NURS FPX 4050 Assessment 2 Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX 4050 Coord Patient-Centered Care

Prof. Name

Date

Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

Greetings, my name is —–, and I am a registered nurse with the additional care coordinator role at San Fernando Community Health Center, California. American Heart Association (AHA) is an eminent non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to combating cardiovascular diseases and stroke. The AHA focuses on research, education, advocacy, and community programs to improve cardiovascular health and reduce the impact of cardiovascular morbidities and stroke on affected individuals and communities. In this presentation, I will highlight ethical and policy issues relevant to care coordination so that AHA can take valuable knowledge and improve its mission. First, I will discuss the contents of this presentation.

Presentation Contents

I will discuss the following contents in my presentation:

• The concept of care coordination.
• The governmental policies that affect the care coordination process related to a community’s health and safety. 
• The national, state, and local-level policies and their ethical implications on care coordination. 
• Then, I will discuss the influence of the nursing code of ethics on care coordination and continuity of care, relating it to social determinants of health. 

What is Care Coordination?

Care coordination is a healthcare management approach that involves organizing the delivery of healthcare services to ensure patients acquire adequate and appropriate care at the required time from healthcare professionals. It involves interdisciplinary team collaboration to manage patients’ healthcare needs and deliver patient-centered care. Care coordination enables the management of chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases and promotes seamless care transitions. Every healthcare organization must practice care coordination to promote high-quality care delivery and enhance patient safety (Greenstone et al., 2019).

Governmental Policies that Affect Care Coordination

Governmental policies like the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) are some of the prominent legislative protocols that influence care coordination. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has encouraged the development of accountable care organizations (ACOs), which enable healthcare providers to coordinate care for patients eligible for Medicare services.

This care coordination network aims to improve care quality and reduce costs through improved, coordinated care. The increased healthcare insurance for such patients enables effective care coordination among healthcare providers and delivers better care through care coordination (Isola & Reddivari, 2019).

NURS FPX 4050 Assessment 2 Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and HITECH Act encourage the adoption and integration of healthcare information technologies (HIT), enabling care coordination. The HIPAA policy also directs healthcare professionals on the safe sharing of data to safeguard patients’ health information (Rosenbloom et al., 2019). The HITECH Act promotes telehealth and EHRs to improve care coordination among healthcare professionals.

HITs such as. EHRs, remote monitoring, and telehealth promote effective exchange of information among healthcare providers and patients and promote seamless collaboration. EHRs enable healthcare professionals to view all the patient health data from a bird’s eye view and promote the secure sharing of data, leading to improved care coordination. Remote monitoring also improves care coordination as patients and healthcare providers can collaborate remotely through patient portals and telehealth services. This leads to continuous care coordination and delivery of improved quality of care to patients. (Gill et al., 2020) 

Ethical Dilemmas Related to Health Policies

Now, I will highlight ethical dilemmas related to health policies. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) policy on expanding access to healthcare insurance coverage for deserving people poses specific ethical dilemmas. For instance, not all states choose to expand Medicaid, and many individuals still face barriers to accessing affordable care. This leads to health disparities and inequity as this ethical dilemma revolves around the justness and fairness in healthcare (Bachynsky, 2019). Ethical implications of this policy include enhanced access to healthcare and fostering a culture of health equity and fairness where financially burdened individuals can access care as the upper-class community can.

The AHA should promote care coordination by enhancing access to its resources and services for all individuals suffering from cardiovascular disorders, regardless of their socioeconomic background. It should also promote enhanced access to educational information and services and improve the community’s heart health.Similarly, California has passed a recent health policy on expanding telehealth across the states by enabling out-of-state healthcare professionals to treat patients with chronic diseases like cardiovascular diseases. This policy enhances care coordination by allowing healthcare providers to acquire remote services and connect with healthcare to improve their health conditions (Legiscan, 2023).

NURS FPX 4050 Assessment 2 Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

The ethical dilemmas raised by this policy include the illegal sharing of patients’ health information with outsiders and uncertainty about the secured sharing of patient’s personal health information through social platforms. However, the ethical implications of this policy include enhanced access to healthcare services for all individuals with chronic diseases and promoting health equity and social justice across the states. AHA can utilize this policy to promote care coordination by integrating community telehealth services, enabling social justice and health equity. 

The city of San Fernando supports the policy of using telehealth at a local level to improve access to healthcare for its residents with a partnership with San Fernando Community Health Center, where telehealth services exist, and community residents can avail them. However, the local community health center has not specified any privacy policies, raising the ethical dilemma of privacy issues and whether the healthcare center seeks informed consent before sharing patients’ health information with colleagues. The ethical implications of this policy provision will be distrust of patients in healthcare and lack of patient coordination and collaboration with healthcare professionals. This shows that organizations like AHA must seek informed consent while establishing a care coordination strategy to enhance care coordination.

Influence of Code of Ethics for Nurses on Care Coordination and its Continuum

In the last section of my presentation, I will discuss how the code of ethics developed for nurses impacts care coordination and its continuum. The nursing code of ethics is developed by the American Nursing Association, which plays a significant role in shaping nursing practices and directing them in practicing the coordination of care using ethical principles. The nursing code of ethics includes practicing justice, beneficence, non-maleficence, and veracity.

The code of ethics emphasizes patient-centered care as nurses are directed to consider patients’ needs and preferences while delivering care treatments, ultimately enhancing care coordination and its continuum (Kwame & Petrucka, 2021). Moreover, the nursing code of ethics promotes interprofessional collaboration, which contributes to seamless care coordination and continuity of care when providers work collaboratively to ensure the best possible patient outcomes. 

NURS FPX 4050 Assessment 2 Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

The nursing code of ethics commits to providing care regardless of any discrimination based on gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background. This leads to health equity and reduced health disparities as nurses equitably enhance their access to healthcare services and improve the community’s overall health. Furthermore, the social determinants of health mentioned by Healthy People 2020, such as socioeconomic background, age, gender, and health literacy, are not considered as the criteria to deliver healthcare treatments to patients in the code of ethics for nurses.

Instead, social justice and advocacy for health equity are the fundamental key points of the nursing code of ethics, which encourage nurses to reduce poverty, improve access to health literacy, and deliver community healthcare services without creating health disparities due to social determinants of health (Yearby, 2020). The nursing code of ethics and factors impacting health equity and social justice are essential for nurses working under AHA’s mission. Their core ethical and moral principles of social justice and equitable delivery of care treatment to patients with cardiovascular disorders will improve the overall health community. 

Conclusion

This presentation aimed to enlighten the American Heart Association on ethical and policy factors in care coordination. As the AHA aims to improve the health of cardiovascular patients, this organization needs to practice care coordination and advocate for this approach. We discussed governmental policies of ACA, HIPAA, and HITECH Act that impact care coordination. Furthermore, we discussed how ethical dilemmas are encountered in national and local policies on care coordination. Lastly, we discussed the impact of the code of ethics, where nurses’ role influences care coordination and its continuum. Thank you.

References

Bachynsky, N. (2019). Implications for policy: The triple aim, quadruple aim, and interprofessional collaboration. Nursing Forum, 55(1), 54–64. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12382 

Gill, E., Dykes, P. C., Rudin, R. S., Storm, M., McGrath, K., & Bates, D. W. (2020). Technology-facilitated care coordination in rural areas: What is needed? International Journal of Medical Informatics, 137, 104102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2020.104102 

Greenstone, C. L., Peppiatt, J., Cunningham, K., Hosenfeld, C., Lucatorto, M., Rubin, M., & Weede, A. (2019). Standardizing care coordination within the department of veterans affairs. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 34(S1), 4–6. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-04997-6  

Isola, S., & Reddivari, A. K. R. (2019, November 13). Affordable Care Act (ACA). Nih.gov; StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK549767/ 

Kwame, A., & Petrucka, P. M. (2021). A literature-based study of patient-centered care and communication in nurse-patient interactions: Barriers, facilitators, and the way forward. BMC Nursing, 20(158), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00684-2 

Legiscan. (2023). California AB1369 | 2023-2024 | regular session. https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1369/2023 

NURS FPX 4050 Assessment 2 Ethical and Policy Factors in Care Coordination

Rosenbloom, S. T., Smith, J. R. L., Bowen, R., Burns, J., Riplinger, L., & Payne, T. H. (2019). Updating HIPAA for the electronic medical record era. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(10), 1115–1119. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocz090 

Yearby, R. (2020). Structural racism and health disparities: Reconfiguring the social determinants of health framework to include the root cause. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 48(3), 518–526. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073110520958876