Kaiser Permanente Essay

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Recommended: Outline Workplace Safety: OSHA and OSH Act

In the United States alone there is 257 Federal Regulatory Agencies. Each one having their own set of standards, regulations and compliance laws. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in one such agency that exist under the United States Department of Labor. Even healthcare giants like Kaiser Permanente have to be within complain with OSHA regulations or face fines for violations. While there are many things that could harm you in a work environment, OSHA has rules in place to make sure that the likelihood of harm is controlled through proper training, protective measures, and worker’s rights. The purpose the Kaiser Permanente serves is summed up well in the “Our Vision” portion of their web portal. They state that their …show more content…

The first step is evaluating the quality of care that members receive from Kaiser followed by making sure members have their safety ensured (Rabrenovich, 2013). The last two steps that Kaiser takes is protection of member privacy by preventing fraud and making it easy for members to heard in terms of the quality of care they received as well as being able to report any safety concerns they may have (Rabrenovich, 2013). The type of healthcare organization Kaiser Permanente is considered is an Integrated managed care consortium. This means that it an association of many different smaller companies and organizations that all fall under a parent holding companies. Because of the wide spread nature of managed care consortiums, the communities served are just as extensive as well. The Kaiser network’s largest community case is in California standing at a strong 8 million members (Fast Facts About Kaiser Permanente, 2013). In addition, their member’s communities consist of …show more content…

Because healthcare provides such a specialized service to its customers, It is subject to most regular regulatory agencies, but in addition, agencies that are specialized to deal with healthcare and the quality of care provided. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is one regulatory agencies that organization like Kaiser is expected to abide by. These regulatory organization perform and essential function in healthcare. OSHA being one of the largest regulatory agencies has a big say so in what guidelines need to be meet or exceed in healthcare. Organization like OSHA are necessary components to ensuring compliance and making sure that patients have a safe access to care. OSHA does this through a few methods. One way OSHA helps providers and patients by promoting an organizational safety structure (UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, n.d.). Creating this culture in a healthcare organization cover all four stakes holder for companies like Kaiser Permanente. This is because organizational safety help tapper off the burden of cost associated with poor patient safety (UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR, n.d.). By having regulations that prevent this, the staff member have better outcomes, which in turns means the member gets a higher quality care. This then lends to the credibility of both the regulatory bodies like OSHA, and Kaiser Permanente as a whole covering

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