Simply put, Public Health has its origins in and is focused upon preventing the spread of disease and illness, whereas Medical Care is focused on treating conditions, disease and illness. While there is some overlap (more so at the community level with the Health Department model), Public Health’s attempts to cross more prominently into Medical Care in this country since the early 20th century have been met with great opposition by medical professionals and their trade organizations, who did not want the government to reach further into the provision of health services in a way that might lead to a national healthcare program and thus make all practicing medical professionals government employees (Williams & Torrens, 2008). Conversely, providers of Medical Care, in recent years, are being pressured more and more to engage in wellness and preventive medicine and demonstrate positive outcomes but alignment of incentives has not advanced as quickly as the need would dictate.
Public Health thus evolved in ways that are focused on the population at large, with the following key responsibilities, noted by Sommers & Heiser (2013):
1. Monitor health status to identify and solve community health problems.
2. Diagnose and investigate health problems and health hazards in the community.
3. Inform, educate, and empower people about health issues.
4. Mobilize community partnerships and action to identify and solve health problems.
5. Develop policies and plans that support individual and community health efforts.
6. Enforce laws and regulations that protect health and ensure safety.
7. Link people to needed personal health services and assure the provision of health care when otherwise unavailable.
8. Assure competent public and perso...
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References
Friedman, D. J., Parrish, R., & Ross, D. A. (2013). Electronic health records and US public health: current realities and future promise. American Journal of Public Health, 103(9), 1560-1567. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301220
Pittman, M. (2013). Leadership for the public's health. National Civic Review, 102(4), 17-19. doi:10.1002/ncr.21145
Sommers, J. K., & Heiser, C. (2013). The role of community, state, territorial, and tribal public health in obesity prevention. Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 4135-39. doi:10.1111/jlme.12107
Williams, S. & Torrens, P., (2008) Introduction to Health Services, 7th edition, Thomson-Delmar Learning, 2008.
Willis, C. D., Riley, B. L., Herbert, C. P., & Best, A. (2013). Networks to Strengthen Health Systems for Chronic Disease Prevention. American Journal Of Public Health, 103(11), e39-e48. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2013.301249
Friedman, D. J., Parrish, G., & Ross, D. A. (2013). Electronic Health Records and US Public Health: Current Realities and Future Promise. American Journal of Public Health, 103(9), 1560-1567
Williams, S. & Torrens, P., (2008) Introduction to Health Services, 7th edition, Thomson-Delmar Learning, 2008.
Many new technologies are being used in health organizations across the nations, which are being utilized to help improve the quality of health care. Electronic Health Records (EHRs) play a critical role in improving access, quality and efficiency of healthcare ("Electronic health records," 2014). In order to assist in expanding the use of EHR’s, in 2011 The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), instituted a EHR incentive program called the Meaningful use Program. This program was instituted to encourage and expand the use of the HER, by providing health professional and health organizations yearly incentive payments when they demonstrate meaningful use of the EHR ("Medicare and medicaid," 2014). The Meaningful use program will be explored including its’ implications for nurses, nursing, national policy, how the population health data relates to Meaningful use data collection in various stages and finally recommendations for beneficial improvement for patient outcomes and population health and more.
Even though the Wheel is regarded as one model, it covers three different components. The first component of the Wheel is centered on identifying populations of interest that are at risk for health issues. They are identified by community assessments and assignment priorities. Next, the model intervenes with the family, individual, community, and systems by identifying when a family/individual has a health related issue; by educating the community, to increase their knowledge and attitude, about the identified health issue,
The American Public Health Association. (2003). The obesity epidemic in U.S. minority communities (Issue Brief ). Retrieved from : : .
Despite the established health care facilities in the United States, most citizens do not have access to proper medical care. We must appreciate from the very onset that a healthy and strong nation must have a proper health care system. Such a health system should be available and affordable to all. The cost of health services is high. In fact, the ...
It is essential for the United States government to provide its entire citizen with a free health care. This system ensures that everyone has an access to medical services regardless to his or her social status. It is an important way of preserving life as free health care plan ensures free treatment to the entire citizen. In addition, it can play a big role of ensuring that there is an improved access to health services. Ensuring that all American citizens have an access to the right health care will in turn decrease health care costs. It can also help to stop medical bankruptcies in the entire nation. Lastly, it is one way of reducing poverty as it will lower the debt of the US which would then increase employment.
Nursing Care Actions Into the Electronic Health Record. Journal of Nursing Scholarship. 2014; 46:1, 50-57
The role of the states in protecting and promoting the health of the population is broad and complex, but can be described within six broad functions: (1) guardians of the public’s health, (2) purchasers of healthcare servi...
Advances in technology have influences our society at home, work and in our health care. It all started with online banking, atm cards, and availability of children’s grades online, and buying tickets for social outings. There was nothing electronic about going the doctor’s office. Health care cost has been rising and medical errors resulting in loss of life cried for change. As technologies advanced, the process to reduce medical errors and protect important health care information was evolving. In January 2004, President Bush announced in the State of the Union address the plan to launch an electronic health record (EHR) within the next ten years (American Healthtech, 2012).
The use of electronic medical records has both positive and negative impacts on our struggling healthcare system. The positive effects are improved communication among healthcare providers, decrease cost to patient and insurance companies by eliminating repeat diagnostic tests and unnecessary procedures, and improve the health conditions throughout the country by collecting data information. Immunization registries, bio surveillance, and public health can be monitored to improve the “fiscal an...
Healthy People 2020 is a program for the promotion of health and the prevention of diseases, launched by the Department of Health and Human Services in December 2010. According to healthypeople.gov, this program has four overarching goals which are first to achieve healthy, longer lives free of preventable diseases, injuries, and premature deaths; to achieve health fairness, eliminate differences, and improve all groups’ health; also to produce social and physical environments that encourage good health; and last but not least to promote life’s quality, healthy development, and healthy behaviors through all life stages. This program has a vision of a community where people live long, healthy lives. Healthy People 2020 offers a comprehensive
In some way, public health is seen as a modern philosophical and ideological perspective based on ‘equity’ and aimed to determine inequitable in society. It seen as a ‘science’ and ‘art’ in the sense that it deals with the cause of disease, treatment of illness as well as it involves laboratory experiments, intervention and promoting of health of the population. Winslow (1920, p. 23) defined public health as ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting physical health and efficiency through organised community efforts for the sanitation of the environment, the control community infections, the education of the individual in principles of personal hygiene, the organisation of medical and nursing service for early diagnosis and preventive treatment of disease, and the development of social machinery which will ensure to every individual in the community a standard of living adequate for the maintenance of health. On the other hand, it is ‘the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through organised effort of society’ (Acheson, 1998; in Cowley S, 2002, p. 261).
Carpenter, D. (2007). Visions of health care’s future: Bigger, more patient-focused systems?. Hospitals & Health Networks, 81(5), 4-7.
Frieden establishes the fundamentals of success. These components that are innovation, communication, technical package, management, and political commitment create a web for Public Health. By utilizing this over everyday lives. These programs can target anything from micro issue to epidemics. This educational tool focuses on building a system that challenges normative ideas and helps identify new strategies. This ultimately relates in a creating an ecosystem of new ground rules that every Public Health official should use. Dr. Frieden did a great job on explaining what is next in educating and