scholarly journals Mobile Traveling Healthcare Teams: An Innovative Delivery System for Underserved Populations

Author(s):  
Glenda Walker ◽  
Viviana Martinez-Gómez ◽  
Roberto Gonzalez

Reaching disenfranchised clients who are either underinsured or who have no insurance presents unique challenges for healthcare providers and organizations. To reach clients experiencing disparities in healthcare access, a social determinant of health, innovative models of healthcare delivery must be developed. The Juntos for Better Health project directly focused on the social determinant of lack of access to care for prevention and treatment of diabetes, depression, and obesity. In the article, we discuss the background that provided the framework for this project, reviewing literature related to mobile vans and traveling nurses, and then describe the geographical traveling healthcare team setting. The article discusses the Juntos for Better Health project, including several phases of implementation, services of the traveling healthcare team delivery system, and partnerships that included four healthcare providers and a state university in a United States-Mexico border town located in Texas. Partnering agencies included a community-based federally qualified healthcare center, the local state mental health authority, the city health department, and the local drug treatment agency. The conclusion briefly describes plans for the future.

Author(s):  
Arshad Altaf ◽  
Safdar Kamal Pasha

Abstract The World Health Organisation (WHO) has set an ambitious target to eliminate hepatitis C virus (HCV) by 2030. Pakistan is one of the focused countries because of the high prevalence of HCV. The prices of direct-acting antiviral drugs(DAA)have significantly reduced to between 11-25 dollars for a month’s treatment. To achieve the 2030 elimination target, Pakistan has to provide treatment to one million HCV-infected patients every year, beginning from 2018. This short report highlights a key barrier to achieve this target,i.e. the unsafe practices by regulated and unregulated healthcare delivery system comprising trained and untrained healthcare providers who can continue to churn out new patients with their unsafe healthcare practices and increase the possibility of re-infection in those who have been treated. Only the government has the power and authority to regulate and control the healthcare delivery system. Continuous...  


2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denise Nagle Bailey

This paper explores caring within the context of healthcare access in vulnerable populations. Specifically, it connects how underserved status heightens an individual’s vulnerability to poor health. With the increase of disparities and inequalities that exist in the healthcare delivery system, implementation of caring and caring theory are examined as a plausible means to ameliorate the impact of inadequate healthcare coverage. Halldorsdottir’s (1996) theory of caring and uncaring encounters, within nursing and healthcare, from the patient’s perspective frames the discussion.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 494-510
Author(s):  
Kanchan Kulkarni ◽  
Rahul Kumar Sevakula ◽  
Mohamad B Kassab ◽  
John Nichols ◽  
Jesse D. Roberts ◽  
...  

Abstract The pandemic has brought to everybody’s attention the apparent need of remote monitoring, highlighting hitherto unseen challenges in healthcare. Today, mobile monitoring and real-time data collection, processing and decision-making, can drastically improve the cardiorespiratory–haemodynamic health diagnosis and care, not only in the rural communities, but urban ones with limited healthcare access as well. Disparities in socioeconomic status and geographic variances resulting in regional inequity in access to healthcare delivery, and significant differences in mortality rates between rural and urban communities have been a growing concern. Evolution of wireless devices and smartphones has initiated a new era in medicine. Mobile health technologies have a promising role in equitable delivery of personalized medicine and are becoming essential components in the delivery of healthcare to patients with limited access to in-hospital services. Yet, the utility of portable health monitoring devices has been suboptimal due to the lack of user-friendly and computationally efficient physiological data collection and analysis platforms. We present a comprehensive review of the current cardiac, pulmonary, and haemodynamic telemonitoring technologies. We also propose a novel low-cost smartphone-based system capable of providing complete cardiorespiratory assessment using a single platform for arrhythmia prediction along with detection of underlying ischaemia and sleep apnoea; we believe this system holds significant potential in aiding the diagnosis and treatment of cardiorespiratory diseases, particularly in underserved populations.


Author(s):  
Akram Heidari ◽  
Abdolhasan Kazemi ◽  
Mohammad Abbasi ◽  
Seyed Hasan Adeli ◽  
Hoda Ahmari-Tehran ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Spirituality is recognized as an important issue in healthcare, and every individual has spiritual needs. Despite increased knowledge about spiritual care and its necessity, there is no unique agreed upon framework for spiritual care among the practitioners. This study aimed to explore the concept from the viewpoint of both healthcare providers and patients within the Iranian social, cultural and overall context and present a charter for providing spiritual care. Methods The study consisted of a systematic literature review, two qualitative studies on the components of spiritual care from the perspective of healthcare providers and its dimensions as perceived by patients. The findings were then integrated to make up a charter draft that was accredited through expert opinion. Results The review of literatures led to the identification of 2 main themes and 10 themes. Perspectives of healthcare providers were categorized into 4 main themes and 10 themes and patients’ opinions were classified into 3 main themes and 11 themes. The themes and their subthemes were integrated to build the concepts and form the proposed charter with 30 statements. Conclusion The charter of spiritual care for patients is intended to present an agreed upon framework for spiritual care delivery and resolve some of the problems in this path. This can improve healthcare delivery system.


Author(s):  
Mohd Zameen Azuan Mohd Zahari

The world has never been more connected. According to leading market intelligence firm, IDC, there will be a staggering 25 million mobile applications by 2020 with a total of 50 trillion GB of data available worldwide. Mobile applications are not only taking the world by storm, it is also redefining and transforming healthcare delivery and experience. Currently there are over 325,000 health apps available in the top app stores worldwide with more than 200 apps being added each day. Worldwide, we are seeing how digital tools are leading to better and faster healthcare and making healthcare more empowering and accessible for the people. Goldman Sachs predicts that the digital revolution could potentially save healthcare providers USD300 billion. While the adoption of digital health tools such as mobile health apps holds great promise of improving healthcare access and patient outcomes, on the flip side, the popularity of health apps is also posing enormous and unprecedented risks to consumers’ privacy. PAMB is proactively transforming itself from a health payer to a holistic health manager through the implementation of PULSE, Prudential’s Health Ecosystem using the Prevent-Postpone-Protect strategy. In addition, Prudential has put measures in place to safeguard consumers’ privacy to ensure that data security is not compromised as we leverage on digital technology to provide consumers with instant, reliable and relevant health information at their fingertips as we empower and encourage the public to take charge of their health anytime, anywhere.International Journal of Human and Health Sciences Supplementary Issue: 2019 Page: 16


2021 ◽  
pp. 174239532110602
Author(s):  
Jessica Corcoran ◽  
Caitlin Marley Campbell ◽  
Sigrid Ladores

Objectives Cystic fibrosis is a chronic, genetic disease that primarily affects the respiratory system. The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has altered how people with cystic fibrosis receive healthcare. This paper explores the perceptions of cystic fibrosis healthcare providers and partners of women with cystic fibrosis regarding the use of telehealth in routine cystic fibrosis healthcare in the US. Methods As part of a larger study examining fertility counseling for women with cystic fibrosis, we conducted qualitative, semi-structured interviews. Participants included partners of women with cystic fibrosis (n = 20) and cystic fibrosis healthcare providers (n = 20). We completed the interviews before and during the global coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. We analyzed the data using thematic analysis. Results When in-person healthcare could not be achieved safely, partners and healthcare providers found new value in telehealth. Three themes emerged: (1) increased connection between healthcare team and family, (2) increased efficiency of healthcare appointments, and (3) improved interdisciplinary collaboration. Partners found that telehealth allowed for more engagement in their significant others’ healthcare. Providers reported enhanced efficiency and opportunities for collaboration across specialties that improved healthcare delivery and care coordination. Discussion Results from this study highlighted the positive value of telehealth. Telehealth presents as a potential alternative to delivering outpatient care for people with chronic illnesses beyond the pandemic


2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Winnie Thembisile Maphumulo ◽  
Busisiwe Bhengu

The National Department of Health in South Africa has introduced the National Core Standards (NCS) tool to improve the quality of healthcare delivery in all public healthcare institutions. Knowledge of the NCS tool is essential among healthcare providers. This study investigated the level of knowledge on NCS and how the NCS tool was communicated among professional nurses. This was a cross-sectional survey study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select hospitals that only offered tertiary services in KwaZulu-Natal. Six strata of departments were selected using simple stratified sampling. The population of professional nurses in the selected hospitals was 3 050. Systematic random sampling was used to recruit 543 participants. The collected data were analysed using SPSS version 25. The study showed that only 16 (3.7%) respondents had knowledge about NCS, using McDonald’s standard of learning outcome measured criteria regarding the NCS tool. The Pearson correlation coefficient between the communication and knowledge was r = 0.055. The results revealed that although the communication scores for the respondents were high their knowledge scores remained low. This study concluded that there is a lack of knowledge regarding the NCS tool and therefore healthcare institutions need to commit themselves to the training of professional nurses regarding the NCS tool. The findings suggest that healthcare institutions implement the allocation of incentives for nurses that attend the workshops for NCS.


Author(s):  
Jan Abel Olsen

This chapter provides an overview of the healthcare delivery system. A figure illustrates how six different parts of the system relate to each other. The primary care level plays a key role in many countries by representing the gate, in which referrals to secondary care are being made. Tertiary care is principally of two types depending on patients’ prognosis: chronic care or rehabilitation. In addition to the three care levels, there are two parts with quite different roles: pharmacies provide pharmaceuticals, and sickness benefit schemes compensate the sick for their income losses. A recurrent policy challenge is to make each provider level take into account the resource implications of their isolated decisions outside of their own budgets. A brief discussion is included on the scope for ‘internal markets’.


2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S151-S151
Author(s):  
Amber S McIlwain ◽  
Danielle Backus ◽  
Kristine Marcus ◽  
Jeff Fortner

Abstract There is increased demand to provide health professions students with interprofessional education and practice experience. Interprofessional Case Conferences (ICC) allow students to work in teams to learn about different professions while exploring a topic through the lens of an interprofessional core competency. The goal of this particular ICC was to provide students an experience to witness and discuss team-based, person-centered care for a common geriatric disorder. The case was designed to develop the interprofessional competency of teams and teamwork. Students were divided into teams and observed live vignettes of a care conference involving an 80-year old female admitted to a rehabilitation facility following a hip fracture and replacement. Students witnessed how patients, families, and healthcare providers work together during a stressful time. After each vignette, students discussed questions related to miscommunications, motivations of the different actors involved, and how the healthcare team should respond. In the first offering, 93 students participated, increasing to 150 in the next year. Students completed a post-survey to determine if the session delivered a positive interprofessional experience. The average positive response rate was 92.5% (92-94%, n = 53) in year-1 and 93.5% (90-97%, n = 71) in year-2. By allowing students to witness a simulated live care conference, they had a tangible event to dissect instead of discussing hypotheticals. By discussing a geriatrics case in a rehabilitation setting, students witnessed how numerous healthcare professions coordinate care for a patient and her family, thereby demonstrating competence in teamwork.


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