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Principles of community health
Principles of community health
Comparing health systems around the world
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Public health is a priority around the world, and health care systems were created to help take care of the public. The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom are industrialized countries that have different health care systems and approach public health differently. It is important to compare global health care systems to discover best practices, attempt to lower costs, and improve outcomes. Predicting future trends in public health is difficult, but to improve health care and one can look to the past to improve the future. Health Systems around the World The United States’ healthcare system is often compared to health care systems in other industrialized countries. According to Davis, Stremikis, Schoen, and Squires (2014), “The …show more content…
“While public health aim is to discover and resolve health issues in the community, the health care system is to protect and promote health while providing preventative care,” (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015, p. 244). Community-based approaches assist in the discovery of potential public health issues and research processes find alternatives to these issues within the population. For example, tobacco control programs and the restricted use of lead paint in businesses encouraged by communities that are involved in the research processes and implementation initiatives. This approach is better known as community-based participator research (Riegelman & Kirkwood, 2015, p. …show more content…
In the industrialized countries, there are mechanisms in place to review their outcomes based on quality of care, access to care, efficiency, and heathy lives. In assessing each country’s strengths and weaknesses, the country has an opportunity to make changes to improve their practices in order to provide better cost-effective care. Community-based programs can be established to help research potential areas of risk to the public such as anti-smoking campaigns. Public health officials can also look in the past for lessons learned and provide education to communities to prevent potential epidemic outbreaks. If an outbreak is likely, health care systems and public health departments need to work closely to minimize the effects to the general
The U.S. Health Care System: An International Perspective - DPEAFLCIO. (2014). Retrieved June 04, 2016, from http://dpeaflcio.org/programs-publications/issue-fact-sheets/the-u-s-health-care-system-an-international-perspective/
Davidson, Stephen M. Still Broken: Understanding the U.S. Health Care System. Stanford, CA: Stanford Business, 2010. Print.
Frieden, T.R. (2010). A Framework for Public health action: The Health impact pyramid. American Journal of Public Health. 100 (4). 590-595. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2009.185652
... identified three major health issues that are global but has the potential to affect the United States health care system and how they influence health leaders.
State and local public health departments throughout the country have the responsibility for improving health in workplaces, schools, and communities through identifying top health problems within society and developing a plan to improve. Barriers the public health system has encountered over the years include: changes in the overall health system that support cost containment and improved health, and an increase in the number of individuals with insurance coverage for direct preventive services; reduction of qualified public health professional and funding at all levels of government; increasing focus on accountability, with higher expectations for demonstrating a return on investment in terms of cost and health improvement (Trust, 2013). In the near future, health departments ...
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 ...
The U.S. healthcare system is very complex in structure hence it can be appraised with diverse perspectives. From one viewpoint it is described as the most unparalleled health care system in the world, what with the cutting-edge medical technology, the high quality human resources, and the constantly-modernized facilities that are symbolic of the system. This is in addition to the proliferation of innovations aimed at increasing life expectancy and enhancing the quality of life as well as diagnostic and treatment options. At the other extreme are the fair criticisms of the system as being fragmented, inefficient and costly. What are the problems with the U.S. healthcare system? These are the questions this opinion paper tries to propound.
The United States health care system is one of the most expensive systems in the world yet it is known as being unorganized and chaotic in comparison to other countries (Barton, 2010). This factor is attributed to numerous characteristics that define what the U.S. system is comprised of. Two of the major indications are imperfect market conditions and the demand for new technology (Barton, 2010). The health care system has been described as a free market in
The US health system has both considerable strengths and notable weaknesses. With a large and well-trained health workforce, access to a wide range of high-quality medical specialists as well as secondary and tertiary institutions, patient outcomes are among the best in the world. But the US also suffers from incomplete coverage of its population, and health expenditure levels per person far exceed all other countries. Poor measures on many objective and subjective indicators of quality and outcomes plague the US health care system. In addition, an unequal distribution of resources across the country and among different population groups results in poor access to care for many citizens. Efforts to provide comprehensive, national health insurance in the United States go back to the Great Depression, and nearly every president since Harry S. Truman has proposed some form of national health insurance.
Niles, N. J. (2011). Basics of the U.S. health care system. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Rising medical costs are a worldwide problem, but nowhere are they higher than in the U.S. Although Americans with good health insurance coverage may get the best medical treatment in the world, the health of the average American, as measured by life expectancy and infant mortality, is below the average of other major industrial countries. Inefficiency, fraud and the expense of malpractice suits are often blamed for high U.S. costs, but the major reason is overinvestment in technology and personnel.
To further understand the US healthcare system and put in context how health coverage is provided to its population it is important to compare the US health system to another country like the Netherlands. In the Netherlands healthcare coverage has been achieved through competitive insurance markets similar to the US and the Dutch government does not control prices, productive capacity or funds but instead only acts as a regulator (Daley & Gubb, 2011). In 2006 the Dutch government held healthcare reforms because the country faced an issue that was very similar to the US, in regards to healthcare coverage inequalities, the population was covered through private and public health insurance, with stable private health insurance for the wealthy and unstable public insurance which lacked patient focus and was inefficient in comparison (Daley & Gubb, 2011). Many factors called for healthcare reformation in the Netherlands like a disarranged structure that ineffectively controlled cream skimming, lack of competitive incentives that for insurance companies resulting in bad performance, and the rising premiums
In today’s healthcare system, there are many characteristics and forces that make up the complex structure. Health care delivery is a complex system that involves many people that navigate it with hopes of a better outcome to the residents of the United States. Many factors affect the system starting from global influences, social values and culture. Further factors include economic conditions, physical environment, technology development, economic conditions, political climate and population characteristics. Furthermore the main characteristics of the Unites States healthcare system includes: no agency governs the whole system, access to healthcare is restricted based on the coverage and third party agencies exist. Unfortunately many people are in power of the healthcare system involving multiple payers. Physicians are pressured to order unnecessary tests to avoid potential legal risks. Quality of care is a major component; therefore it creates a demand for new technology. A more close investigation will review two main characteristics and two external forces that currently affect the healthcare delivery system. Furthermore, what will be the impact of one of the characteristics and one of the external forces in review with the new affordable care act 2010? The review will demonstrate the implications to the healthcare delivery system and the impact on the affordable care act 2010.
Everyone country has success or strengths within its health care system. These strengths have helped revolutionize the country’s health care system into what it is today.
To reiterate these six components, which are innovation, technical package, communication, management, and political commitment – the community is hand in hand associated with core functions of Public Health. In Public Health the three main core functions are assessment, policy development, and assurance. Assessment is a tool that helps monitors different health and environmental statutes to create, deploy, and identify solutions. It also used a diagnostic tool to investigate health-related problems and different health hazards. Policy development is an act of informing and educating those developed ideas and topics that help the communities and different organizations in their health care efforts. Lastly, assurance utilizes different laws and regulations to help in the aid of protecting the public or environment at risk. It also re-evaluates the laws and regulations to see its effectiveness and its quality (Schneider,