Tag: World Health Organization

Health and Sociology

When we talk about health, we may only consider the biological or the physical aspect of a certain human being. However, health is a social issue and it may affect not just a single person, but as well as the community. That means sociology has an impact on health. The health of any individual may be affected by any social issue. The World Health Organization defines “health” as a ‘condition of complete physical, mental and social well-being’. As we can see, the WHO link health to the status of any society, culture as well as traditions and religious beliefs.

We all know the fact that the wealthy in most communities have more access to quality healthcare, medicines and services. The poorest in the society have the least access to healthcare; depending only on government support or NGOs. They also have the highest infant mortality because of inaccessibility to hospitals and medicines starting from pregnancy. The poor countries’ health is compromised by insufficient food and poor sanitation. This affects also the average life expectancy which is generally below 50 years. Roughly half the children born in poor nations generally don’t reach adulthood.

Standards of health within the Western nations such as the USA have greatly enhanced starting the nineteenth century. This is mainly because of better standards of living when industrialization advances the medicine and healthcare system. It was able to control infectious illnesses. Today, ill health in western communities can be indicated largely by chronic degenerative illnesses for example cardiovascular diseases, as well as cancers. Individual health-affecting actions like smoking cigarettes and drinking also have impact on the society’s health.

Promoting health in any society may be hard to achieve if the support is less, financially and legally. Improving the status of the society will also improve the health. The primary objective of any program should be to reduce inequities in health. Ever since then, health promotion has turned into a primary feature of health policy in any country. Giving importance on the study of sociology in relation to health will make a difference not just on the health of the individuals but on their status and way of living as well.

Hospital Management

Dr. S.T. Han, Director in the World Health Organization said, ‘You may have the best infrastructures, the most contemporary and up to date technological innovation, and the best management and funding techniques, but without well-motivated and experienced employees, none of these will have valuable impact on the health of people’. Despite the changes and enhancement in medical care distribution designs and techniques, many nations are still relatively conventional when it comes to individual resources. This area it seems still continues to be just like how it was more than 50 years ago. This is because, while different areas of healthcare professionals are progressively helping the personal interests within their career, few are seeking it with the objective of helping the medical care system as a whole. The outcome is that the inspiration for health care professionals continues to be that of self-interest, rather than to enhance the lives of the community.

But with that in mind, U.S. hospitals are currently going through a transformation and for doctors, highly disruptive change in their management viewpoint. Prior to the 1980’s, medical centers were refunded on the basis of their costs, so management’s focus was on having the beds and equipment necessary to increase occupancy.  Physicians were the principle customers and medical centers drawn them by offering the facilities and sources they needed to confess and manage their sufferers.

The change in the 80’s from a cost restoration to potential transaction system changed that strategy.  With the introduction of a single transaction to cover an entire episode of care, medical centers had an incentive for shorter lengths of stay and more effective use of resources.  Directors began moving their attention from offering physician-friendly facilities to the functional performance of the hospital models and process that reinforced physician decision-making.  This new strategy highlighted improving the use of analytic and healing resources employed in care distribution. Individual care choices, however, stayed the exclusive region of the doctor.  What mattered was the effective use of the hospital’s resources; the doctor choices that created the demand for those resources were not definitely handled.