Tag: Healthcare Expensive

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.

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.

 

What Makes Healthcare Expensive?

Since 1900, the average American life span has improved by 30 years, or by 62%. That nugget comes near the beginning of a new review taking stock of the U.S. healthcare program, released in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week and it’s also pretty much the last piece of great news in it. The study authors a mixture of experts from Alerion Advisors, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Rochester and the Boston Consulting Group take a point-by-point look at why medical care costs so much, why our results are relatively poor and what accounts for the increase in medical expenses. In the process, they revealed a number of amazing facts that debunk popular misunderstandings about health investing.

Actually, serious illnesses such as cardiovascular illness and diabetic issues, among patients younger than 65 pushes two-thirds of medical spending. About 85% of medical expenses are spent on individuals younger than 65, though individuals do spend more on healthcare as they age. “Between 2000 and 2011, increase in price (particularly of drugs, medical devices and medical center care), not concentration of service or market change, produced most of the increase in health’s share of GDP,” the writers write.

The biggest-spending disease with the quickest amount of development was hyperlipidemia, high cholesterol and triglycerides for which investing improved by 14.4% yearly between 2000 and 2010. This is a regular factor that Obama-Care competitors make when suggesting for the status quo, but in fact, much of the southeastern U.S. has a life span that is lower than average for the OECD, a set of developing nations that is commonly used for evaluation. And while People in America amount their encounters with the U.S. healthcare program as generally positive, other nations within the OECD are just as pleased, even though their medical care is much less expensive than ours.