Contribution of primary care to health systems and health: Is it essential?
Evidence of the health promoting power of primary care has increased ever since investigators have been able to differentiate primary care from other characteristics of the health services delivery system. Studies constantly show that primary care has a positive effect on health results. It reduces mortality and morbidity, and it is considerably more lucrative than specialty based care. Therefore primary care is essential. Some of the beneficial impacts of primary care on health are:
- It increases contact to needed services,
- There is better quality of care,
- There is a greater focus on prevention,
- There is early managing of health problems,
- The cumulative effect of the main primary care delivery characteristics, and
- It reduces needless and sometimes potentially harmful specialist care.
Primary care raises access to health services for somewhat deprived population groups.
It is the first point contact with health services, it make possible entry to the rest of the health care system for those people who need it. Other developed nations have attained universal and fair access to primary health services, some of them directly provided and others through assurance of financial coverage for visits (van Doorslaer, Koolman, and Jones 2004). In the United States, socially disadvantaged populations are more likely than advantaged population to lack a regular source of healthcare. The beneficial impact of health insurance in the United States is largely to ease access to primary care (Starfield and Shi 2004; Lillie Blanton and Hoffman 2005). In the deficiency of health insurance, socially disadvantaged population groups are less likely...
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...quickly to the major issue facing primary care physicians our current health care system will assuredly find itself in a deeper and darker ditch. The dilemma is that there is a major drain of primary physicians and few medical students are actually choosing to become primary care physicians and opt to become specialists because of the better hours, better pay and fewer responsibilities (Editors and Staff, Drug Week, 2009). It is important to increase the number of medical school graduates in order to increase the ratio of doctor per person, Cuba is the leading country with a ratio of 1 doctor per 175 people while the US is 1 per 390 (Wikipedia, Cuba), Our government’s should make medical schools more affordable, either by regulating medical school costs or by increasing the amount of financial aid given to students.
Socioeconomic status can limit access to healthcare in many ways. Several Americans do not have the means to receive healthcare although it is readily available to the entire population. A person’s social status, urban community and financial background can all have an impact as to how access to healthcare is achieved. While there are many factors that limit access to healthcare, I will discuss how these particular factors play a role with accessing healthcare services. Why do low income individuals tend to have high risk factors that result in poor health outcomes? What are some of the factors that determine better health outcomes? These are some of the questions that come up when trying to understand the influence of health outcomes. An individual’s socioeconomic status can alter their healthcare choices and status based on education, income, surroundings and/or occupation levels.
In underserved communities there are too many peoples, and less much health care. There are plenty of benefits for new graduate of primary care such as loan forgiveness program. In stead doctors spending most of their career digging out from educational debe, with loan forgiveness the physician gets help paying down educational debt.
The number of doctors that present in the United States of America directly affects the communities that these doctors serve and plays a large role in how the country and its citizens approach health care. The United States experienced a physician surplus in the 1980s, and was affected in several ways after this. However, many experts today have said that there is currently a shortage of physicians in the United States, or, at the very least, that there will be a shortage in the near future. The nation-wide statuses of a physician surplus or shortage have many implications, some of which are quite detrimental to society. However, there are certain remedies that can be implemented in order to attempt to rectify the problems, or alleviate some of their symptoms.
The second key point focuses on primary care. To be able to have health care that is functional and effective it starts with primary care. “A robust primary care system is the cornerstone for a more equitable health care system” (Fiscella, 2011). Restructuring of this program in certain areas is important “payment reform, enhancing the training pipeline, transforming practice, and buttressing the primary care safety net” (Fiscella, 2011).
In the past few years there has been much debate over the Affordable Care Act and its effects on the healthcare industry in the United States. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) “Will ensure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care and will create the transformation within the health care system necessary to contain costs” (The patient protection and affordable care act detailed summary, n.a.). However, what these transformations are and how they will affect the healthcare system, specifically primary care physicians are uncertain. Primary care physicians are the cornerstones for patients in the health care system. They act as a liaison between families and specialist physicians. Primary care physicians provide a variety of patient care services that involve multiple skill sets. They are in charge of diagnosing the patient and managing the plan of care. As a result of the newly implemented Affordable Care Act and the current shortage of primary care physicians “The primary care doctor is a rapidly evolving species -- and in the future could become an endangered one” (Okie, 2012).
It is no secret that the current healthcare reformation is a contentious matter that promises to transform the way Americans view an already complex healthcare system. The newly insured population is expected to increase by an estimated 32 million while facing an expected shortage of up to 44,000 primary care physicians within the next 12 years (Doherty, 2010). Amidst these already overwhelming challenges, healthcare systems are becoming increasingly scrutinized to identify a way to improve cost containment and patient access (Curits & Netten, 2007). “Growing awareness of the importance of health promotion and disease prevention, the increased complexity of community-based care, and the need to use scarce human healthcare resources, especially family physicians, far more efficiently and effectively, have resulted in increased emphasis on primary healthcare renewal…” (Bailey, Jones & Way, 2006, p. 381). The key to a successful healthcare reformation is interdisciplinary collaboration between Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs) and physicians. The purpose of this paper is to review the established role of the FNP, appreciate the anticipated paradigm shift in healthcare between FNPs and primary care physicians, and recognize the potential associated benefits and complications that may ensue.
Low income earners, in the neighborhood, continuously face dwindling health care resources. This is a great concern that has to be addressed and mitigated, failure to which they will continue to get poor quality health care and will also be reluctant to seek health care services over and over again. The poor and the disable within the community are economically unstable which makes them unable to access the existing insurance plan. It is of importance to note that they are the most vulnerable and the marginalized groups of people in the society. They lack economic capacity to access the existing plan making them lack better care as they require (Huntingto...
Currently in the United States there are about 350,000 primary-care doctors, and the college association says that we will need at least 45,000 more by 2020. However in recent years the number of medical students going into family medicine has actually decreased. (Staline, Wang) Mark Koba of CNBC states that the U.S. is estimated to be short about 16,000 primary care doctors. That leaves about 55 million people without a doctor or struggling to find one. He goes on to discuss that one reason for the shortage is the aging of doctors and their patients. He states that nearly half of all doctors are nearing retirement age, are also working fewer hours and seeing fewer patients. According to Jen Christensen from CNN who spoke with Dr. Ryan A. Stanton from Georgetown Community Hospital, Dr. Stanton is worried, that the “Obamacare” influx of patients will crash the system. While Dr. Stanton sees traumas in the ER, quite a few of the patients he sees are not emergent. "People turn to the ER because they have no other place to go after hours or they don't have access to a level of appropriate primary car...
Millions of Americans are without health insurance in the United States due to many factors such as unemployment, the cost of insurance and insurance companies denying coverage due to pre-existing conditions. The United States does not provide health care to its citizens the way the rest of the industrialized world does. Instead of providing coverage for all it institutes market-based options, in which some receive coverage from their place of employment, another options are purchasing individual plans and some can obtain coverage through public programs like Medicaid. The United States is the only westernized industrial nation without a universal health care system.
According to healthypeople.gov, a person’s ability to access health services has a profound effect on every aspect of his or her health, almost 1 in 4 Americans do not have a primary care provider or a health center where they can receive regular medical services. Approximately 1 in 5 A...
According to the data given, by CTISP Community Survey 2010 by a Central Texas Region, Health care has a direct correlation to a person’s income or lack thereof. Table 1 displays a graph of respondents to a community survey about Health Care Coverage. The graph contains income amounts from $15,000 to $85,000 and percentages of people who do not receive coverage based on their income. The graph shows the lower the income the less likely to afford coverage. Table 2 displays, of those who took the survey their reasons for having no Coverage. The reason with the highest percentage was “could not afford prem...
Health insurance facilitates entry into the health care system. Uninsured people are less likely to receive medical care and more likely to have poor health. Many Americans are foregoing medical care because they cannot afford it, or are struggling to pay their medical bills. “Adults in the US are more likely to go without health care due to cost” (Schoen, Osborn, Squires, Doty, & Pierson, 2010) Many of the currently uninsured or underinsured are forced accept inferior plans with large out-of-pocket costs, or are not be able to afford coverage offered by private health insurers. This lack of adequate coverage makes it difficult for people to get the health care they need and can have a particularly serious impact on a person's health and stability.
Primary health care is the indispensable care based on the real – world, systematically sound, socially adequate technique and technology which made unanimously available to the families and every individuals in the community through their fully involvement where the community is capable to afford at a cost to uphold at every phase of their growth in the essence of self-reliance and self-government. Primary health care in international health is associated with the global conference held at Alma Ata in 1978; the conference that promoted the initiative health for all by the year 2000. “Primary health care defined broadly at Alma Ata emphasized universal health care across to all individuals and families , encouraged participation by community members in all aspects of health care planning and implementation and promoted the delivery of care that would be scientifically sound , technically effective , socially relevant and acceptable” (Janice E.Hitchcock,2003). Primary health care is commonly viewed as a level of care or as the entry point to the health care system for its client. It can also taken to mean a particular approach to care which is concerned with containing care, accessibility, community involvement and collaboration between other sectors. The primary health care policy has some principals that have been designed to work together and be implemented simultaneously to bring about a better health outcome for the entire society.
Improving Health in the Primary Care Setting "I order to improve health in the primary care setting you need to work collaboratively with others" Throughout the discussion I will analyze the above statement highlighting the professional issues raised, involving the nurse working in the primary care setting. Within this I will distinguish exactly what primary care is and the relation to the importance of collaboration in this particular setting. Leading onto how we/nurses collaborate in primary care. I will also investigate what a clients roll is in the promotion of the populations health. Included within this are recent policies applicable to this setting.
Public health is an art and a science mandated with the responsibility of preventing disease thereby prolonging life of an individual and promotion of the health through different health organizations, societies, public, and private (Aginam, 2005). Primary health care, as defined by the Alma Ata Declaration is, “essential health care based