Rutgers Dean Discusses the Changing Landscape of Heathcare

Dr. Gwendolyn, Mahon, Ph.D., Dean and Professor, Rutgers School of Health Professions, talks about the changing landscape of healthcare. Mahon shares the positive impact the ACA has had on allied health professionals by growing their responsibilities in the interdisciplinary approach to care.

11/4/2017 #3028

 

 

 

 

Excerpt:

"We are pleased to welcome Doctor Gwendolyn Mahon, Dean and Professor at Rutgers School of Health Professions. Good to see you doctor. Delighted to be here Steve. Describe the school. So we have a very exciting school. Our school is one of eight schools at Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences, which is really a new entity that used to be UMDNJ. We joined with Rutgers. And it's very exciting because we're growing, and schools that were at Rutgers focused on health, were able to join us as well. So our school, I think, is probably the most unique of the schools, in that we don't offer just one program or curriculum. We actually offer 50 programs, as mind boggling as that may be. Wow. All focused on the Health Sciences. And so, as the name suggests, we educate health professionals. I think... That includes? And so that includes... and I won't go to all of them, because it's a lot, but to give you the general... the most significant ones are? So the most significant one's in rehabilitation. So physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition and dietetics, imaging sciences, so the people that do sonography and nuclear medicine, really the best way to think about it... and it's interesting, we're kind of defined by what we're not than what we are, in many ways. Right. And what we are is really a significant portion of the healthcare team. So if you look at the healthcare workforce, we make up about 80% of the workforce. You keep saying "we". Is this what people call, quote, "allied health professionals"? Allied health... absolutely. Allied health professionals. Go ahead, I'm sorry. Absolutely. And so, really, we're the members of the healthcare team other than the physician, the dentist, the nurse, and the pharmacist. So that's kind of the best way to think about it. Right. So you think about, as a patient, the different people that you interact with as part of the healthcare team. It's so interesting. People think of healthcare... well, let me ask you this. Yeah. The ACA? Yes. The Affordable Care Act? Absolutely, yeah. How is it connected to this conversation? It's very much connected. So if you think about how healthcare has been, and where we are in the United States today, and then the changes that have come with the Affordable Care Act, actually have a very big impact on our profession. How so? They play a big role. So we're moving from a care  that is very much based on fee procedure based reimbursement, and moving towards quality based reimbursement. And what that means is thinking about the outcome. So the patient outcomes..."