Essay On The Hospital System

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Historically (before 1880s), only few hospitals were originated in some big cities of U.S. Initially, the hospital system mainly run by religious organization and it served a primary purpose of palliation. According to Shi and Singh (2010), the function of hospitals at that time was more of “social welfare” (such as taking care of homeless people and helping those without families) than practicing medicine (p.56). Over the years, the functionality and the services offered by the hospitals has changed dramatically. However, it’s primary function to treat sick individuals has remained the same. Nowadays, hospitals also function as a research center, a medical educational institution, and is a major source of employment in the community (Sultz …show more content…

Over the last few decades, various laws have been established with the main purpose of making the system equal and more efficient for all. The U.S. hospital system has become more complex and less efficient due to significant political and monetary interference along with the passage of these laws. The most recent amongst those laws is the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which was signed into legislation by President Obama in 2010. Various provisions in the ACA includes universal health insurance coverage, significant changes in the payment for health services and changes in the health care organization delivery and workforce policy. Thus, ACA has a significant influence on the current U.S. healthcare system. Key events that have helped to shape the U.S. hospital system Hospitals were …show more content…

At the end of the World war–II, two U.S. senators, Lister Hill and Harold Burton proposed a law to allocate federal income in constructing new hospitals. This law was accepted in 1946, which became the major reason for expansion of the hospital system in the U.S. (Sultz & Young, 2014, p. 115). In 1980, Clark, Field, Koontz TL, and Koontz VL concluded that this Act helped to increase the number of hospital beds significantly. However, the physician’s growth lagged behind the growth of hospital beds. The physician movement between states was not affected by this

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