Health Care Stakeholders' Conflict: Patients & Physicians

Health Care Stakeholders’ Conflict Name: Institution: Course: Date: Health Care Stakeholders’ Conflict From an all-inclusive perspective, stakeholders in the health care sector are all the parties that are affected by the reforms that are implemented in the health care system. This means even the slightest changes in the policies are bound to affect quite a number of the stakeholders in varying ways relative to the integral part that they play in the health care system. Among the main stakeholders in the health care system are the insurance companies, manufacturers, employers, payers, patients, economists and the providers (Yong, Olsen & McGinnis, 2010). These are all parties to the health care system playing different roles that are instrumental to the quality and delivery of the said services at one point or the other on the process chain. Given the parts that they play in the system, they all have different opinions on how the health care reforms should be conducted. Relative to the different interests in the health care reforms, the various stakeholders are embroidered in conflict over what direction the system should face now and in the future. Patients At the center of the system are the patients and their views on the health care system are complex. For example when it comes to the element of integrated technology in the health records maintenance, most of the patients cite the fact that, they are efficient. However they also cite that there is a glaring concern that is associated with the elements of privacy relative to the medical information that they share and who has access to the same (Valerio, 2017). Most of the patients will point to the fact that, the information could be used in ways that they have not authorized. However as pointed above there is a general appeal by a good number of the patients to accept some relative level of risk associated with their medical information considering the benefits of the same (Yong, Olsen & McGinnis, 2010). With elements such as the ease within which medical teams are able to review patients and make the right decisions especially during emergencies. One of the elements that important to consider is the fact that there is a large gap between the knowledge and information held by the patients and the medical teams. This means that medical services cannot be handled on a commercial transaction approach, where the patients are able to get the best value for their money. As such, the element of value for money is one that is skewed and patients constantly feel the gap as they make the choices. Physicians There is a twist to the conflict that arises from the physicians and the view on the element of quality of care. One of the elements to consider is that they consider most of the efforts that dubbed cost cutting as untrustworthy. Ideally most of the ventures that are associated with cost cutting to the patients never actually get to the patient. This is common where costs are presented as distinct from quality. The cost savings are never accrued to either the patients or even the providers. As such, they are ploys that do not add value to the health care delivery and only goes to line the pockets of a few in the system. The physicians consider that any changes to the health care system should always consider the needs of the patient first before any other stakeholder (Yong, Olsen & McGinnis, 2010). By cutting back on costs, this jeopardizes the incomes of the providers and further risks the styles of practice. At the same time there is also the element of saving on cost coming before the access and provision of the services. This compromises the health care system in more ways than one. For the physicians, the IOM is the best platform to base all the change on. This is to mean that any chan...