Health Care in America Research Paper
Health Care in America
The major aim of all the medical care facilities is certainly provision of timely and quality health care in all states. All the available health care facilities were established with the aim to secure long-term or short-term medical care to patients. There are both private and public institutions available in the United States. Each of the concrete facilities differs on the basis of the nature of the services provided to the representatives of the community. The whole range of health care facilities forms the health care facility spectrum for the country. The range of the health care facilities in America is versatile, each of the facilities has its aims and purposes and all of them are to cooperate in order to provide the best possible health care services to citizens.Health Care in America Research Paper
Health Care Facilities spectrum
People need health care services of various types, because they utilize them for getting information about their health status, they cure their breaks or tears, they anticipate the medical services for the future, they increase their life quality, etc. Not all health services are of proper quality and the prices for them might also vary greatly. On the basis of social insurance use it is possible to make judgments about the current situation in various regions and possible issues, which need to be addressed. “In the US according to a report released by Spectrum Health, for 2015-16, U.S. News assessed healing facilities in 16 adult specialties and positioned the main 50 in the vast majority of the strengths. Under 3 percent of the about 5,000 doctor’s facilities that were broke down for Best Hospitals 2015-16 were broadly positioned in no less than one claim to fame.” (Khoong, 2015, p. 28). Health Care in America Research Paper
Mostly the health care system in America is concentrated in private hands, at the same time there are also state, federal, city governments, which own their facilities. There are big hospitals, which served the basis for medical centers, but are non-profit and initially originated from religious organizations. Even taking into consideration that they have non-profit status, they could be allowed to have their state-of-the-art services and facilities. “The non-profit hospital’s share of total hospital capacity has remained relatively stable (about 70%) for decades. There are also privately owned for-profit hospitals as well as government hospitals in some locations, mainly owned by county and city governments.” (Khoong, 2015, p. 28). The main medical centers are responsible for providing a wide range of specialized services, some of them include multiple specialized hospitals or clinics, each of them being dedicated to a concrete type of services or designed for the concrete kind of patients. Separately should be mentioned the special centers of medical education, centers for medical research, centers, where medical innovations and technologies are researched and tested. Such medical centers are either interrelated to some medical schools or even contain medical schools in their structure. Such cooperation provides the better chances for generating and uniting of the theoretical and practical knowledge and professional interests of the medical students. Also some of the medical schools are associated with hospital campuses and these two function together, even if they are not officially described as one single unit. “There are about 1,100 teaching hospitals in the United States. Approximately 375 of the larger institutions belong to the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH). COTH teaching hospitals train about 75 percent of residents yearly and provide more than 40 percent of all hospital charity care in the nation.” (Burnham, 2015, p. 13).
The health care sector is America is made up of hospitals, clinicians, health care facilities, insurances plans, each of them operating in a concrete sphere, independently or forming some kinds of unions. American citizens are focused upon receiving optimal health care conditions provided for both individuals as well as for the whole population. The health –care services are expected to be of high quality and a lot of attention is paid to proper coordination, created inside the strong public health care system. The role of the health care sector in general was precisely described in the recommendations report from the Institute of Medicine: “All health care organizations, professional groups, and private and public purchasers should adopt as their explicit purpose to continually reduce the burden of illness, injury, and disability, and to improve the health and functioning of the people of the United States.” (Khoong, 2015, p. 29).Health Care in America Research Paper
Comparative Analysis of Health Care Facilities
Generally American medicine is considered to be one of the best in the whole world in relation to clinical research or medical practices. At the same time there are discrepancies between sufficient health care spending and the actual health outcomes, which are explained by the gaps in the finance, organization and delivery of health care, transforming the scientific research discoveries into applicable and useful aspects in the routine patient care. One of the biggest problems is related to insurance plans, as insurance providers face a lot of difficulties and obstacles for proper orientation in the rapidly changing environment and working under the pressure of highly competitive market. Consumers are also at a loss because of the numerous insurance plans, differentiating in their restrictions, reimbursement policies, benefits, etc. Thus the patients have a rather wide choice of their insurance plans and the health care facilities. This is the reason, why it is so important to understand the major similarities and differences between these facilities in order to be able to make the correct choice. It is possible to point out at least five major health care facilities: hospitals, ambulatory surgical centers, doctor’s offices, urgent care clinics and nursing homes. The main task of hospitals is to secure short- term health care, these facilities are open 24/7/365 and have a wide choice of specialists. Patients are able to receive outpatient and inpatient care from hospitals, as well as many other services. There is a category of surgeries, which are too complicated to be performed at the doctor’s offices, still they do not require visiting a hospital. Thus ambulatory surgical centers are designed exactly for offering such kind of procedures. Also patients should expect to receive initial post-operation monitoring there. The major advantage of this facility is lower cost for the same procedures in comparison to hospitals. Doctors’ offices are different from hospitals, because usually they provide only one type of services. Apart of doctor there are also assistants and nurses working in delivery of patient care. For the patients, who can not get to the doctor’s office and need medical care help without appointment, there are urgent care clinics. It is important to differentiate between this type of facility and emergency room at a hospital, because there is no chance to get help in case of complex health situation in such clinic. Nursing homes were created for those patients, who do not need to be hospitalized and their relatives could not provide adequate care for them at home. The legal authority to control and regulate the work of health care facilities belongs to state health departments. “They may control the ability of providers to acquire desired technology and perform complex, costly procedures that are important to the hospital but increase demands on state revenues.” (Burnham, 2015, p. 25).Health Care in America Research Paper
Conclusion
Overall, the system of health care is well-developed in America, there are a lot of health care facilities, and each of them was designed for providing particular kind of medical help for patients. At the same time they are to collaborate with each other, as well as with other institutions, for example educational ones, in order to provide top quality and timely help and services.
References:
Burnham, J. C. (2015). Health Care in America: A history. A standard comprehensive scholarly history
Grier, P. (2010). Health care reform bill 101: Who will pay for reform?, Christian Science Monitor
Khoong, E. (2015).The Complete Spectrum of Health Care Facilities. The American Resident Project
The Health Care Delivery System.” Institute of Medicine. (2003). The Future of the Public’s Health in the 21st Century. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.Health Care in America Research Paper