3 Major Trends in Hospital Sector
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Discuss the role of the hospital in the overall development of the health care system in the United States.
Discuss how hospitals have played a role in access of care in the United States
The hospital’s role in the nation’s health care system has changed dramatically over the years. The hospital originated as an institution for the poor. This evolved into the center of the system and the primary technology focus of health care. The hospital is a provider of highly specialized services and the hub of an assortment of other actives. Today the technology to manage hospitals has changed with an information systems focus and the application of complex parameters of performance measurement.
During the second half of the twentieth century, managed care developed in the United States as a mechanism for constraining the growth of health care costs by controlling the delivery system. This approach originated in the western United States in the form of staff model plans such as Kaiser Permanente which employed physicians and other caregivers directly. In the private health insurance industry, managed care plans controlled costs and the delivery of care by restricting hospital utilization, such as admissions and lengths of stay, by limiting access to specialists, and by encouraging healthful behaviors among subscribers
On an international basis, the development of health care policy is increasingly being influenced by cost considerations. Advances in health science and the delivery of care continue to expand the capabilities of treatments. The ability of nations and communities to pay for this care from available resources is a major subject of debate.
(Williams/Torrens, 2010, Pg. 183-184)
Today’s United States, health care access is disproportionately afforded to the affluent, the employees of government and large corporations, the very poor, and many receiving adequate pensions plus Medicare. Forty-seven million Americans are uninsured, largely the...
Discuss how hospitals have played a role in access of care in the United States
The hospital’s role in the nation’s health care system has changed dramatically over the years. The hospital originated as an institution for the poor. This evolved into the center of the system and the primary technology focus of health care. The hospital is a provider of highly specialized services and the hub of an assortment of other actives. Today the technology to manage hospitals has changed with an information systems focus and the application of complex parameters of performance measurement.
During the second half of the twentieth century, managed care developed in the United States as a mechanism for constraining the growth of health care costs by controlling the delivery system. This approach originated in the western United States in the form of staff model plans such as Kaiser Permanente which employed physicians and other caregivers directly. In the private health insurance industry, managed care plans controlled costs and the delivery of care by restricting hospital utilization, such as admissions and lengths of stay, by limiting access to specialists, and by encouraging healthful behaviors among subscribers
On an international basis, the development of health care policy is increasingly being influenced by cost considerations. Advances in health science and the delivery of care continue to expand the capabilities of treatments. The ability of nations and communities to pay for this care from available resources is a major subject of debate.
(Williams/Torrens, 2010, Pg. 183-184)
Today’s United States, health care access is disproportionately afforded to the affluent, the employees of government and large corporations, the very poor, and many receiving adequate pensions plus Medicare. Forty-seven million Americans are uninsured, largely the...