Multiple Chronic Conditions

MONAHRQ Role in Improving Care for Patients with Multiple Chronic Conditions

Come 2030, more than 170 million Americans will be suffering from multiple chronic conditions (MCC), if the same healthcare system is maintained. In the United States, about 66% of the current national health care cost, is being spent on the treatment of people with MCC. The increasing cost of managing patients with MCC has become a major public health issue. As part of solving this problem, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has come up with a number of initiatives, such as the MONAHRQ software, to help lower the cost and improve the quality of care for patients with MCC (In McDermott, In Kitchener & In Exworthy 2018).

Healthcare being part of the evolving world, it is the mandate of the nurse practitioner to develop and embrace technological approaches in the provision of accessible, timely, quality and cost-effective healthcare. Making use of the MONAHRQ software will result in a positive patient outcome. The software is designed in such a way that healthcare organizations, including nursing homes and hospitals, can be able to easily create a health care reporting website. The MONAHRQ software analyses, summarizes and presents different type of information which include: guided education on different health topics, medical report comparisons, consumer-based websites, nursing home quality of care, quality of care at the hospital setting, data and quality report of the physician, utilization of health at the hospital and emergency unit, the rates of conditions and procedures, preventable hospitalizations and lastly the estimated healthcare cost and cost saving based on the quality of care (Thambusamy & Palvia, 2018).

All the above pieces of information are important especially for a patient with MCC. The NP will help such a patient create their own website, by first downloading the website, then loading their own inpatient and outpatient data that will help the patient keep track of their health complications even at home. The loaded information will be automatically formatted in such a way that it can be easily retrieved and utilized by the patient or any other healthcare decision maker. All the information will be updated frequently depending on the progress of the patient following the assigned therapeutic approach assigned. The NP will also be required to provide updated tools and sources of information to help the patient learn about their multiple chronic conditions, and how to manage them, especially if they are lifestyle related (In McDermott, In Kitchener & In Exworthy 2018). For older patients who will not be able to manage the software on their own, a home nurse will be assigned to make sure that the patient receives quality care using MONAHRQ to keep track of the treatment and progression of the different conditions.

Multiple chronic conditions can be fatal or lead to a number of disabilities especially for the elderly (Bwalya, 2018). Embracing modern technology in the management of MCC will help reduce such occurrences. Additionally, systems such as the MONAHRQ will help lower the cost, improve the quality of healthcare and prevent unnecessary hospitalization. Coordination among the private and the public health sectors in improving the quality of healthcare will help expand MONAHRQ and even open room for more advanced innovative measures to help patients with multiple chronic conditions in the future.