Most important change issues facing health care organizations Essay

Most important change issues facing health care organizations - Essay Example These health care issues must be strategically managed through helping employees establish relationships and systems that can address their social, technical, and financial dimensions. Changing client characteristics affect healthcare provision because these differences have implications on their perceptions of health care, as well as their beliefs, values, practices, and access to health care, that affect their different uses of health care services. Demographics are significant drivers of the size and characteristics of the future health workforce, while demographic trends have deep implications for the future of the health care industry. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, together with other health care institutions, presented their 2003 report, Changing Demographics: Implications for Physicians, Nurses, and Other Health Workers. The report provided the following main findings: 1) the aging is increasing in number, which affect their demand for health care services that are specific to their needs and concerns; 2) a high population of aging citizens increases the burden on the health care system because they will be dependent on Medicare and Medi caid programs; 3) increase in population among minorities signifies increase in health care services demand, while their racial, ethnic, cultural, and religious differences can shape their use of health care services; 4) though more and more people are living in urban areas, many citizens still live in rural areas where nurses and physicians are in shortage; and 5) a great number of minority groups are living in poor or low-income communities where there are also shortage of health care staff and services (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services i-iii). In essence, the demographic trends mean that the clients have changing characteristics because of the racially and ethnically diverse patient population, as well as the growth of aging citizens.