Healthier Hospitals Initiative | Distance Learning Systems (DLSI)

The Role Of The Hospital In The Community

A hospital is a place where we can go if we get sick. It is a conducive place for people who require treatment for their illness. It also plays a big role in the community. A community will not be complete without the presence of a hospital. In fact, a hospital is the community center for health and wellness. The environment of this place is one of the healthiest and safest space that is good for patients, visitors, and staff.

Many of us do not appreciate the true value of a hospital unless we get sick. Many lives are being saved by hospitals. It is the perfect place for those who are experiencing major sickness such as cancer, brain diseases and other major injuries. There are some diseases that are incurable. However, hospitals have advance facilities and technologies to sustain the lives of the people. This place is not only treating sickness but it also helps improving the health of the community. Many hospitals are creating programs that offer financial assistance to patients who cannot afford to pay for hospital care. This helps people to get the care they need, without having to worry about financial payment.

It is true that a hospital has a big impact to the community. They are the critical partners in making sure that communities remain strong, vibrant, and healthy. They are not just treating the diseases of patients, but they also educate the community on how to become healthy and away from all sickness. We need to be grateful that hospitals are there for us to make our lives comfortable and convenient.

Hospital Jobs

A hospital is a place for patients and doctors. But jobs in a hospital are not limited to just health care. According to forbes.com, hospitals employ more than 5 million people and they are all hardly doctors. America’s general medical and surgical hospitals have one-third jobs that are non-medical.

In a hospital, there are clinical and non-clinical jobs in all levels and types. Clinical hospital jobs are those which provide direct patient care, such as nurse, doctors, or allied personnel. Meanwhile, non-clinical hospital jobs are administrative or management types of roles, from the janitors to the executives.

Some of the clinical hospital jobs include physicians (ER doctors, surgeons, hospitalists), nurses (CRNA, RN, LPN/LVN, CNS, techs (Radiology Tech, Ultrasound Tech, Surgical Tech), therapists (Physical Therapist, Radiation Therapist), medical assistants, pharmacists, medical lab technologists, and dietician.

The examples of non-clinical hospital jobs include case managers (social workers), accountants, human resources and recruiting, executives (CEO, CFO, CIO), information technologists, and administrative assistants.

Working in a hospital might be attractive to you if you enjoy working with people and being around a lot of other people. And if you like a bit of a challenge in the work place every day, you are bound to experience that as an average hospital has hundreds of employees and patients coming in on a daily basis. Also, hospital jobs are relatively secure. If you are looking for a work place where there is more hiring than firing, then you might want to consider working in a hospital.

Of course, there are also downsides to working in a hospital. It is probably not the most progressive place to work as hospital environments do not change much over the years. Other than medical technology, not much changes in the hospital environment. Aside from that, hospital politics is also an issue. And more importantly, you need to keep in mind that many sick people, including those with infectious disease s, come through the door.

The Importance of Hospitals

Taking care of our health is one of our responsibilities. Healthy lifestyle is not just the recommendation of the physician, but is something we should aim for in general. We should avoid the things that can ruin our health. However, no matter how much we take care of our bodies, we cannot avoid illnesses. Because of the weather and other uncontrollable circumstances, there are times when we feel under the weather and realize that we are sick. Sometimes, it only takes over the counter medicine, and everything turns out well. But, there are major illnesses that require a diagnosis from a physician.

Hospitals are the only place that we can go to help us cure our sickness. They have complete facilities for different kinds of illnesses. There are doctors and nurses who will assist us to make our stay comfortable and convenient. These hospitals are responsible for the treatment and recovery of patients with both mild and extreme medical cases. Medical treatments allow us to extend our lives. Without these medical establishments time with our love ones and friends may come to a sudden halt. There is no question that hospitals are significant in our lives. There lots of hospitals that offer low cost healthcare, while being able to provide high-quality service.

We should take some times to appreciate the existing hospitals, clinics, and other medical facilities in our area. Living without them will cause so much inconvenience to say the least. Visit your physician even when you feel you are only suffering from something mild. It may lead to a serious condition that the doctors should be able to control. In today’s world where health problems become more and more complicated, let us be more open to regular check-ups, and always be thankful to have a place that can ensure we are in our prime health conditions.

Financing Hospital Care in the United States

Since the 60’s, Medical costs have risen dramatically in the U.S. The greatest increase comes from hospital care. Most hospitals have been granted large wage increase and installed expensive modern equipments. To meet these large expenditures, hospitals raised charges to their services by about 600 percent.

There are three main methods of financing hospital care in the country: (1) private insurance, (2) government funding, and (3) customer payments.

Private Insurance. Approximately 80% of Americans have health insurance of some kind. The employee, employer, and the government pays a certain amount for medical benefits. Private health insurance are offered either by insurance companies, medical service plans, employers, or organizations.

Medical service plans provide service benefits. This service is a direct payment to the physician or hospital for medical care. On the other hand, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMO’s) provide nearly complete health care services for a monthly or annual fee. Despite the complete services provided, patient’s options are limited or are bonded by the HMO’s restrictions. There are also employers who pay for the health care cost for their employees rather than buying insurance.

Government Funding. About 40 percent of all health care cost is paid by the government. Of course, the Federal government pays for the larger portion. Hospitals that receive such funding are those managed by the Public Health Service and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Medicare is the biggest government funded health care program in the U.S. IT helps senior citizens pay for out patient, nursing and hospital care.

Customer Payments. Most insurance do no pay for cost of medicine, medical appliances, dental , and eyeglasses. Some only cover a portion of the outpatient care. Patients will need to cover part of the cost themselves. Nearly 25% of health care cost is paid by patients.

Improving Healthcare Services

From healthcare discoveries to the most recent treatment options, America’s healthcare educational institutions and teaching hospitals, as well as their doctors and experts, possess a legacy of developing treatments and establishing the standard for the best patient health care. By way of a multi-year initiative to enhance the standard and security of health care, it is vital to work together to generate guidelines for better quality health care.

Through guidelines for much better Healthcare, it is necessary to integrate verified methods to guarantee more secure surgeries, decrease infections, and reduce hospital re-admissions. We must built an even tougher tradition of quality and protection in medicine by passing these guidelines to each new doctor educated and make sure high quality and safety is part of medical training from day one. Through good research and evaluation, best practices will be improved, learn new ones, and discuss our knowledge with others to enhance health care.

It is, of course, the responsibility of a hospital to secure their patients by giving quality standards, updating procedures, regular maintenance and developing technology. The health care education facilities must be able to educate the next era of doctors with quality and patient security. Through continued research and study, patients must be more secure with safer surgeries. Hospitals must as well develop or enhance a program that will reduce the hospital re-admissions especially for high-risk patients. This will reduce the hospital cost and the stress of staying long in hospital wards away from home.

Lastly, there must be a continued investigation, research and examination of new and efficient health care practices as well as the use of efficient technologies to establish a better future of the health care industry.

Challenging Hospitals to Improve

Challenging medical centers to take charge of the changing healthcare techniques in its communities, the Healthier Hospitals Initiative has added six Massachusetts medical centers to its initiative in the past month, expanding upon its goal to enhance patient care in a hospital. The program, which involves 800 medical centers nationwide, began two years ago. Forty-three institutions in Massachusetts are currently participating in the initiative, including Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital–Plymouth, Boston Medical Center and Lawrence General Hospital. Nine of these 43 are located in Boston.

“The Healthier Hospitals Initiative is a national campaign to lead change in the health care sector,” the initiative’s sales brochure said. “Twelve significant U.S. health systems have signed up with to provide a free way for medical centers to incorporate eco-friendly practices into daily functions.” The Healthier Hospitals Initiative asks medical centers to commit to any number of difficulties in their six focus areas: healthier meals, leaner energy, less waste, safer chemicals, wiser purchasing and engaged leadership. “As a group leader offering health care services, we felt it was our obligation to be part of the solution to what is becoming a national epidemic,” said Vanessa Kortze, manager of marketing and communications at LGH. “We strive to ensure healthy outcomes every day for our sufferers and our group, so it’s a natural fit for us to promote a healthier environment by offering healthier options.”

Lawrence General signed up with the initiative in late February, hoping to enhance patient care by participating in two of the initiative’s healthier meals difficulties, the Sugar Sweet Beverage Initiative, which changes high sugar drinks with healthier options such as water and seltzers and the Balanced Menu Challenge, which removes high calorie menu options with healthier options, Kortze said. “These healthier options are now more accessible to our patients through the room service and menu options and in our cafeterias so that whether you are a patient, visitor or employee, you can make better choices,” she said.