A Look Back at Brigham and Women's Hospital's Exploits in Health Care - Essay Sample

Introduction

Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) is one of the health care organizations that has been in existence since the 1980s and is the second-largest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. Brigham and Women's Hospital is known to conduct a major hospital-based research program with an approximated budget of over $630 million yearly. Over the decades, the hospital has had to make significant milestones in the health sector, such as the successful heart valve operation, and the solid organ transplant was first conducted within the hospital. Brigham and Women's Hospital has had several changes in technology, patient demographics, and personnel since the 1980s as a result of economic and political forces; therefore leading to the organizational change.

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Personnel and Professionalism

Over the decade, the hospital has constantly been expanding; thus, there has been a need for adjustment in terms of professional. The hospital has been keeping up to date with the growing demands of clients who seek its services. The employees' number has significantly increased to meet the demand. Due to the level of strain that the practitioners face; many of them have been facing several stressors in their career within the career. For this reason, the hospital has initiated a peer support program to enhance BWH care providers regarding adverse medical circumstances. And over 60 physicians and nurses have been trained as a peer supporter. The level of professionalism has been enhanced in several ways, such as peer support instead of just relying on expertise and generation of income for the hospital. The hospital has over 14,00 employees with 2,738 Physician and scientist faculty.

Many practitioners believed that those who were training such as spun the urine were the best interns. And more prominent residents had sufficient funds of knowledge and skills and had to give references and had a responsibility of ensuring that they had checked the radiography of all the admitted patients. However, much has changed; for instance, over the decades, the quality of healthcare services significantly relied on physicians. Today, the quality of health care is described or determined based on the capacity of the physician's health care organization to avoid unnecessary errors and enhance health with the physicians' roles slowly fading.

The physician-centered assumption of quality rose due to a crisis many decades ago. The 1800s across the United States established over 150 schools of medicine, but without any form of accredited qualification (Studart & Gallagher, 2018). And most of the Physicians graduated with inconsistent skills and knowledge which resulted into dramatic reform in medical education with an emphasis on accreditation, standardization, commitment and licensing to scientific methods due to political forces in an attempt to regulate the sector. Currently, Brigham and Women's Hospital tends to ensure that it only hires very skilled and competent practitioner; the medical practitioners must be members of recognized organizations of that particular professional.

Changing in Technology

Application of technology in the healthcare sector is not new in most hospitals; during 1980s BWH used some technology but was never advanced. The Robert Brigham section of new clinics commenced billing using computers and patient registration in early 1980. And by 1987, Magnetic Resonance Imaging as new technology was initiated in clinical practice at the hospital. Currently, with technological advancement, BWH has had most of its operations computerized to facilitate the service delivery for quality health care for the patients. Due to the application of technology, the hospital has had several milestones and has become one of the primary research centers in the .U.S. For instance, the BWH Biomedical Research Institute (BRI) got over $600 million in research support in 2013(Studart & Gallagher, 2018). By 1990s BWH initiated (Computerized Physician Order Entry) CPOE to avoid unnecessary errors during medication. And due to consistent application and advancement in technology, BWH has attained patient safety awards for its electronic eMAR (Medication Administration Record) and bar-coding system that puts barcodes on patients' medications, nurses' badges and name bands. This has ensured that the patient attains an appropriate medication as prescribed by the physician.

Moreover, technology is used to care for patients such as telemedicine directly. Furthermore, the use of technology in hospitals including BWH is a change that has been instigated by the government such as via policies

Demographic Changes Among Physicians and the Patients

The health issues seem to be complicated by the day. During the 1980s, the range of diseases was sparsely distributed among the population, and the physicians had time to attend to most of the patient. The demographic alteration among physicians increased the transformation from an individual- to systems-based care provision. In the mid-20th century, the physician worked relatively long hours since he or she could attend to all patients who required technical, medical services such as radiology. Today, physicians prefer regulated working hours, integral practices, and even provided with bonuses for any extended time at a workplace; thus allowing the current physician and medical practitioner to live relatively balanced lives. The practitioners have also made use of the available technology to connect and provide services to their patient; thus, they have managed to provide quality care to their continually growing numbers of the patients. The management of the increasing number of a patient has called for the hiring of more employees, and this proves to be economically challenging for the hospitals.

How Changes Have Impacted the Brigham and Women's Hospital's Effectiveness

The changes have initiated the adjustment in management to be able to control the hospital effectively. The technological advancement has enhanced the management technique. For instance, an administrator can track the operation within Brigham and Women's Hospital from his or her desk. Moreover, the hospital has served as a benchmarking point for more organizations that tend to share the same values with it. Due to the changes, BWH has made several medical milestones in trying to address the various health problems via its research network (Karia, Jambusaria-Pahlajani,Harrington, Murphy, Qureshi & Schmults, 2014). This has made the hospital to be rated as one of the best globally. The management chain has become more precised with every role of the management team highlighted.

The Influence of These Changes on the U.S. Health System Overall

Through the changes, the .U.S. government has made several processes in healthcare issues and trying to make healthcare affordable to its citizens. The 1980s drastic changes in the healthcare sector initiated competitive and regulatory pressures as a result of rising cost, thus forcing the .U.S. government to adjust as well (Burwell, 2015). The government has proven to be more defensive while on the other hand; its citizens had the burden to pay for health services. Currently, the government has put more changes to ensure that citizens receive quality health care by providing fee-for-service medicine and health insurance covers.

Conclusion

For many years, the hospital has been continuously increasing; thus, there has been a need for adjustment in terms of professional. The hospital has been up to date with the growing demands of clients who seek its services. Over the decade, the hospital has been continually expanding; thus, there has been a need for adjustment in terms of professional. The hospital has been keeping up to date with the growing demands of clients who seek its services.

References

Burwell, S. M. (2015). Setting value-based payment goals-HHS efforts to improve US health care. N Engl J Med, 372(10), 897-899.

Karia, P. S., Jambusaria-Pahlajani, A., Harrington, D. P., Murphy, G. F., Qureshi, A. A., & Schmults, C. D. (2014). Evaluation of American Joint Committee on Cancer, International Union Against Cancer, and Brigham and Women's Hospital tumor staging for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 32(4), 327.

Studart, R., & Gallagher, K. (2018). Guaranteeing sustainable infrastructure. International Economics, 155, 84-91.