Healthcare Organization in the United States

Writing Assignment 5: (55 points)

o   Judging by the amount of media coverage (and not by physical appearances), Americans are keenly interested in preserving health, preventing disease, and extending healthy life spans. The barrage of information on how to accomplish these ends, however, can be conflicting and contradictory: Do not ingest too much caffeine because of the risk of breast cancer vs. caffeine’s beneficial health effects (in some teas, for example). The debate rages on: low fat vs. nonfat; high-carb vs. low-carb diets; salt vs. low or no salt; alcohol vs. no alcohol; low fat vs. nonfat milk; ad infinitum.

o   Compose a paper answering the following questions and applying biblical Scripture relating to preserving health and preventing disease to extend healthy life spans.

·         Identify and present an array of conflicting information on nutrition and physical activity.

·         How can the average consumer begin to know what to do with all this conflicting information?

·         Who controls the advertising and marketing of food additives, supplements, vitamins, other nutritional aids and tobacco? (See www.fda.gov.)

·         What additional controls, if any, should be placed on advertising the beneficial effects of foods, vitamins, dietary and other supplements? Cigarettes? Alcohol? On the control of exercise equipment or devices (ab crunchers, triple chin thumpers, etc.)?

·         How can/should vulnerable populations (e.g., the elderly) be protected from food and other “health” products that have no beneficial effects and may, in fact, be harmful to them?

·         Should a scientific clearinghouse be established to sort out the conflicting information on nutrition and physical activity that derives from scientific inquiry?

o   Requirements: Paper must be a minimum of 500 words; APA format.

Writing Assignment 6: (55 points)

o Compose a paper answering the following questions and include Christian ethical perspective and biblical support.

·         What are some of the challenges to satisfactorily measuring the quality of care a patient receives?

·         In what ways does the focus on TQM/CQI differ from the quality assessment?

·         What are some of the key data sources used to measure quality of care? What are some of the strengths and limitations of each?

·         What federal initiatives over the last three decades have focused on quality of care (regulating quality, supporting research into quality, or setting standards for quality of care, for example?

·         How important is patient satisfaction in measuring the quality of care?

·         HEDIS has been described by some as a report card on the quality of care provided my managed care organizations. What is some strength of HEDIS as a measure of quality of care? Limitations?

·         To what extent is the quality of care currently being regulated? By whom? In your view, is more or less regulation of the quality of care needed? Why?

o Requirements: Paper must be a minimum of 500 words; APA format.