 – September due to either drought or violent conflicts. Paradoxically, the middle part of the country was hit by severe flooding in November. At the end of the month, at least 17 people were reported killed, while 370,000 people were forced to flee due to high water levels.Topic: Governance, Compliance, Health PolicyAlthough health IT governance is a relatively “new” concept, the demands for this expertise are vast and the needs are immediate. Healthcare reform is one example. How is health IT governance being used to ensure that the requirements of the Affordable Health Care Act are being met, implemented, monitored, and maintained?
The affordable care act was one of the most meaning pieces of legislation during the Obama administration. Here, the act looked to take the ambitious task of providing universal healthcare coverage to all Americans. Through this legislation, the administration aimed to reduce the proportion of the uninsured population while also looking to lower overall healthcare costs. The act attempted to accomplish this task through shared responsibility between government, employers, and employees. This would ultimately result in higher quality and much more affordable health insurance coverage. It was also designed to help reduce wasteful spending while also attempting the make the overall healthcare system much accountable for patient outcomes. Finally, the act looked to emphasize much more of a preventative aspects of healthcare treatment as oppose to the reactionary style of prior healthcare iterations.
To ensure that the requirement of the Affordable Health Care Act is being met, implemented, monitored, and maintained, the government has invested heavily in technological oversight. One such method is related to the National Quality Strategy; whose purpose is to generate multi-payer quality and efficiency measures to promote value purchasing. It is also designed to facilitate the exchange of information between public and provide insures and serves as a verification that the ACA is being implemented properly. The act also established, the Institute for Comparative Clinical Effectiveness Research. This agency is also designed to oversee that the law is being implemented and followed by both state and local participants. In addition, the agency uses the information that is reported to it by states to develop new methods in which to deliver better healthcare to society. Both agencies are designed to collect information for all states in order to improve the information flow and arrive at better solutions to lower the overall cost of healthcare (Rosenbaum, 2011).
If you were feeling good after beating the Cleveland Browns a week ago, then Sunday’s gut-punch loss probably felt more depressing than usual. After securing their first win of the 2018 NFL season, the Oakland Raiders put together their most pathetic performance to date in a 26-10 beatdown at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers.
Heading into the game, I felt like Sunday would be the barometer for the 2018 Raiders — if they could travel on the ‘road’ (if you can call Los Angeles that) and beat a decent Chargers team, it meant good things moving forward — like, say, seven to nine wins this season. On the other hand, if the Raiders couldn’t get this win, it meant the team was further behind schedule than anyone hoped and a win total in the range of five as more likely.
And, well, then Sunday happened. Not good.
Normally in this space, I pick a few things that stood out to me from Sunday, but this week I want to dive deep into the offensive line play — which I thought was the key (not in a good way) to Sunday’s game. Entering the game, the Raiders were without their starting right tackle (Donald Penn) and left guard (Kelechi Osemele) — guys who were being replaced by a rookie making his first start and a fourth-year man making his fifth career start — all this on top of starting a rookie left tackle.
From the moment the game started, you could tell this unit was going to be a problem. For the first time all season, the Raider offense looked boring and bland — and I think a lot of it had to do with the coaching staff’s lack of trust in the group up front. Consider this: Up until their final drive of the first half, the Raiders ran 21 offensive plays (not counting plays that came back for penalties) and this was the breakdown according to ESPN:
Looking at those numbers (and even more so in watching the game), it seemed as if the Raiders knew they needed to run the ball early and often — only it didn’t work. And when they did pass, the emphasis was clear: get the ball out quickly. The problem was when halftime rolled around, the Raiders were already down two touchdowns.
By the time the final whistle blew, the Chargers had racked up three sacks (all against Miller, who Gruden announced after was playing with a Grade II sprain of his MCL) and held the Raiders to just 41 rushing yards on 13 attempts (3.2 YPC). The Chargers also finished with 6.5 tackles for loss.
The way the Raiders started the game, it was as if they were prepared to play a defensive slugfest. Unfortunately, their defense isn’t nearly good enough to keep up — especially against an offense as prolific and explosive as the Chargers. Once that became clear (early in the second quarter), it was as if the Raiders knew they were screwed — they couldn’t get the protection they needed to air it out and yet, they desperately needed to if they were going to have any chance of coming back.
As the season moves forward with the Raiders now at 1-4, the next four weeks present a fascinating test for this group. Next week they play the Seattle Seahawks (2-3) in London and then after a bye week they host the Indianapolis Colts (1-4) and travel to play against the San Francisco 49ers (1-4). Heading into the Chargers game, the thought was that they could emerge from this stretch with a shot at.500 halfway through the season — but after Sunday’s performance (and with question marks all over the offensive line), even a schedule as easy as this one doesn’t seem like it guarantees anything.
Buckle up Raider fans, if Sunday was any indication, we might be in for a loooooong season.
Follow @RaidersNationCom on social media: Facebook | Twitter | InstagramWe stayed here over the May half term with our 2 kids. I'm not sure if we were expecting too much from the trip as it was our first trip abroad since the pandemic and also as we were celebrating our 15 year anniversary. Unfortunately the hotel didn't quite deliver so that was disappointing. We had a room on the ground floor with bunk beds for the kids. The room itself was nice with a big bathroom and good size bathtub but it didn't have a nice view as there was a massive bush and tree trunk in the way. It also made the room quite dark and the balcony unusable as it wasn't very nice sitting outside with no views - it doesn't really feel like you're on holiday! I went to the hotel reception in the morning to ask if they had a room with a better view but was informed that the hotel was at full capacity so they cannot move us unless there is a cancellation or no-show. The person at reception also said something along the lines of "maybe the room is dark because it is cloudy today..." He said he will make a note to see if they can move us but there's nothing else he can do. He also said he will speak to his manager to see if there's anything he can do for us to make our stay better. After a couple days, I didn't hear any further so I went back to the reception and again expressed that we were not happy with our room. They said that they didn't have another room with a bunk bed but they could move us to a normal room without a bunk bed with a better view. We took this as the kids could sleep with us on the massive bed (and they preferred it anyway). It was disappointing that if we didn't go back to reception that day, nothing would have happened to make our stay "better". This is definitely not 5 star service that we have come to experience in other 5 star hotels. That aside, the hotel has thought of everything for the kids - gifts provided when we checked in, bathrobes and slippers in the room, a little area with toys and someone from the kids club to keep them company while we ate peacefully in the restaurant, massive play area outside, buckets and spades at the play area, lovely kids club (that they can access with or without parents depending on the time of the day), toys by the pool and we also borrowed some buckets and spades to take with us to the beach at Cascais one day. They were also able to provide a toilet seat and stool for the room. My youngest son loved the Fox who came to the restaurant at breakfast time to say hello to the kids. We upgraded to half board and I think this was a good decision. Kids under 9 years older eat for free when the adults pay for the half board service. The food was ok, there was quite a good selection during the buffet dinner but we felt there was not enough vegetable options. Drinks are not included in the half board but the good thing about it is that you can use it at any of the restaurants including the M bar, pool hangout and the lounge bar, and you can pretty much get anything from the menu. The portion sizes were very generous. The first time we ate at the M Bar, we ordered the kids their own kid size dishes (they're 4 and 7) but this was way too much for them and one kids dish would have been more than enough. A few of the staff at the restaurants were friendlier than others and one of them (I didn't get his name) remembered how I have my coffee after the first morning at breakfast! I'm not quite sure about the