Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being

Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being

Presented by

Institution

Introduction to the program

Health-related quality of life and well-being forms an important concept in the healthcare sector dealing issues related to mental, emotional, physical, and social functioning of the population. The concept emphasizes on the impact of health status of an individual to the quality of life. In addition, the concept determines the health status of the population, determines life expectancy, and mortality rates (Healthy People 2020, 2014). Public health officials in Bradenton Florida use health-related quality of life and well-being to determine the impact of illnesses, especially chronic diseases, and other types of health-related issues of the community. One of the major concerns of the concept in the community is the access to quality and affordable health care services. Residents at Bradenton Florida always complain of the poor quality of health services that interfere with the well-being of community members.

The Florida’s department of health promotes activities that ensure improvement of health and well-being of all citizens regardless of their community of origin. Bradenton health data and statistical tools show that each year thousands of people die from chronic and other diseases because of the lack of proper health care services. The present cancer prevalence in Florida is approximately 8000 people. In addition, the area experiences high mortality rates because of the lack of health care knowledge among pregnant mothers (Florida Health, 2014).

Proposed program

The Bradenton population requires quick intervention to the issue in order to free people from contacting chronic diseases, high death rates, and access health more easily. The three areas the show challenges include achieving the aims of making healthcare effective, timely, and efficient. Poor management of information and communications process results in unnecessary costs, reduced quality of healthcare and inefficiencies. The use of mobile health technology (M-Health) would assist in solving the problem. M-health integrates computer science, information science and nursing science to manage and transmit communication data, knowledge and information in nursing practice. The program supports nurses, patients and other healthcare providers in achieving the high level of health care practices and improving the quality of health and well-being of every member in the community.

Current innovation for improving the health of the community

Access to quality and improved health services increases the quality of life and well-being of people. Innovations play a significant role in health care improvement process. The people of Bradenton have devised various ideas aimed at improving the health of the community in collaboration with the government health sector. The people in the community suffer from most chronic diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and hypertension among others. Lack of proper set standards in the past led to the spread of these diseases, but with the current innovations the prevalence has decreased. One of the best innovations adapted in the community is transfer of health knowledge among people. A person who knows better does better. The Florida health care department with collaboration with local mobile networks has come up with many healthcare improvement programs. The application of electronic medical records, patient portals, and other forms of technologies used in health care facilities form some examples of such innovations (Newbower, 2008).

Application of health care innovation in innovations in Bradenton Florida nursing homes helps in increasing the quality of life and well-being among people in the community. The availability of resources such as money and skilled work force allows the hospital implement all their strategies and promote quality patient outcome (Anonymous, 2014). Moreover, these innovations have created a big impact in the health industry by reducing the number of hospital deaths, decreasing the number of chronic diseases cases, and reducing medical errors (Lunney, 2009). As healthcare innovation continuous growing in Florida, healthcare experts introduce new ideas like the above-proposed M-Health program.

Developing the M-Health program

Healthcare innovative programs assist in creating health awareness to the people in the community. Health education for screening and treating will be of greater essence to the people of Bradenton Florida for improving their quality of life and well-being. In addition, the program will help reduce the number of disease infections by educating people on the best practices to keep healthy. The program will utilize nursing informatics process for its implementation. Knowledge of various causes of diseases will be incorporated in the program. The information that the program will provide to its subscribers include knowledge of sexual risks, chronic diseases, communicable diseases, and healthy lifestyle.

The M-Health health care program is as an important technology for keeping in touch with and following up on patients with different health conditions. The program uses mobile telephone gadgets to notify people about various health issues. The ideas shared on mobile networks include educating people on how to live a healthy lifestyle, knowledge on symptoms of certain diseases, the best hospitals to access health care services, and how to cater for the sick at home. It forms an interactive process between a patient and a nurse that occurs over the mobile.

The M-Health program would improve access to the appropriate level and type of health services, streamline processes, and improve overall efficiency in nursing practice. It would also significantly reduce costs of care delivery to chronically ill patients. In addition, the innovation will assist patients with quick access to patient education, lab results, symptom management, medication, and prescription refills through their mobile phones. It also improves self-care management results for chronically ill patients.

Program implementation

According to Hendricks (2014), healthcare technology brings about reliable clinical practice guidelines capable of assisting in the effective communication between nurses and patients and facilitates effective communication between patients and health care providers. Medical records are extremely significant in medical facilities, and the technology has influenced proper recording of health data, which makes it extremely useful. Moreover, the standardized health care language improves knowledge among practicing nurses through enhanced data collection, quality information, and wisdom.

The adoption of M-Health technology occurs in two phases. Phase one involves adopting the requisite standards of practice, standardizing documentation, designing protocols, and training staff. Phase two involves the actual implementation of the technology. A team of researchers will be deployed to the community to monitor the implementation of the program. Their main duties include educating people on how to subscribe to the program using their mobile phones. Data collected is summarized on a weekly basis. Statistics such as the number of subscribers, positive feedbacks, and the impact of the program to the community will be analyzed to evaluate the quality of service delivery.

The first process in the implementation plan will involve documentation. Documentation forms a major aspect in nursing informatics because quality care is dependent on effective communication. Nursing informatics improves the accuracy and timeliness of patient charting when effectively used (Savel and Foldy, 2012). Nurses can be involved in the process of improvement by ensuring that they feed all the necessary information about a certain illness to the internet and pass it to the mobile gadgets of all M-Health registered users. Any mobile gadget can receive health care information from the program. Those whose phones cannot connect to the internet will require registering for text messages alerts on their phones. Each text message will cost the user little amount of money to cater for mobile provider cost. On the other hand, those with internet enabled phones, especially the smart phones will have the added advantage because the program can be downloaded and installed in a smart phone.

The second phase of the implementation process involves research on the suitability of the program to the people in the community. The team of researchers will help people in downloading and installing the application on their phones. In addition, the health care sector will conduct many awareness campaigns on the implementation of the program to make more people aware and subscribe to the plan. Disease diagnosis is a process where a clinical examination and judgment are made about a given medical problem presented by the patient. M-Health program will help classify and describe activities that nurse undertake during the diagnosis process. Knowledge plays a major role in making such classifications and determining the best approach to take in solving a medical problem. All nurses must possess the knowledge of standardized technologies used in the health care sector today (Ackley, 2010).

Conclusion

Health-related quality of life and well-being is an important topic in the healthcare sector. The topic makes people more knowledgeable on different aspects of health and necessities that promote healthy living and a good lifestyle. The discussion recommends the application of the mobile health program to improve the quality of health in Bradenton community. The application of this program would yield better results and improve health quality among people in Florida.

References

Ackley, B. (2010). Nursing Diagnosis Handbook. Chicago: Elsevier Health Sciences.

Anonymous. (2013, November 25). AHRQ Innovations Exchange. AHRQ Innovations Exchange. Retrieved September 24, 2014, from

http://www.innovations.ahrq.gov

Florida Health. (2014). Florida Vital Statistics Annual Report 2013. Florida: State of Florida Department of Health. Retrieved from http://www.flpublichealth.com/VSBOOK/pdf/2013/Intro.pdf

Healthy People 2020 (2014). About Healthy People. Foundation Health Measures. Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being Retrieved from:

http://healthypeople.gov/2020/about/QoLWBabout.aspx.

Hendricks, D. (2013, May 14). How Technology Is Changing the Medical and Health Care Field. The Huffington Post. Retrieved September 5, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/drew-hendricks/how-technology-is-changin_b_3273542.html

Lunney, M. (2009). Critical Thinking To Achieve a Positive Health Outcome. New York: John

Willey.

Newbower, R. S. (2008). A group discussion: What’s ahead for medical technology innovation

and use. Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, 16-22. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/208680859?accountid=35812

Savel, T. G. and Foldy, S. (2012). The Role of Public Health Informatics in Enhancing Public

Health Surveillance. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), 61(03), 20-24