Week 1 project 4068

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Using a Health Policy Model to Develop a Change in Policy to Improve the Public’s Health

In a Microsoft Word document of 2-3 pages formatted in APA style, you will focus on the methods to develop a change in policy to improve the public’s health by using a health policy model.

Suppose you want to initiate a policy of taxing sugared sodas/pop/beverages in your community. In your paper, address each of the following criteria:

  • Use the Longest’s policy cycle model to structure your proposed policy.
  • What arguments would you use to make the case for the policy?
  • What argument(s) would your opponents make?
  • How would you go about getting buy-in for your proposed policy?
    • What stakeholder groups need to be involved in promoting your policy?

On a separate references page, cite all sources using APA format. Helpful APA guides and resources are available. Below are guides that are located in the library and can be accessed and downloaded via the South University Online Citation Resources: APA Style page. The American Psychological Association website also provides detailed guidance on formatting, citations, and references at APA Style.
• APA Citation Helper
• APA Citations Quick Sheet
• APA-Style Formatting Guidelines for a Written Essay
• Basic Essay Template

Please note that the title and reference pages should not be included in the total page count of your paper.

Week 3 case study

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Required Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

  • Textbook
  • Weekly Concepts
  • Minimum of 1 scholarly source

Scenario/Summary

Betty was an active 24 year-old with a good job at the local University. She helped students navigate the complexities of the FAFSA application process to access monies for their educations. Betty loved her job and attended all of the graduation ceremonies as a final send-off of the students to their dream lives.

In September, Betty started to feel tired and had a low-grade fever. She also experienced some nausea and stomach pain. Worried that she was developing a stomach virus, she stayed at home that weekend and tried to get as much rest as possible. She turned to soft foods to decrease the stomach distress. By Monday, she was feeling a little better and hoped she was on the mend.

However, later in the week, her joints started hurting and her leg muscles were sore. She couldn’t think of anything she had done differently that would account for the muscle soreness and joint pains. She chalked that up to sleeping wrong.

A few months later, the fatigue and weakness returned and she noticed that her hair was breaking easily and thinning, and that she was developing swelling in her legs and face. She also had dry skin and craved eggs and cottage cheese. Betty couldn’t get enough of these two foods. Fearing that something serious may be wrong, Betty scheduled an appointment with her physician.

Her physician ran a battery of tests to determine that Betty was suffering from a hepatitis C virus and was experiencing hypoproteinemia. In particular, her albumin levels were low.

Based on what you’ve learned about blood flow, the liver’s role in production of proteins, and pressure at the capillaries, address the following questions.

Deliverables

Answer the following questions and save your responses in a Microsoft Word document. Provide a scholarly resource to support your answers.

  1. Describe all the constituents contained in plasma and their concentrations.
  2. Explain the liver’s role in production of proteins.
  3. Why would albumin be important in regulating pressure at the capillaries?
  4. Explain the process of fluid movement at both the arterial and venous side of the capillary.
  5. What can Betty do to improve her situation?

Unit VI Essay

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For the Unit VI assignment you are tasked with locating the web site of Neighborworks America (http://www.nw.org/network/) and exploring the role of the organization in regards to state and local relations.  

 

Specifically address the following: 

 

 Mission and vision of the organization  The collaboration required to help the organization meet its vision of “strong communities.”   How the collaborations can assist with capacity building. o How does this collaboration relate to the concept of building local capacity by including non-government agencies in partnerships? o Which activities improve and enhance the organizations ability to achieve its mission and sustain itself over time?  How the partnership is impacting the community.  

 

Your assignment must:  

 

 Be a minimum of 700 words.  Include an introduction which summarizes the main points of the essay and identifies the relevance of the assignment to the course topic(s).  Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA format.  

 

Include a cover page containing the tile of the assignment (Unit VI-Essay), the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Keynows

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Answer each question, 300 words for each part and references

 In the early 2000s BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and China, were all the rage when talking about global expansion. Today these markets may not be the sure things they appeared to be when Goldman Sachs Asset Management coined the term BRICs a decade ago. 

LINK:  BRIC Countries – Background, Facts, News and Original Articles (globalsherpa.org) 

 Part 1

Research why the BRIC markets may become less advantageous international markets.

  • Present at least one internal factor in each country that may be leading to its less preferred global status.
  • Discuss at least one external factor for each country that may lead to a downgrade in its status

Your analysis must be substantiated by research from professional and graduate-level resources such as the course text AND articles from the link above. Use of consultant or other inappropriate sites is banned and may result in a zero for the assignment. Since you are engaging in research, be sure to cite the source(s) in APA format.

Part 2

The Next Super-Charged Markets

Before BRIC, there were the Four Asian Tigers: Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan that experienced incredible growth from the 1960s through the late 1990s.

Research at least one market that the experts say will be the next top prospect for international trade. Provide background on why the market was chosen and what areas of commerce are likely to be successful over the next decade.

cultural studies multi-part question

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 I’m working on a cultural studies multi-part question and need an explanation to help me study.discuss your experience with cultural pluralism as related to the entertainment industry, which has been introduced in this module. For example, what have been your most memorable experiences when experiencing the entertainment industry? https://convenientpaperwriters.com/discussion-board-2/ Do you perceive that you and/or your ethnic group have been valued and appreciated in the entertainment industry because of the diversity that you represent, or have you and/or your group been discriminated against because of the diversity that you and your group represent? For example, who gets the Oscars, Tonys, MOTY (Model Of The Year), Golden Globe awards and others? Are they consistently, or in large measure, received by members of your group or some other group? Share whatever examples you feel comfortable sharing with respect to the entertainment industry. https://myhomeworkassister.com/300-2/ This discussion will be substantive and informative if you share what your experiences have been and how these experiences made you feel.You may have had personal experience as an entertainer in this industry. Please feel free to share your experiences if you have worked as an entertainer in this industry. Please feel free to share your experiences as a consumer in this industry: consider your experiences as a patron, i.e., you buy entertainment (Netflix, videos, cable, etc.).If you do not have personal experiences to share (which is highly unlikely given our penchant for entertaining ourselves), please share the perspectives of friends or family members (your children, nieces, or nephews, mother, father, sisters, or brothers, etc.) as they relate to the entertainment industry (please do not mention their names unless you have permission to do so).PLEASE, try to answer the questions. https://trustedessayhelpers.com/2021/06/07/im-working-on-a-literature-question-and-need-guidance-to-help-me-understand-bet-2/ Requirements: one page 

Case Law Analysis: Business Entities

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Write a 2–page executive briefing of a selected U.S. federal or U.S.state court case pertaining to the topic of business entities.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

SHOW LESS

  • Competency 1: Articulate the importance, context, purpose, and relevance of law in a business environment.
    • Summarize the facts and ruling of a legal case.
  • Competency 4: Evaluate legal options for creating a business entity.
    • Analyze how a legal case could impact businesses.
    • Explain how a legal case could impact a specific organization.
  • Competency 5: Develop information literacy skills as applied to business law.
    • Exhibit information literacy skills as applied to business law.

 Assessment Instructions

For this assessment, you will first select an actual business-related U.S. legal case, pertaining to the topic of business entities, based on briefly conducting associated research. Based on that, you will then select an organization that you believe would be impacted by that legal case. Having completed both of these tasks, you should assume you’re a senior manager in the organization you selected, and that you were asked to perform an analysis of the legal case and to write an executive briefing for the executive team of that same organization. Your executive briefing should include a summary of the case, as well as an evaluation of how the case impacts the organization.

The purpose of this format is two-fold:

  1. To give you the opportunity to research and investigate a real court decision.
  2. To challenge you to think about the business implications of the case, and specifically how the case will impact an actual organization.

In your case law analysis you must be able to navigate the court’s decision, and summarize and evaluate it. You may choose any business-related court case, either state or federal, as the basis for your case law executive briefing, as long as the case is applicable to the assessment topic. You are expected to conduct your own independent research to locate and evaluate the applicability of cases. A few appropriate case law websites are recommended for you in the Resources, but you are not limited to using cases from these sites.

For this assessment, use credible legal research databases and online resources, research federal and state court cases, and select any business-related case that has been decided by a state court, a federal court, or the United States Supreme Court. Then select an organization (potentially the organization for which you work) that you believe the selected case might impact. Write an executive briefing that addresses the following:

Research federal and state court cases pertaining to the topic of business entities. Select one court case and write an analysis that addresses the following:

  1. Articulate the context and relevance of law in a business environment:
    • Identify the parties who are before the court.
    • Provide a brief background and context associated with the case. Summarize the facts in no more than 2–3 paragraphs.
    • Identify the specific disagreement between the parties.
    • Explain the ruling of the court and its business relevance in no more than 1–2 paragraphs. Was there a dissenting opinion? If so, explain why some of the judges or justices disagreed with the majority in the decision.
  2. Evaluate the business impact of the case:
    • Summarize your analysis of how the case will impact businesses in general, including both positive and negative impacts.
    • Indicate the organization you selected as potentially impacted by the case and why you selected that organization.
    • Explain how the case will impact the specific organization you selected, such that the executive team will understand the implications of the legal decision.

Based on your executive audience, your executive briefing should be no more than two pages, and should be well organized and written in clear, succinct language. Follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions.

Academic Integrity and APA Formatting

As a reminder related to using APA rules to ensure academic honesty:

  1. When using a direct quote (using exact or nearly exact wording), you must enclose the quoted wording in quotation marks, immediately followed by an in-text citation. The source must then be listed in your references page.
  2. When paraphrasing (using your own words to describe a non-original idea), the paraphrased idea must be immediately followed by an in-text citation and the source must be listed in your references page.

HRMT440 U4DB

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This assignment will be based on this scenario. 

Scenario

This course uses the CTU Professional Learning Model™ (CTU PLM) to teach students with hands-on, industry-related, problem-solving experiences that model the professional environment and encourage achievements that lead to student and employer success. The CTU PLM is founded on the idea that students learn best by working on real-world, professional projects related to their chosen career fields. By working this way, students develop the expertise to apply conceptual knowledge to get effective results. Through professional learning, students experience the complexity of real-world problems and learn to select an appropriate approach to a problem that has more than one solution. This method of learning is called Problem-Based Learning (PBL). PBL assumes that you will master content while solving a meaningful problem in each assignment. 

Throughout the course, you will work with a scenario in which some basic, background information is provided about a company. (This information could apply to any company that provides products or services of this sort in general.) You have a role in the scenario; that is, you are part of the story. The dialogue in each assignment presents the problem that must be solved. It is up to you to respond to the problem and submit a deliverable that will be graded.

Refer to the following scenario as you progress through the PBL process.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Scenario: Red Carpet LLC

Red Carpet LLC is a national hospitality and entertainment company with headquarters in Philadelphia, PA with national operations in the US. Historically, the company has had 3 divisions: hotels, food service, and cruise lines. However, it recently completed the acquisition of Sparkstar theaters, a movie theater company, that it is slated to become its 4th division. Red Carpet now owns 200 hotels in 48 states, 4 brands of restaurants with 1776 locations, 4 Buoy Bay branded cruise ships, and 300 Sparkstar theaters.

Its matrix organizational structure consists of a central HR, accounting, business development, sales, marketing, and research and development departments located at the headquarters in Philadelphia that serve each division. Each division is located in a different part of the US and lead by a VP that reports to the President and CEO. The company is privately owned by a consortium of investors and investor groups.

Red Carpet has 16,000 employees, 1000 of which work at its corporate headquarters. The organizational culture of the headquarters is informal and organic and there are few policies and processes that guide employee behavior. The company, as a whole, does not value HR so employees struggle with many employee relations and employment law concerns. The company outsources all of its training to one of the investor group companies, however this training is commonly not customized to the needs of Red Carpet.

As a whole, Red Carpet struggles with its business to business partners and suppliers because of its reputation for being nonnegotiable. Red Carpet would rather disrupt the quality and availability of its only products and services rather than partner for the supply chain resources that it needs. Likewise, Red Carpet does not hold many of the General Managers in its hotels, restaurants, and its cruise ships accountable for performance, opting instead for a weaker political strategy of blaming and gotcha games.

Being aware of these challenges, Red Carpet acquired Sparkstar for their strong industry reputation and financial performance in the hopes that merging the structure and culture of Sparkstar into Red Carpet would change the organization for the better. Historically, Red Carpet has been a highly successful company, however in recent years, its mismanagement has created noticeable effectives in product and service quality and its bottom line. 

Divisions

Hotels: Red Carpet branded hotels are mid-price semi-luxury hotels known for high quality. Each customer is given a red velvet cupcake upon checking in. Red Carpet relies on its General Managers to micromanage the hotel. Despite its corporate parent owning a restaurant division, no Red Carpet hotels have restaurants. The Red Carpet division headquarters are in Sedona AZ. Many of the hotels are in need of refurbishment.

Food Service: Chicken Heaven is a fast-food chain with a long tradition of quality, large customer base, and 1000 locations. It is a solid overall performer for Red Carpet with high employee satisfaction. Burger Blast is another fast-food chain recently launched to cater to upscale customers who seek customized, gourmet-style burgers. It has 200 locations, however General Managers are struggling with budget and supplies causing a poor customer experience and high employee turnover. Food Park is a buffet-style restaurant with 500 locations that has been recently struggling because of high competition and poor marketing.  Delicacy is a high-end restaurant with an urban theme. It has 76 locations, is the oldest of Red Carpet’s food service operations, and provides a unique dining experience for customers. However, General Managers have a high turnover at Delicacy because of the grueling schedule. The food service division is located in Burke, ID.

Cruise Ships: Buoy Bay cruise ships offer low-cost, short-term cruises from Port Canaveral, FL only to the US Virgin Islands. Buoy Bay offers customers average quality staterooms and food from Chicken Heaven, Burger Blast, and Food Park. However, it does not offer a non-buffet formal dining option such as Delicacy. Although they are known for their over-the-top entertainment, employee turnover is very high relying primary on seasonal employees who are poorly trained. Buoy Bay has had much controversy. Just 5 years ago, the Buoy Bay cruise ship, Garland of the Sails, hit a reef, partially sank, and had to be salvaged in a 1.5 billion dollar operation. This resulted in a Federal investigation that is still pending. The Buoy Bay division is located in Lapsowanne, OR.

Movie Theaters: Sparkstar theaters were recently purchased from the Vegamega group for 2.3  billion dollars. Sparkstar is the highest rated movie theater chain the US. It has high customer and employee satisfaction, an efficient organizational structure, and solid financial results. Sparkstar’s culture is one of high HR involvement including a strong training and development department, Sparkstar Institute. Sparkstar has a customer rewards program that provides a free movie rental of the film that the customer saw in the theater which has been very popular and has increased its strong customer base. Sparkstar has its divisional headquarters in Pasadena, CA.

The Issues

With the purchase of Sparkstar theaters, Red Carpet is hoping to redefine its operations in the next 5 years. It sees opportunities to integrate its divisions, products, and services to better serve its customers and employees. Here is a summary of some of the issues that Red Carpet must address in its strategic plan:

  • Internal politics and communication 
  • Improved HR and training 
  • Employee relations issues 
  • Federal investigations 
  • Product and service quality 
  • Marketing support 
  • Performance issues 
  • Redefining the organizational structure 
  • Improving its organizational culture 
  • Integrating products and services 
  • Resource and supply chain issues

Your Role 

Leroy Banks, the Director of Change management at Red Carpet is seeking an Organization Development Consultant to address Red Carpet’s need for change. You’ve just received a consulting contract from him to help prepare a plan to assist Red Carpet. You’re excited about the opportunity and are motivated to work on this project. You know that your insight will assist Red Carpet with managing organizational change.

****Assignment***

Deliverable Length:   400–600 words

Leroy thinks it is important to use a set of steps from an established change model to guide the change process. He has recommended the OD Action Research model, Appreciative Inquiry, and Kotter’s 8-Step model as potential alternatives. But the VP of HR wants to know all of the details and is also concerned about the potential resistance to change at Red Carpet, so Leroy thinks it’s important to discuss this as well. Red Carpet is seeking long-term success with this change, so Leroy would like you to include a forward-thinking statement regarding the future of Red Carpet after the change. In no time, you and Leroy will be riding the elevator to the 27th floor with a beautiful view of Philadelphia, and he is confident that your collaborative effort will be well-received.

Review the Red Carpet scenario for this course, and with your classmates, discuss the following questions about Red Carpet’s change management plan:

  • In your opinion, which one of the following change models will be best for Red Carpet’s change process: OD Action Research model, Appreciative Inquiry, or Kotter’s 8-Step model? 
  • What interventions would you recommend to address the challenges at Red Carpet? 
  • Considering the organizational culture of Red Carpet, how could you help the organization use communication to overcome resistance to change? 
  • How will you evaluate the success of the change process at Red Carpet?

Deliverable 1 – Descriptive Statistics

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Deliverable 1 – Descriptive Statistics

Assignment Content

  1. Competency
    Describe the data using the measures of central tendency and measures of variability.

    Student Success Criteria
    View the grading rubric for this deliverable by selecting the “This item is graded with a rubric” link, which is located in the Details & Information pane.

    Instructions
    Scenario (information repeated for deliverable 01, 03, and 04)
    A major client of your company is interested in the salary distributions of jobs in the state of Minnesota that range from $30,000 to $200,000 per year. As a Business Analyst, your boss asks you to research and analyze the salary distributions. You are given a spreadsheet that contains the following information:

    • A listing of the jobs by title
    • The salary (in dollars) for each job
    • Deliverable 1 – Descriptive Statistics.xlsx

      The client needs the preliminary findings by the end of the day. Your boss asks you to first compute some basic statistics and then analyze the results in the four questions given in the Excel spreadsheet.

      Background information on the Data
      The data set in the spreadsheet consists of 364 records that you will be analyzing from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data set contains a listing of several jobs titles with yearly salaries ranging from approximately $30,000 to $200,000 for the state of Minnesota.

      What to Submit
      Your boss wants you to submit the spreadsheet with the completed calculations, answers, and analysis.

Linux Implementation Proposal: Client Response Memo

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Faster Computing was impressed with your presentation. The company is  interested in moving forward with the project, but the senior  management team has responded to the presentation with the following  questions and concerns:

  • How will security be implemented in the Linux systems—both workstations and servers?
     
  • End users have expressed some concern about completing their  day-to-day tasks on Linux. How would activities such as web browsing  work? How would they work with their previous Microsoft Office files?
     
  • The current Windows administrators are unsure about administering  Linux systems. How are common tasks, such as process monitoring and  management, handled in Linux? How does logging work? Do we have event  logs like we do in Windows?
     
  • Some folks in IT raised questions about the Linux flavor that was  recommended. They would like to see comparisons between your  recommendation and a couple of other popular options. What makes your  recommendation the best option?
     
  • How does software installation work on Linux? Can we use existing Windows software?
     
  • How can Linux work together with the systems that will continue to  run Windows? How will we share files between the different system types?
     

The deliverable for this phase of the project is a memo. There is no  minimum or maximum page requirement, but all of the questions must be  fully answered with sufficient detail. The recommended format is to  respond to the questions in a bulleted format. Provide sufficient detail  to fully address the questions. You must cite at least two quality  sources.

Template

  

<insert date>

Go2Linux, Inc.

<Student Name>

<Address>

<Opening Salutation>

<Purpose of Communication/Introduction> 

Provide a brief summary of your recommendation

of a specific version of Linux. Explain how your choice meets the business need of Faster 

Computing, Inc.

<REMOVE> The bold text questions below represent the specifics you need to focus on. For 

each question, refer to your Implementation Proposal (Assignment #1) for consistency. In this 

assignment you will provide technical details for Information Technology personnel. <REMOVE>

<REMOVE>Any example Linux commands should be properly displayed (e.g., in lower case) 

and any acronyms explained on first use (e.g., Secure Shell (SSH)).

·

How will you implement security in the Linux systems?

o

<Edit as needed> Start by outlining how you plan to migrate the existing Windows 

Servers to Linux. Ho

w will users authenticate? What technologies will be used? What 

kind of access controls will be used?

<Edit as needed>

o

<Edit as needed> Will you recommend simple authentication mechanisms or employ 

multiple factors? For passwords, what policy(ies) will you recommend? <Edit as 

needed>

o

<Edit as needed> How will you handle data-at-rest and data-in-transit? <Edit as 

needed>

o

<Edit as needed> How will you enforce software installations and control which 

applications may run on the network? <Edit as needed>

·

End users have expressed some concern about completing their day-to-day tasks on 

Linux. How would activities such as email/web browsing work? How would they work 

with their previous Microsoft Office files?

o

<Edit as needed> There are several ways to address the use of existing applications. 

Conduct research to determine the available options. <Edit as needed>

o

<Edit as needed> For web browsing, you should provide at least 2 alternatives and 

consider the impact to initial configuration (bookmarks, extensions, plugins) <Edit as 

needed>

o

<Edit as needed> For Microsoft Office, provide a full discussion on how users will 

continue to open/edit/save office docs in the Linux environment. You should provide at 

least 2 alternatives. <Edit as needed>

·

The current Windows administrators are unsure about administering Linux systems. How

are common tasks, such as process monitoring and management, handled in Linux? 

How does logging work? Do we have event logs like we do in Windows?

o

<Edit as needed> Discuss your logging and monitoring approach in this section. You 

should include the location of specific Linux log files. <Edit as needed>

<insert logo, if desired>

o

<Edit as needed> Discuss how admins can manage processes. It may be helpful to 

compare/contrast in familiar terms (e.g., the Windows Event Viewer). Discuss how to 

stop processes, including the corresponding commands. <Edit as needed>

·

Some folks in IT raised questions about the Linux flavor that was recommended. They 

would like to see comparisons between your recommendation and a couple of other 

popular options. What makes your recommendation the best option?

o

<Edit as needed> <Enter distro here> <Edit as needed>

o

<Edit as needed> The key differentiator is … <Edit as needed>

·

How does software installation work on Linux? Can we use existing Windows software?

o

<Edit as needed> Discuss a Linux package management specific to your distro. How will

you automate updates? <Edit as needed>

o

<Edit as needed> Discuss how specific Windows applications can be installed and used,

if at all. <Edit as needed>

·

How can Linux work together with the systems that will continue to run Windows? How 

will we share files between the different system types?

o

<Edit as needed> Discuss how file and printer sharing will work. Will the users need to 

do anything “different”? What underlying technology will need to be implemented? <Edit 

as needed>

<Closing/Conclusion of Communication>

Warm regards,

<Student Name>

Go2Linux

Linux Deployment Manager

References

<These example citations use IEEE style. Ask your instructor for clarification on the style

to be used. Ensure you utilize in-text citations in the body of your paper as appropriate.>

[1] Red Hat Enterprise, “Encryption,” Chapter 3, Section 3.1.3. Red Hat, Inc., 2019. [Online]. 

Available: https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-s/red_hat_enterprise_linux/6/htm

l/security_guide/chap-security_guide-encryption#sect-Security_GuideLUKS_Disk_ 

Encryption. [Accessed December 1, 2019]. 

[2] TestOut Labsim, “TestOut Linux Pro,” Chapter 15, Section 15.8.3. TestOut, 2019 [Online]. 

Available: https://cdn.testout.com/client-v5-1-10-568/startlabsim.html. [Accessed 

December 6, 2019].

… and so on …

Respondo eitho uno

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 Respond by  researching a solution to solve the proposed challenges your peers presented and describe why the solution you proposed should work. Also provide an explanation why your proposed solution has not already been adopted. Your reply posts should be 100 to 150 words, with a minimum of one supporting reference included for each Response below.

Respond 1

According to Barnes et al. (2014), accountable care organizations (ACOs) are organizations that assume financial responsibility and clinical accountability for the care provided to a defined patient population. These organizations are comprised of physicians, hospitals, and other healthcare facilities and work towards providing a higher quality of care to patients. ACO models aim to improve the experience of care, the health of populations, and reduce per capita costs (Barnes et al., 2014). Accountable care organizations are currently one of the largest payment and delivery reforms in the United States with over 700 ACO contracts in place covering nearly 23 million Americans (Colla et al., 2016). These organizations provide incentives to physicians to provide high quality care, which ultimately reduces healthcare expenditures as individuals are receiving better care. ACOs allow primary care physicians more flexibility to follow their patients more closely through follow up appointments. Closer monitoring of patients with chronic diseases prevents costly emergency department visits and preventable hospital readmissions.There are several challenges associated with the further implementation of accountable care organizations. According to Singer and Shortell (2011), there is possibility of overestimation of accountable care organization’s abilities. For instance, Singer and Shortell (2011) explain that there is an overestimation of an ACOs ability to access electronic health records as many physicians are not adequately trained and systems vary. The ability to report on the cost and quality metrics required for ACOs will be delayed, which also results in inadequate ability to report performance measures. Return rates on costs and quality will be significantly delayed as a result.

As there are both Medicare ACOs and private insurer ACOs, there are variations in both protocols and costs, which makes it difficult to implement ACO strategies. As a result of the variation between private and government funded ACOs, there is overestimation of the ability to implement standardized care management protocols (Singer & Shortell, 2011). Singer and Shortell (2011) state that for protocols to be efficient, clinicians must be involved in their development and protocols must allow for tailoring to individual patient needs. Variations in regulations of both Medicare and private insurer ACOs make it difficult to produce clinician guided protocol development.

Response 2

 

ACOs are a payment model of managed care which emerged in the 1990s as an alternative to the fragmented and disconnected care that patients with chronic health conditions had experienced. Prior to ACOS patients with chronic health issues were being seen by multiple physicians who had no direct access to the patients’ information to coordinate decisions with one another (Dunlap et al. 2017).

There was a need for a more comprehensive physicians’ organization and that’s where ACOs come in. ACOs approach is to bring all providers, nurses, physicians, APRNs and all sectors of the continuum of care hospitals, clinics, skilled nursing homes, home care and other sites together to assume responsibility of all care rendered and to establish a patient population within the structures of the ACO model (Dunlap et al. 2017).

According to the CMS definition ACOs are a group of doctors, hospitals and other healthcare organizations who come together to coordinate services and provide quality care to patients they serve. Additionally, ACOs are network of service providers that agree to be held accountable for the cost and quality of care provided to patients and families (Dunlap et al. 2017).

Some of the challenges ACOs face include: a) ACOs provide incentives which ultimately can become a financial risk that may result in rationing or denying care to the population; b) ACOs collect data that capture volume reduction but more data should be submitted on quality improvement; c) ACOs need to create more incentives to engage health providers in disease prevention and health promotion; d) ACOs need to create more IT structures to establish patient-centered and integral care and facilitate access to patient’s information for all providers (Barnes et al. 2014).

ACOs need to rise to the challenge of monitoring, evaluating and reshaping payments and delivery system to improve patient’s experience of care and health. There is a pressure on ACOs to make large improvements in healthcare performance. ACOs should not be held to that standard. They are not exempt from financial issues and high healthcare expenditures. Social determinants of health will continue to impact healthcare costs. In order to achieve lasting improvements in healthcare costs the U.S health care system will need much more than just ACOs (Barnes et al. 2014).