Public Health Preparedness
Introduction
There are instances in which towns and cities, and indeed, even nations are faced with health emergencies that span across the entire nation. These are referred to as a public health emergency, and they require a concept known as public health emergency preparedness. On September 11, 2001, there were severe terrorist attacks in the United States, and after that, an Anthrax outbreak. This exerted a hefty federal investment in mitigating the public health emergency to a tune of over $5 billion (Nelson, Lurie, 2007). Public health derives its definitions from the causes and consequences of the events constituting the emergency. Hence, it can be said that a public health emergency is a situation of significant scale and unpredictability that threatens to disrupt the normal routines. A perfect example of this in our current times is the novel Coronavirus pandemic, which has crippled entire economies on account of nationwide curfews and country lockdowns. Businesses have crumbled, and people have lost their jobs. Life is not as it was before. This paper is hence, going to explore a probable proposal for handling a public health emergency.
Procedures Used in Healthcare Organizations
Healthcare organizations have five primary procedures related to critical public health services. These procedures are key in determining the safety of the patients in our healthcare organization concerning emergencies. There are campaigns of awareness that have been set up in a variety of communities living or working around our healthcare organization (LoBiondo-Wood, Haber, 2014). These campaigns help bring awareness to the importance of uniting and fighting the causes of healthcare problems. The campaigns also help distribute information related to any looming or already present dangers in the healthcare sector, such as the Coronavirus disease. Societies become alert and can intern inform the organization in case they notice any impending dangers. In turn, the organization will be able to respond by adjusting its healthcare procedures and facility conditions to accommodate as many casualties or victims of the danger as possible quickly. In contrast, the novel Coronavirus caught the majority of hospitals and healthcare organizations by surprise. Most, if not all, were not prepared for the pandemic, and the effect of that was scores of patients getting admitted in temporary structures outside the main building, which lowers the quality for healthcare attention they receive.
Innovation by the Management
This procedure touches on the management and the expert doctors. It helps make sure that effective treatment methods and health care management are established by establishing a patient-friendly, recovery-encouraging environment. The procedure will help health organizations be better ready to face the impact of terrorist attacks, epidemics, and pandemics. Innovation and creativity are supposed to be the main tools that the patients can use to attain the fastest recovery without exposing them to more dangers during public health emergencies. This procedure’s critical health services include research and innovation, which is key to the development of new insights that may help in the fight against the impending danger. In total contrast, the Coronavirus received little to no research until it became a major global concern infecting hundreds of thousands and crossing borders.
Following Instructions and Guidelines
This might perhaps be the most important procedure of all. It is about adhering to instructions and policies set by the EMTALA and the government bodies regulating the healthcare industry. It directly affects the critical healthcare services provided at healthcare facilities. It is mainly used to enforce regulations to safeguard the health of the people admitted to the organization. This procedure puts the need for caring for patients with dire medical emergencies at the utmost priority. The procedure also virtually guarantees their safety. All the medical procedures the patients will receive have to be compliant with the policies and regulations the government has put forwards for health care organizations.
Adequate and Accurate Information to Community Members
The members of the community are supposed to be adequately offered about anything concerning their health care. Some of the information that would be beneficial for them includes following the correct ways to prevent the development of health problems, which can be infectious and lethal. The procedure also helps them develop a sense of brotherhood since they get to look out for each other concerning the raising alerts on emergencies facing members of the community. The procedure touches on the critical health care service of providing adequate information to empower people regarding health care. People get equipped with the necessary basic information to identify health hazards and potential health dangers that may lead to public health emergencies and reporting them very early in advance.
Quick and High-Quality Care Provision
There are also procedures used by the doctors and healthcare experts to make sure that the patients receive the best care and most effectively and quickly possible. This is done in a bid to improve their health and save their lives. The faster the recovery, the sooner they leave the healthcare facility and free up the bods for other patients, seeing that we have only 600 beds. These procedures complement the critical services offered by the health care organization. These critical services include quality services delivery, accessibility to the services, and effectiveness of the services provided. The procedure’s primary aim is to boost the effectiveness and efficiency of health care facilities during cases of public health emergencies in a way that will reduce the number of patients at the facility at any one time and always have free beds for the incoming casualties (Bowling, 2014). Covid-19 was not well prepared for. Physicians did not even know how to combat the disease. All they could do is help the patient stay alive as their bodies fight off the disease.
Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) in times of Emergency
During times of public health emergency, the EMTALA continues to urge the importance of evaluating patients in every type of healthcare institution. The status of the patients, including their age or employment status or social hierarchy, does not matter when it comes to patient evaluation (LoBiondo, Haber, 2014). All patients are treated as being the same, with the distinguishing factor being only the healthcare level they need depending on the severity of their health problem. This labor act makes available three primary guidelines that emphasize the importance of having all patients evaluated to determine the level of care they need and whether their situation is an emergency. The patients first undergo a screening exam, and then those that qualify for emergency medical services are immediately stabilized. The patients should be taken to an organization that has the necessary stabilization facilities. The need for stabilizing the patients is greater than the organization’s need for money, and hence all patients should be accepted without discrimination of any kind.
The labor act emphasizes the need for evaluation of every patient using the guidelines provided because the ethical implications of not adhering to them would be the cause of violation of specific human rights safeguarded by ethics. Doctors and physicians are governed by specific principles in ethics called non-maleficence and beneficence. These principles bind the doctors to a duty to treat all patients and not inflict any form of harm. The doctors have to take care of the patients and do all they can to ensure that they are in good health before they can begin to worry about the patients’ ability to meet their medical bills (Keenan, Yakel, Handel, 2013). The guidelines keep the doctors from practicing any form of discrimination, be it gender or race-based. Every patient is treated with an equal level of respect and attention, especially during times of public health emergencies when the patient’s life is dependent on the competence and impartialness of the doctor.
The Need for Emergency Health Records System in times of Emergencies
Different kinds of measures can be taken to ensure that doctors continue to use EMR in times of emergencies. An EMR is an Electronic Medical Record, a digital record of patients’ medical treatment history. EMRs have been proven to have benefits over paper records. It supports healthcare experts in the rendering of medical services to patients. It has greatly improved the speed of record retrieval. The EMR is good for times of emergency, even though it is quite costly. In adopting this system in times of public health emergencies, physicians should get trained on how to use the system and be motivated to do so. A good way to motivate the doctors would be to provide stimulus incentives for physicians who take time to learn to use the system (Keenan, Yakel, Handel, 2013). The EMR is both effective and efficient during times of emergency. The organization should be able to have policies in place to enforce and solidify the use of the EMR. This can also be complemented with harsh consequences such as cutting back on the government funds for a particular health organization for not using the system (Bowling, 2014). This would be a very powerful motivator to begin using the EMR and stick to it. Seminars and workshops to learn how to use the system should be organized. In many organizations, these events are not mandatory, but they go a long way in showing employee one. Such kinds of events on the importance and usage of EMR should be held regularly to keep the EMR fresh in the physicians’ minds.
The Importance of Accepting Health Insurance During times of Public Health Emergency
Public health emergencies are called ‘emergency’ because they strike without notice. They take everyone completely by surprise. Many people save money for such kinds of situations, and the majority of the affected will be looking to use those savings in the form of insurance during an emergency. A health organization must be flexible enough to accept insurance as a payment method by patients. The majority of people who die in hospitals do so because they lack medical attention due to the inability to raise money to pay for medical bills, especially in emergency times. People with insurance who have been allowed to use it to pay for their medical bills has seen many lives get saved during times of public health emergencies (Yao, Xu et al., 2012).
The Effect of Public Health Emergencies on the Quality of Care
Public health emergencies have negative effects on the quality of healthcare provided to people. However, it may have positive effects as well. In times of emergencies, patients get the fastest treatment. They get full attention as compared to normal days. In times of emergencies, social statuses are stripped away, and every patient is treated the same. However, due to the hurry to discharge patients and make room for more, the doctor is likely to make mistakes and do shoddy work (Pines, Hollander, 2008). The overwhelming number of patients crowing the hospitals increases the pressure to perform, and doctors may find themselves nicking the wrong vein or artery and causing even more fatalities.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the five primary procedures that organizations need to perform are critical in times of public health emergencies. IF organizations do not adhere to these procedures and the guidelines outlined by the EMTALA, then fatalities due to medical incompetencies will be more than the ones caused by the cause of the emergency. To ensure that they cope with the pressure, they should embrace the use of EMRs to ease their work and improve their performances.
References
Bowling, A. (2014). Research methods in health: investigating health and health services. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
Keenan, G. M., Yakel, E., Handel, B. R. (2013). Adverse selection and inertia in health insurance markets: When nudging hurts. The American Economic Review, 103(7), 2643-2682.
LoBiondo-Wood, G., & Haber, J. (2014). Nursing research: Methods and critical appraisal for evidence-based practice. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Nelson, C., Lurie, N., Wasserman, J., & Zakowski, S. (2007). Conceptualizing and defining public health emergency preparedness. American journal of public health, 97 Suppl 1(Suppl 1), S9–S11. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2007.114496
Pines, J. M., & Hollander, J. E. (2008). Emergency department crowding is associated with poor care for patients with severe pain. Annals of emergency medicine, 51(1), 1-5.
Yao, Y., Xu, D., Szalacha, L., Tschannen, D., … & Wilkie, D. J. (2012). Maintaining a Consistent Big Picture: Meaningful Use of a Web‐based POC EHR System. International journal of nursing knowledge, 23(3), 119-133.