Public Health Efforts

Professional Development Assignments: (60 points)
Public health efforts and those of private medicine complement each other and together serve the spectrum of health service needs of American society. Why, then, has their relationship been so contentious?
The Institute of Medicine report of 1999 cites two major studies that establish medical errors as one of the leading causes of death and disability in the United States. Should the federal government take the necessary steps to monitor the status of this high-risk situation, as it does with other epidemics, or should the government continue to trust the providers of health care to deal forthrightly with the problem?
Analyze why legislative attempts to address only one of the trio of rising costs, lack of universal access, or variable quality of health care only worsens the remaining two.
Each response should be 500-1000 words
APA formatting required
Although each response is a separate essay of 500-1000 words, all responses should be combined into a single document for submission

SOLUTION

Public Health Efforts

Response 1

As the statement for question one suggests, both private and public health efforts are determined to achieve a common goal of serving the health needs presented by the American society. This is why whether a person prefers to get medical help from public or private hospital, the end results of the service provided would be similar since the individuals are longing to get their health back to normal.

However, there has always been rising controversies about the two thoughts of medicine. The modern world has presented an increasing number of private medical centers than it was a decade ago. Majority of the global populations are inclined to seek private health services more than public ones. Therefore, this emergent behavior and preference of privately owned medical facilities has caused the tension between these two sides of medicine.

In spite of the primary goal of both types of health services being similar, the advocacy presented by patients and the public in general shows that private medical institutions provide an improved, quality and standardized care (Flood & Gross, 2014). The spread of such notion has consequently pushed the relationship between these two medical sides to be contentious.

The actions of the service users have led to contradicting and contesting perceptions between private and public health services. The service fee charged to patients differs a lot between these two sides and this has also enhanced the controversy. Public health centers provide services which have always been regarded as cheap, while the private one is relatively expensive.

Therefore, the public health management and its staff would feel that the private health centers are financially exploiting patients as well as misinforming them. This service fee differential has made the relationship to pose a conflict-like interaction between these two medical sides. The nursing staff from public health sector would present unfriendly relations when they interact with those from the private wing.

It is like there is one side which desires to be superior to the other. The aforementioned behavior on conflicting interaction and relation is a two-way thing since the nursing staff from the private medical sector would also exhibit such habits of recognition and superiority. Hence, the relationship between private and public medical services would always remain contentious since the two sides are guided by different service provision motifs.

Referrals made in private medical centers shows that most patients would always be referred to public hospitals for they are very well equipped with the latest technology medical equipment. Therefore, arguing from such assumptions, a health care provider working in a public health facility would say that the services provided by private health sector are limited and provided by incompetent practitioners who are afraid of the stiff competition experienced by professionals working in the diverse public sector (Söderlund, Arana & Goudge, 2003).

Thus, when one thinks of private versus public health services, he or she would certainly consider the relationship as conflicting since the former sector is started by money-greedy practitioners who do not care about the health of their clients, while the later is purposely set up to attend to the health needs presented by the American society. Hence, the relationship between these two sides would always be contentious.

Response 2

Medical errors have been prevalent in health care sector and their consequences have been priceless since a life lost can never be replaced. Health care providers who often commit medical errors are those fresh graduates from medical schools for they have not yet gained the experience and exposure of working in the real-life situations (Hurwitz & Sheikh, 2009).

These graduates commit medical errors since they have not been fully orientated and absorbed into the organizational culture that provides them with routine procedures which have to be followed when administering care. Therefore, it calls for immediate intervention from the obligated medical bodies since many lives are being consumed due to avoidable situations.

Therefore, one would prefer that the federal government should intervene on this issue of rampant medical errors by launching a monitoring program since this is a high-risk situation. The lives of human beings are not to be toyed with and this is why medical accreditation exams are imposed on all nursing professionals so that the medical agencies might ascertain on the staff expertise before certifying them as qualified registered nurses who have multiple roles to play in a health care setting.

The federal government should intervene on this matter since the future of its citizens’ health contributes a lot in gaining political stability and economy growth. A nation that has improved health or which has its people exhibiting good health, it would obviously possess better living standards as well as enjoying a continuously growing economy. All his is linked to people with good health, which is a subject to error-free medical practices.

Imposing a monitoring program on the issue of medical errors would be a gate-pass for the medical agencies to fasten their employment qualification screening criteria. The intervention would push the hiring bodies in medical sector to revise their nurse employment qualification so that they may ensure that there is no incompetent individual who gets chosen to serve the global population health needs.

Monitoring the case of medical errors by the government would help reduce the rates and frequency of such practices since there would be punishment or disciplinary measures imposed on anyone who commits a medical error (Banja, 2004). There are those health care providers who are just out there to make money only. Such professionals do not have the self-drive to help patients without any service fee.

Hence, they would often work recklessly with being keen on the decisions and actions they undertake when interacting with patients. This in turn leads to the regular medical errors experienced in the care delivery systems. However, with government intervention and monitoring program, this high-risk situation would be contained since the hired nurses would always be experienced and skilled professionals.

Also, the federal government would utilize this monitoring program to research on the possible causes of medical errors. The monitoring strategy would help in determining the factors that enhance the occurrence of these errors and thus, being in a position to device a corrective mechanism to eliminate all these possible causes. Hence, the best choice in the presented situation would be government intervention and monitoring program to help fight the prevalent and common medical errors.

Response 3

The federal government has been in the forefront when it comes to implementing health policies that are meant to mitigate the rising costs of health care. As more and more new diseases surface in this modern world, this in turn increases the cost of health care since the medical faculty has to research on the them and come up with best treatment procedures.

Therefore, the efforts put on fighting the rising health care costs have been effective to some extent. The doubt placed on them is that they only make the situation favorable for the capable or the rich and those who can afford to pay for the health care services. Thus, the legislative attempts which are primarily designed to counter these rising costs can be said to increase the health care disparities (Emerick & Lewis, 2013).

For example, if the government has subsidized the price of drugs and health care service fee such that majority can afford it, this in turn leads to degradation of the care quality since the hospitals will now be flooded with people who had been hiding back at their homes for they could not afford the care required. Hence, in order to ensure every individual patient gets checked up, the medical centers tend to reduce the quality of care provided so that resources are redirected on serving all.

The efforts of reducing the costs of health care are inclined to worsen the quality of care or making the patient receive a varying care quality. Personally, one would say that these government legislations implemented to ensure the cost of care is reduced to manageable levels tend to make the situation worse since the care provided would now be very poor in quality since the nurses are determined to serve all but not to ensure the illnesses presented are totally healed.

On the other hand, those legislative attempts implemented to lower the care costs might end up making the health care service inaccessible to some of the patient populations (Chalice, 2005). For example, the government might build public government hospitals in the urban centers of rural areas so that it may provide cheap care services to the targeted populations.

However, the process often goes in a single direction in that the choice to set up such facilities might either be performed in urban areas or rural areas. The choice has to be one of these two. Therefore, if the rural areas get chosen, this means that the cheap health care services would only be accessible to those people living in those designated areas.

The poor people in the urban centers will not have the access to these services which are distantly located. On the other hand, if the projects are situated in the cities and urban centers, the only people to enjoy such services would be the town dwellers, while the rural areas residents do not get to access them. Thus, no matter what decision the government might make on reducing the care costs, there would be lack of universal access to health care services.

References

Banja, J. (2004). Medical errors and medical narcissism. Sudbury, Mass: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Chalice, R. (2005). Stop rising healthcare costs using Toyota lean production methods : 38 steps for improvement. Milwaukee, Wis: ASQ Quality Press.

Emerick, T. & Lewis, A. (2013). Cracking health costs : how to cut your company’s costs and provide employees better care. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley.

Flood, C. & Gross, A. (2014). The right to health at the public/private divide : a global comparative study. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.

Hurwitz, B. & Sheikh, A. (2009). Health care errors and patient safety. Chichester, UK Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell/BMJ Books.

Söderlund, N., Arana, P. & Goudge, J. (2003). The new public/private mix in health : exploring the changing landscape. Geneva: Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research.

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