is that social circumstances and environmental factors affect the health of an individual. These factors are not addressed and therefore the state of health of an individual is threatened (The Health Research and Educational Trust, 2006).
Action Principles
There are various action principles related to these recommendations. On the coordination of care, the delivery system should be easy to navigate and user-friendly. The other principle is that the right care is delivered at the right time and in the most efficient way. The action principles for optimizing access to care for all are that health and health care are a basic human right and that health care utilization is a function of affordable health insurance and the availability of accessible services (Mindtools, 2009).
On building a community’s capacity to stay healthy, the active principles that follow are that non-profitable hospitals are accountable to the community they offer services to. These will ensure that the public receives good health care. The other principle is improving health and quality of life goes far beyond health care. Measurement and evaluation are essential elements of gauging community health and attending to its needs.
Leaders Action
To achieve coordination of health care, hospital leaders should give proper guidance to patients on ways in which they can reach the required resources, and also use the health records of the community members to support continuity of caregiving. To e able to optimize access to care for all, hospital leaders should obtain information from the members of the community on the barriers to receiving care, identify those with high presence of health-related risk factors, and for those who are not insured, they can partner with the country, medical groups and some hospitals on ways to help them (Dixon, & Bilbrey, 2009). To be able to build the community’s capacity to stay healthy, the hospital leaders should help establish a vision and an approach to dealing with the issues of community improvement and educate the members of the community to have a strong voice in policy changes that are required in the improvement of health.
Conclusion
Health care provision is a very sensitive area that needs to have streamlined procedures for effective provision of the services to the patients. By following the recommendations by the National Steering Committee, 2006, the health care sector will be effective and meet all the health needs of all individuals.
References
Anderson, J. (2006). Regional Patient Safety Initiatives: The Missing Element of Organizational Change. AMIA Annual Symposia Proceedings, 1163:1164. Web.
Dixon, D. & Bilbrey, P. (n.d.) Developing Leaders Daily. Baptist Leadership Institute. Web.
Institute of Medicine (U.S.) (2003). The future of the public’s health in the 21st century. New York: National Academies Press.
Mindtools (n.d.) Leadership styles – Using the right one for your situation. Web.
Schwartz, R. & Tumblin, T. (2002). The power of servant leadership to transform health care organizations. Archives of Surgery, 137.
The Health Research and Educational Trust (2006). Report of the National Steering Committee on Hospitals and the Public’s Health. Web.