eMagazine June 2023

OUR PEOPLE,
OUR MISSION
Global Health
eMagazine
June 2023
Nursing Division
A Note from the Editor:
Catherine G Winkler, PhD, MPH, APRN-BC
Director of the Nuvance Health Global Health Program
Nursing Division
Strengthening Healthcare Systems
Strong healthcare systems are needed for all people to
achieve timely access to quality healthcare to promote,
restore and maintain health. Improving healthcare systems
In the USA as well as on a global level requires administrators
and healthcare leaders to take a hard look at the delivery of
care, the cost of care, the timeliness of care and “the caring”
in healthcare.
Perspective
Global Health Academy
Highlights
Reflections
Welcome
Global Local
Hispanic and Latinx Communities
Voices of Ugandan Students
Global Health Mental Health
Art to Rwmind Us of Who We Can Be
Our Beautiful Planet
Innovation and Technology
Nursing Division
Women’s Health Education
Among the Letters
Announcements
Article of the Month
Video of the Month
Congratulations
Phoro News
Calendar of Events
Resources
After the pandemic, change has been necessary on behalf of all healthcare providers in the
delivery of care, the content of care and the timeliness of that care. Front line providers needed
to don extra gear, change protocols, use resources differently and reprioritize their work with
staff levels low and with care complicated by isolation and uncertainty.
Patients and their families also needed to make ongoing changes since the pandemic by
making careful decisions about whether they should seek care, when to seek care, how to seek
care, and from what source in what venue would accessing this care be possible.
Healthcare systems and administrators have changed too – but it requires more effort because
they need to recognize problems and develop strategies, quick responses, and activities to
allow providers to do their work effectively, and to sustain positive changes now through the
next pandemic or crisis. Healthcare organizations and their leaders need to meet the needs of
their staff and the patients that they provide healthcare to every day.
Delivery of care needs to be available and timely. Often with large healthcare systems that
span across a state or states that have set themselves up with service lines designed to
manage expensive disease states such as orthopedics or cardiovascular care - lose sight of
what services their communities need that may be lost leaders financially but are vital to the
local people such as pediatric services or primary care. A shift should happen to review the
community needs and then formulate a plan about how to access it. Does it make sense to
have telemedicine visits, clinic, or home visits? Then once decided, look beyond the hired call
service that may pick up the call in 30 seconds but still struggles to get a patient seen within
a month. Community connectivity is needed to ensure that in addition to service lines, rapid
response, urgent care, emergency care, and primary care are offered and accessible locally.
Where is the care in healthcare?
Care needs to be cost-effective but should also be safe and convenient for the patient that
needs an outpatient procedure. Perhaps a cholecystectomy can be done same day, but in
thinking about the secondary consequences of that surgery and the issues with urinary retention
or symptom management – does it seem like a good idea to have the 75 year old patient need
to follow up on Friday evening after the procedure in the ED as their only course of action
available to have a urinary catheter placed or ongoing nausea treated? This happens often,
and patients bear the burden of an ED visit with the associated health risk and cost. Where is
the care in healthcare?
Patients who are 10 minutes before going into surgery should not have to find their credit card
in their clothes that have already been placed in the pre-op locker to pay an out-of-pocket
expense to the hospital before they are wheeled into the OR. Perhaps this could have been
considered the week before so that the frightened patient is not further troubled. After that
the same restructuring of finances would make sense without asking the parents of a sick child
going in at 5 in the morning for an invasive procedure to also pay for the estimated cost of care.
Where is the care in healthcare?
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