American Healthcare Problem | Distance Learning Systems (DLSI)

Healthcare Waste Management

Hospitals can efficiently protect public health by lessening the quantity and toxicity of the wastes they generate, and also by employing a variety of ecologically sound waste management and disposal alternatives. As part of a healthcare program, they must not only focus on treating the patients inside the hospital, but protecting citizens as well outside from harmful waste materials.

All over the world, health care waste management is underfunded and inadequately executed. The merging of contagious and other dangerous properties of medical waste symbolize a significant environmental and public overall health threat. It is indeed frightening to think that chemicals and other toxic substances may reach our neighborhood. A current literature review came to the conclusion that over half the world’s population is in danger from illness caused by healthcare waste. It was also found that plenty of inadequate waste treatment methods cause violation of fundamental human rights.

There is certainly no international convention that directly addresses medical waste management, so classification systems vary from country to country. Nevertheless, waste is frequently categorized based on the risk it carries. The vast majority of medical waste (around 75-85%) is comparable to normal municipal waste and also considered as low risk, unless burnt. The rest consists of more harmful forms of medical wastes, which include infectious and sharp waste, chemical and radioactive waste and hospital waste water.

Burning medical waste products creates numerous hazardous fumes and compounds, such as hydrochloric acid, dioxins and furans, as well as the toxic metal lead, cadmium, and mercury. The disposal of biodegradable waste produces greenhouse gas pollutants, including methane, which can be twenty-one times stronger than carbon dioxide. The government, as well as international organizations, must have a strong stand in managing hospital waste materials. This is to improve the quality of healthcare and avoiding possible spread of diseases in the community.

Career in Healthcare Management

Healthcare is changing more quickly than almost any other field. The sector is beginning to change in terms of where and how care is delivered, who is supplying those services, and just how that care is financed. Healthcare management demands talented people to manage the changes taking place. In their roles, healthcare executives have an opportunity to produce a significant contribution to improving the health of the communities their organizations serve.

With growing diversity in the healthcare system, executives are needed in many settings, including clinics, consulting firms, health insurance organizations, healthcare associations, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, physician practices, mental health organizations, public health departments, nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities and universities and research institutions.

Currently, approximately 100,000 people occupy health management jobs at numerous organizational levels, from department head to chief executive officer. Prerequisites for senior-level positions in healthcare organizations are demanding, but these jobs also offer the opportunity to improve the system of care giving.

If you choose a career in healthcare management, your first job might be an entry- to mid-level management position in a specialized area, like finance, government relations, human resources, information systems, planning and development, marketing and public affairs, material management, medical staff relations, nursing administration, patient care services, as well as growth and salaries.

Healthcare management is a large, sophisticated, and ever-changing field. The fact is, healthcare services improve each year which supports millions of new jobs, the largest increase of any industry. This shows that nurses, physicians, therapists and other health care professionals are highly needed by the industry. It is a good time to enroll to a program and enter the health care field.

Improvements in Healthcare

A 16 year old girl was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. The emergency room felt like home for her. The physician explained her condition where her immune system is acting abnormally. He added that antibodies are savagely killing her platelets. Death from over bleeding may occur. At an early age, Kelly had undergone several major surgeries and countless hospitalizations.

Autoimmune disease is one of the leading causes of death among women from all age groups. It is categorized as a chronic illness that can either be debilitating or life-threatening. Kelly and millions of Americans live with such medical nightmare. A few years ago, medical advancement modified dramatically. Unfortunately, most doctors are not aware of these changes. For instance, if laparoscopic surgery (a procedure that could reduce several surgeries into one) was known by Kelly’s doctor, she would have saved time and money. Not to mention the discovery of new pipeline treatments, that soon could lead to a whole new type of drugs. This new drug could have exempted her from surgery.

Technology is very obvious, but total application in medicinal sense is not fully widespread. We will now discuss some of the new improvements in healthcare that are readily available to use.

3D Printing
Three dimensional printed models help doctors prepare for transplants and conduct surgery smoothly. In addition, it makes the procedures a lot more accurate. CT scan images are helpful, but 3D models enable the doctor to hold and see the “real thing”, giving them confidence over their procedures.

Medical Robots
Robotic technology is utilized for certain functions like food service, medication distribution, infection control, surgery and diagnostics. Proponents contend that robots can bring many advantages since artificial intelligence can cut labor cost, increase precision, create clinical outcomes and substitute humans from unsafe situations.

Scanadu (real-life Tricorder)
A Scanadu makes the diagnostic process of basic medical stats convenient (like pulse rate, temperature, and blood oxygenation). With the use of this new machine, you can be diagnosed at the comfort of your home. It analyzes data, diagnose the problem, and send the information to a physician that can possibly provide treatment remotely.

Advanced technology has presented physicians countless of better medical options that could save, if not millions, thousands of thousands of lives every day. It is readily available, just waiting for us to discover them making healthcare a lot better.

Healthcare Problems

Healthcare has been a major issue for most countries including the USA. Though the issues are not as huge as compared to poor countries, it still has an effect on the system and the health of the citizens in general. Amongst the major problems in relation to healthcare are the cost and the accessibility to health insurance. There are many other issues aside from this, but we will be focusing first on this issue.

The cost of healthcare is not as affordable as compared to other countries that are subsidized, most if not all, the expenses for any health related concerns. There are many reasons why the cost is high. Healthcare professionals, medicine manufacturers and suppliers and service providers will charge a cost or fee that will give them a reasonable profit or else they will invest in other areas.

Doctors charge excessive rates just to reimburse the expenses they used with their education. It’s virtually impossible to get a medical education in America without winding up with many years of debt. Another explanation would be that the US is really a litigious society, and also to safeguard themselves, doctors need to pay high malpractice insurance rates.

In knowing the explanation of high medical costs, you have to consider insurance in addition to time and materials. Private health insurance companies don’t run a business to facilitate healthcare, but, like drug companies, to create profits for their employees and investors. Just to create a profit, they often deny coverage to those who have problems with their insurance that may result in claims. They even deny legitimate claims by making the procedure for compensation difficult. They offer guidelines which have high insurance deductibles and minimal insurance coverage.

Healthcare is a business and will require financials in order to function. Without it, services will surely be affected with reduced quality and efficiency. To be able to deal with this problem the government must be able to find a way to reduce the cost of education for doctors, support researches that will lead to affordable and more efficient medicine and services, and create a system that will benefit both the providers and the people.

The American Healthcare Problem

Two-thirds of the people in America are happy with “the way the new healthcare program is working for them,” a June Gallup study discovered. That measure has stayed generally consistent since the research firm first began tracking healthcare fulfillment in the middle of March in order to evaluate how the changes brought on by the Affordable Care Act were affecting people in America. “Americans’ advanced level of fulfillment with how the medical care program is treating them indicates that medical care is not in a problem for most people in America,” the report said. “At the same time, that 30% of the adult population, more than 70 million people, [who are] not satisfied with the medical care program emphasizes the need for improvement.”

While it helped that Affordable Care Act enrollments topped the Obama administration’s maximum estimate of 7 million, that figure is not the most important measure of the reform’s achievements. If those exchange policies are considered to be affordable and the protection assessed to be good, then the future achievements of the Affordable Care Act will be more assured. For the Obama-care story to be one of growing achievements, the experiences of those people in America who benefit from the changes to the insurance program, including low and middle-income earners qualifying for financial assistance, and those with preexisting conditions who cannot be turned away by insurance providers, it will have to over-shadow the pressure the change may place on those who find their rates too expensive, want to visit doctors out of their network and consider their insurance deductibles too great.

When analyzing how the Affordable Care Act has changed the American public’s understanding of its healthcare program, health insurance status is the most significant forecaster of fulfillment. The biggest rate of fulfillment, 77%, is found among Americans with military or veteran health coverage. Medical health insurance or State health programs recipients follow, with 76%, while 70% of Americans with partnership or employer-sponsored plans and 66% of self-insured Americans expressed satisfaction. By comparison, those Americans without insurance were more disappointed with the medical care program. Only 36% of those participants said they were content and 60% said they were disappointed.