Reading Materials
The health status of a population is attributed in large part to how its healthcare is delivered. Citizens who are not healthy cannot add to the productivity of their society, nor can they experience good health outcomes. As a result, the system that provides health should be all encompassing, efficient, and effective.
Activities of a health system include preventing disease, keeping people healthy, and restoring health when it has been compromised.
Key features of the US healthcare system include:
Institutions: Institutions include those facilities that deliver care such as hospitals, nursing homes, community health centers, physician practices, urgent care centers, community clinics, and public health departments.
Professionals: The distinct roles of those professionals that make up the system such as physicians, nurses, administrators, policy leaders, researchers, technicians, executives, and business leaders focused on technology and pharmaceutical endeavors.
Medical technology: This includes electronic communication, new technologies and surgical procedures, and new drugs that encourage delivery system changes.
Caring for the population: Caring for the population is the call for the \”social good\” of service delivery versus \”big business.\”
Financing and payments: The healthcare system has always been expensive and growth in the population has only increased expenditures. The amount of elderly, coupled with the uninsured, burdens how care is financed and how payment systems function.
The healthcare delivery system is a complex system. As indicated above, many organizations and individuals are involved in healthcare ranging from educational and research institutions, medical suppliers, insurers, payers, and claims processors to healthcare providers. This massive system employs ten million individuals in delivery settings and 744,000 doctors, 2.2 million nurses, 168,000 dentists, 226,000 pharmacists, and more than 700,000 administrators (Shi & Singh, 2008).
Challenges of the System
Like any system, the healthcare system is not without challenges. The major issues and concerns of recent years include:
Improving quality
Improving access and coverage
Keeping costs under control
Encouraging healthy behaviors
Improving the public healthcare system
Addressing social determinants of health
Strengthening the health workforce
Encouraging more realistic expectations
The Continuum of Services
Because healthcare services are not confined to the hospital or physician\’s office as they have been in the past, new settings are now the preferred place for treatment. The following table shows the various types of health services and their current delivery settings.
Assignment breakdown Week1 Healthcare Management #1
Healthcare to US Citizens
Many organizations, departments, and individuals provide healthcare to the US citizens. The complex nature of the US healthcare delivery system has driven much legislation for change over many years. Using the South University Online Library or the Internet, research about the healthcare organizations and their delivery of healthcare services in order to fully understand the magnitude of the US healthcare delivery system. Based on your readings and research, answer the following:
What are the main objectives of a healthcare delivery system?
Name some of the basic functional components of the US healthcare delivery system. What role does each play in the delivery of healthcare?
Who are the major players in the US health services system? What are the positive and negative effects of the often conflicting self-interests of these players?
Why is it that despite public and private health insurance programs, some US citizens are without any coverage?
What are the main roles of the government in the US health services system?
Why is it important for healthcare managers and policymakers to understand the intricacies of the healthcare delivery system?
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