Regulatory Agency Paper Essay

The agencies that are in charge of monitoring health care facilities and practitioners are known as health care regulation agencies. These agencies also provide the organizations with information about changes in the industry. At the federal, state, and local level the agencies establish rules and regulations that health care organizations have to follow mandatorily. Some agencies, especially those that provide accreditation for health care professionals, require no mandatory participation. The objective of this paper is to examine one of those health care regulatory agencies; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The audience will learn more about the history of the organization as well as responsibilities and effects of this agency on the health care industry. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was created on July 1st, 1946 under the name Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, Georgia. The whole organization occupied one floor of a small building. The f irst goal as an organization was simple; it was to prevent malaria from spreading across the nation. As a team with this goal the CDC was armed with a budget of $10 million and less than 400 employees. The founder Dr. Joseph Mountin continued to advocate for the public and its health issues, he pushed to have the CDC extend its responsibilities to other communicable diseases. Today, the CDC is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Serves and is recognized as the nation’s premiere health promotion, prevention, and preparedness agencies. (Our History – Our Story, 2013) This agency is not just focused on the disease and prevention either; their focus goes beyond that to addressing the issues, and including mental health and cancer research. Of all the organizations on all levels of government, the center for disease control is the most widespread and effective due to the amount of responsibility and information that is relayed and provided, and the  speed in which this is done. This organization runs on all levels of government, and must provide up to date factual information at all times. With the goal to educate and raise awareness of disease, death rate, precautions, and many other public health concerns there is a huge responsibility to ensure accuracy and effectiveness on all areas. The CDC is a 24 h our job; the organization is constantly working to protect Americans from health, safety and security threats both international and local. Whether disease begins at home or abroad, acute or chronic, treatable or terminal, human error or deliberate attack the CDC fights disease and supports the community and citizens to do the same. Most recently in the news there was an instance of an Ebola outbreak in West Africa. This is not a huge concern for most of us that aren’t traveling there, or don’t have family that travels back and forth, but for the Center for Disease Control this was a huge concern. This was the largest outbreak in history, and also the first on in Africa. The threat to the US is small, but the CDC being a national organization focuses on alerting us even when the threat is elsewhere and they also help provide facts and information. With this outbreak the CDC started working with other government agencies including: the World Health Organization, and other domestic and international companies to help activate the Emergency Operations Center. This is done to help coordinate technical assistance and control activities with partners. The communication between government agencies during these times is crucial to ensure supplies, shelter, medication, and assistance is provided when needed. The Center for Disease Control has ensured to deploy teams of public health experts to West Africa and will continue to send experts to the affected countries. This is evidence of the miraculous team work that begin with the CDC. Without the technology, information, and ability to coordinate countries, and public health experts, West Africa would be suffering more struggles than what this outbreak has already caused. (2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa, 2014) The Center for Disease Control is one of the most major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services. The organization uses grants and contracts to fund 85% of the costs to promote health and quality of life by preventing and controlling disease, injury, and disability. Each year, the CDC awards approximately $7 billion in over 14,000 separate grant and contract actions, including simplified  acquisitions (CDC’s Procurement and Grants Office, 2013). Although this is a government organization, there are also state wide and county wide alerts, prevention, and management that are used to focus in on specific areas that may be affected when other areas are not. CDC’s Business Management and Accountability Activities are guided by the following principles: stewardship of public funds, continuously improving customer service and satisfaction, providing the best value for the investment, accountability through performance metrics, job satisfaction through workforce development, and searching for innovation in work processes (Business Practices, 2013). In order to remain affe ctive in a growing society based on technology, the Center for Disease Control has modified the business practices. An example of this is in order to have funding available for future threats, the organization has consolidated all 13 information technology infrastructure services, this in turn reduced operating costs of 21% ($23 Million) (Business Practices, 2013). Another way that the Center for Disease Control carries out the duty of helping manipulate the budget to prepare for any future threats or outbreaks is over the last two years the organization has conducted public-private sector competitions for various functions covering nearly 1,000 CDC staff positions resulting in saving over $40 Million through the development of the most efficient organizational proposals to carry out required functions. (Business Practices, 2013) The Center for Disease Control has a huge regulatory authority to health care. The responsibility to consolidate thousands of disease cases is hard enough, but the CDC must also remain anonymous in some areas to keep the patient’s health record information and personal information discrete, while also alerting the community of a possible disease spread. HIPAA, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, is not only followed by health care professionals, but must also be regulated with the CDC as well. H ospitals must also report to the CDC when certain cases of certain diagnoses come up, and when new threats arise as well. Together the health care professionals and the Center for Disease Control must: alert the community, respect privacy, prevent panic, and provide a solution. These goals are a huge responsibility and yet this organization has managed to provide these services steadily since 1946. The Center for Disease Control has a certification and accreditation process that ensures all information systems  made available by CDC to implement the National Program Cancer Registries, or NPCR meet or exceed the C&A accreditation standards when operated with appropriate management review. It requires ongoing security control monitoring and reaccreditations periodically or when there is a significant change to an information system or its environment. Within the accreditation process there is security certification, which when talking about the Center for Disease Control is a comprehensive evaluation of the CDC’s management, operational, and technical security controls for an information system. This documents the effectiveness of the security controls in a particular operational environment and includes recommendations for new controls to mitigate system vulnerabilities. Security certification results are used to assess risks to the system and update the systems securit y plan. (The CDC Certification†¦, 2012) In conclusion there have been facts supporting the agencies structure, and the history of how the agency became successful in the public health eye. This paper covered the organizations’ effect on health care and improvements to everyday life in multiple communities across the world, and the regulatory authority that the Center for Disease Control has in relation to health care. Although we have many agencies working together toward a common goal of better health, the Center for Disease control definitely holds a high standard of impact. With all of the regulations, accreditations, partnerships, and knowledge that the Center for Disease Control is able to manage and coordinate how did the world of health ever run without it? With these facts, and examples the role and regulation of the CDC is more clear and understood, so next time there is an outbreak in research, or in disease there will be one thing we can count on and that is that the CDC will be on the frontline ready to organize, prevent, educate, and assist in the solution. References 2014 Ebola Outbreak in West Africa. (2014, September 6). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/outbreaks/guinea/ Business Practices. (2013). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from: http://www.cdc.gov/about/business/business.htm CDC’s Procurement and Grants Office. (2013). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/about/business/funding.htm Our History – Our Story. (2013). Retrieved from: http://www.cdc.gov/about/history/index.html The CDC Certification and Accreditation (C&A) Process. (2012). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/npcr/tools/security/cdcca.htm