Health model and funding structure, quality and safety practices, and ethical healthcare practices in Australia and Argentina

Question

Task: You you need to add more information for Australia and the one other country. Explain what is meant by quality and safety in healthcare in Australia, and the other country.Is there a difference in the other country? Explain researched similarities and/or differences. Explain what is meant by ethical practice in healthcare and why it is important.Explain 2 examples of ethical decision-making practices in Australia. Then discuss if there are any differences or similarities (found through your research) in the other country with those ethical practices.

Answer

Introduction:

A well-functioning healthcare model and appropriate funding opportunities help maintain robust quality and safety procedures in healthcare. According to Berwick (2020), Quality healthcare practices are the concept of doing the right and appropriate thing for the needy and the right person to give the best possible healthcare services. As stated by Marmot and Allen (2014), Patient Safety in healthcare is the ultimate fundamental procedure to deliver quality and essential healthcare services to the people. Ethical healthcare practices are essential for delivering patient-centred and compassionate healthcare services to uphold the fundamental ethical principles in healthcare. The essay discussed Australia and Argentina's health model and funding structure of Australia and Argentina including the quality and safety procedures in healthcare and ethical healthcare practices in Australia and also compared with Argentina.

In respect of the Thesis Statement of the study the integration of a sustainable and effective healthcare model, maintaining stringent quality and healthcare safety procedures and adhering to ethical practices are the pillar of Australia and Argentina's healthcare system to achieve optimal healthcare outcomes.The essay examined the significance of the healthcare model and funding, ethical decision-making practices and quality and safety processes to promote effective healthcare services in Australia and Argentina.

Healthcare Model and Funding Structure in Australia:

Dixit andSambasivan (2018) stated that The Healthcare system in Australia follows the Hybrid Model (public insurance and private insurance coverage)of healthcare practices to offer quality services to citizens of Australia, refugees and permanent residents(Dixit &Sambasivan, 2018). The public health insurance scheme in Australia is known as "Medicare" that provides health related coverage to Australian residents, citizens, refugees and citizens of other countries with a healthcare service agreement with Australia. The “Medicare” System is financed from tax dollars, levies and other revenue sources. It emphasises the importance of primary healthcare as the ultimate foundation of the Australian healthcare system. In 2021, Australian Government spend 10% of GDP of the country in the healthcare services(statista.com 2023).General Practitioners are the pillar of the healthcare system to offer preventive care, treatment and diagnosis services and give referrals to healthcare specialists as per requirement. Moreover,Duckett (2018) stated that, The Australian Health Performance Framework helps gather data related to Australians' health, the overall performance of healthcare services in Australia. It uses patient safety culture and patient experiences as the health performance indicators in Australia.

Healthcare Model and Funding Structure in Argentina:

Palacios, Espinola and Rojas-Roque (2020) stated that Argentina’s healthcare system is regulated by four sectors public hospitals, Public Health Insurance Agency (PAMI), private medical insurance providers and social security and union-run health insurance systems. The healthcare system of Argentina is financed by taxes and payments made by the Australian Social Security beneficiaries who use public healthcare facilities. Access to all public health services is free of charge for everyone. Healthcare expenditures in Argentina account for approximately 9% to 10% of GDP (trade.gov 2023). The healthcare system of Argentina measures healthcare performance by improving the role of health insurance coverage through public health insurance programs and enhancing the management capability of public providers through the arrangement of funds for better health outcomes and avoiding cross-subsidies (Palacios, Espinola& Rojas-Roque 2020).

Comparing and contrasting the healthcare model and funding structure of Australia and Argentina:

According to Dixit andSambasivan (2018), Australia follows the Universal Healthcare model. Argentina follows the mixed healthcare model. In Australia, Medicare offers a public insurance scheme to people that allows Australian citizens and permanent residents to access healthcare and hospital services at low cost or no cost regardless of socioeconomic status. On the other hand, 35% of Argentina's population relies on the healthcare services of public hospitals. 60% of Argentina's population have health coverage from social-security or union-run health insurance facilities, or 13% have private healthcare insurance facilities. Moreover, 10% of the population acquires more than one health coverage (trade.gov 2023). Approximately 3.5 million older people and people with disabilities are covered by PAMI (trade.gov 2023).However, challenges in the healthcare system exist regarding access and equity due to socioeconomic disparities among people. The Australian healthcare system is funded by taxes and private insurance (30%), grants and levies imposed by Government (70%)(Lenzen et al. 2020).The healthcare system in Argentina is funded through social security contributions, taxes, and government subsidies.

Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Australia:

According to Badland et al. (2014), Quality and safety in the healthcare system is the essential practice in Australia for ensuring optimal patient outcomes and a high standard of healthcare services. The Australian Healthcare System is governed by various government bodies, such as Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (ACSQHC) and Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) (Morello et al. 2013). It also oversees the regulation of health practitioners, healthcare facilities and complete healthcare services to maintain safety and quality standards (Morello et al. 2013). They also adopt Health Information Technology, data analytics and electronic health records to offer the best healthcare services to people.

Quality and Safety in Healthcare in Argentina:

On the other hand, Health care services in Argentina are considered the best in Latin America. The Ministry of Health and National Superintendence of Health Services oversees Argentina's healthcare quality and safety. According to Rodriguez et al. (2015), Argentina also implements Quality Improvement Program for continuously monitoring and evaluating clinical practices, safety protocols and patient outcomes. Argentina also follows the National Patient Goals for mitigating the issues related to medication safety, surgical safety, preventing healthcare-associated infections and patient identification systems etc., to enhance safety practices and improve the health equity system (Rodriguez et al. 2015).

Similarities/Differences in the Quality and Safety Procedures

As stated by Morello et al. (2013) Australian Healthcare System also follows National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards to improve the quality and safety of healthcare services by covering the areas of clinical governance, controlling and preventing healthcare-associated infections, primary care services etc. Moreover, the Australian Incident Management System (AIMS) promotes a culture of continuous improvement, transparency and learning by identifying the improvement area and implementing healthcare preventive measures for improving healthcare quality (Morello et al.2013).

Similarly, Argentina follows the value-based health care approach by focusing on patient-centred care, offering effective and safe clinical care services through efficient advanced processes to reduce adverse events, improve patient experience and reduce medical waste. Argentina highly emphasises on National Patient Safety Goals to monitor safety and quality issues in the health care system (Rodriguez et al. 2015). It helps the Government to ensure that healthcare providers meet the established healthcare safety and quality criteria.

There is no any particular differences in the healthcare system in Australia and Argentina. The process and use of the health information system and EHR records may very between Australia and Argentina which may affect the quality and standard of the Healthcare.

EthicalHealthcare Practiceand Its Importance in Healthcare:

As stated by Faden et al. (2013), Ethical practice in healthcare services refers to the moral principles and values in the provision of healthcare services. It also involves ensuring the patient's beneficence, acting towards the patient's best interest, promoting justice, prioritising the patient's autonomy and maintaining professional integrity. Ethical Practices prioritise the patient-centred care approach to promote the quality of the healthcare service and enhance patient safety. It encourages informed decision-making abilities between patients and healthcare providers. As stated by Bromley et al. (2015),Ethical practices ensure that healthcare services are distributed based on emergencies, needs, efficacy and available resources without discrimination (Bromley et al. 2015). It helps in following professional integrity by maintaining patient confidentiality, respecting the privacy of the patient and adhering to a professional code of conduct to improve ethical decision-making practices.

Examples of Ethical Decision Making practices in Australia:

According to Hoffmann, Montoriand Del Mar (2014), the article highlighted that Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) and Shared Decision Making (SDM) are interconnected with each other. EBM focuses on integrating the best and most effective available evidence with the consultation of clinical expertise for making informed treatment decisions. Hoffmann, Montori and Del Mar (2014, pg. 1295) stated that “Without shared decision making, EBM can turn into evidence tyranny”. SDM emphasises the involvement of patients in the healthcare decision-making processes by considering the values, goals and preferences of patients. By following this approach, in the Australian healthcare system always focus on effective communication with the patients to involve their active engagement, values and preferences to enhance healthcare decisions for patients.

The research by Mazumdaret al. (2014) highlighted the importance and potential of geospatial analysis to understand trends and patterns in resource allocation and better health outcomes. It has been evident that it also acknowledges the need to protect patient's privacy and maintain their confidentiality by altering or removing the identifying information of patientsto usethose data for further healthcare research purposes.

Similarly, the healthcare system in Argentina also follows ethical practices while offering healthcare facilities to people. According to Verona (2020), the healthcare system of Argentina is now focusing on integrating an electronic health record (EHR) system to shift its healthcare services towards a patient-centred approach. The article stated that integrating EHR systems in healthcare facilities improves data-sharing practices, enhances informed decision-making care services and improves the efficiencies in healthcare delivery. It has been highlighted that integrating EHR systems with strict privacy policies and encryption techniques helps ensure patient data confidentiality and enhances trust among patients in the EHR system (Verona, 2020).It helps healthcare providers consider patients' preferences and values while making treatment decisions. It improves the quality of the healthcare services.

Conclusion:

It concluded that Australian Healthcare System follows the Hybrid and universal healthcare model to give healthcare services accessible to everyone. The healthcare system in Argentina also follows a mixed healthcare approach by covering the people's healthcare services through public hospitals, social security or union-run health insurance facilities, private healthcare insurance and PAMI. Both countries follow the national healthcare quality and safety guidelines to offer the best healthcare services to all people without discrimination.

References:

aihw.gov.au (2020).Australia’s health 2020: Data Insights, summary. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.(n.d.). https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-health/australias-health-2020-data-insights/summary

Badland, H., Whitzman, C., Lowe, M., Davern, M., Aye, L., Butterworth, I., ...& Giles-Corti, B. (2014). Urban liveability: emerging lessons from Australia for exploring the potential for indicators to measure the social determinants of health. Social science & medicine, 111, 64-73.https://www.salzburgglobal.org/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/2010-2019/2018/Session_595/Badland_liveability.pdf

Berwick, D. M. (2020).The moral determinants of health. Jama, 324(3), 225-226.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2767353

Bromley, E., Mikesell, L., Jones, F., &Khodyakov, D. (2015). From subject to participant: Ethics and the evolving role of community in health research. American journal of public health, 105(5), 900-908.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4386538/pdf/AJPH.2014.302403.pdf

Dixit, S. K., &Sambasivan, M. (2018). A review of the Australian healthcare system: A policy perspective. SAGE open medicine, 6, 2050312118769211.DOI: 10.1177/2050312118769211

Duckett, S. (2018). Expanding the breadth of Medicare: learning from Australia. Health Economics, Policy and Law, 13(3-4), 344-368.https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/7D92551D6E3E393AC27123D14B7615C9/S1744133117000421a.pdf/expanding_the_breadth_of_medicare_learning_from_australia.pdf

Faden, R. R., Kass, N. E., Goodman, S. N., Pronovost, P., Tunis, S., & Beauchamp, T. L. (2013). An ethics framework for a learning health care system: a departure from traditional research ethics and clinical ethics. Hastings Center Report, 43(s1), S16-S27.https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=91c05b8fd2dbad8cbddc5316d35663b5c2a0f443

Hoffmann, T. C., Montori, V. M., & Del Mar, C. (2014). The connection between evidence-based medicine and shared decision making. Jama, 312(13), 1295-1296.https://crtc.learningportal.wustl.edu/wp-content/uploads/r25media/Hoffman_2014.pdf

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Marmot, M., & Allen, J. J. (2014).Social determinants of health equity. American journal of public health, 104(S4), S517-S519.https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302200

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Morello, R. T., Lowthian, J. A., Barker, A. L., McGinnes, R., Dunt, D., & Brand, C. (2013). Strategies for improving patient safety culture in hospitals: a systematic review. BMJ quality & safety, 22(1), 11-18.https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Judy-Lowthian/publication/230591446_Strategies_for_improving_patient_safety_culture_in_hospitals_A_systematic_review/links/09e4150f8b9fadb2f7000000/Strategies-for-improving-patient-safety-culture-in-hospitals-A-systematic-review.pdf

Palacios, A., Espinola, N., & Rojas-Roque, C. (2020). Need and inequality in the use of health care services in a fragmented and decentralized health system: evidence for Argentina. International journal for equity in health, 19(1), 1-14.https://equityhealthj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12939-020-01168-6

Rodriguez, V., Giuffre, C., Villa, S., Almada, G., Prasopa-Plaizier, N., Gogna, M., ...& Vidal, A. (2015). A multimodal intervention to improve hand hygiene in ICUs in Buenos Aires, Argentina: a stepped wedge trial. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(5), 405-411.doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzv065

statista.com (2023, February 23). Australia: National Health Expenditure 2021. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/628491/australia-national-health-expenditure/#:~:text=About%2010%20percent%20of%20Australia’s,dollars%20in%20financial%20year%202021.

trade.gov (2023).Healthcare Resource Guide - Argentina.International Trade Administration | Trade.gov. https://www.trade.gov/healthcare-resource-guide-argentina#:~:text=Argentina’s%20healthcare%20system%20is%20comprised,Medicare%20in%20the%20United%20States

Verona, J. (2020). Ethics and the electronic health record: description of an integrating system of electronic health records in Argentina and a proposal to shift towards a patient-centered conception. EJIFCC, 31(4), 310.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7745301/pdf/ejifcc-31-310.pdf