Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care PDF Download

Author: Lynn B. Rogut
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813541093
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Health care delivery in the United States is an enormously complex enterprise, and its $1.6 trillion annual expenditures involve a host of competing interests. While arguably the nation offers among the most technologically advanced medical care in the world, the American system consistently under performs relative to its resources. Gaps in financing and service delivery pose major barriers to improving health, reducing disparities, achieving universal insurance coverage, enhancing quality, controlling costs, and meeting the needs of patients and families. Bringing together twenty-five of the nation’s leading experts in health care policy and public health, this book provides a much-needed perspective on how our health care system evolved, why we face the challenges that we do, and why reform is so difficult to achieve. The essays tackle tough issues including: socioeconomic disadvantage, tobacco, obesity, gun violence, insurance gaps, the rationing of services, the power of special interests, medical errors, and the nursing shortage. Linking the nation’s health problems to larger political, cultural, and philosophical contexts, Policy Challenges in Modern Health Care offers a compelling look at where we stand and where we need to be headed.

Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030913319X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
The Institute of Medicine study Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001) recommended that an interdisciplinary summit be held to further reform of health professions education in order to enhance quality and patient safety. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality is the follow up to that summit, held in June 2002, where 150 participants across disciplines and occupations developed ideas about how to integrate a core set of competencies into health professions education. These core competencies include patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and informatics. This book recommends a mix of approaches to health education improvement, including those related to oversight processes, the training environment, research, public reporting, and leadership. Educators, administrators, and health professionals can use this book to help achieve an approach to education that better prepares clinicians to meet both the needs of patients and the requirements of a changing health care system.

Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309133181
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 536

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Book Description
The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Author: David Mechanic
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813535784
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
This book provides perspectives on how the US health care system evolved, why it faces the challenges that it does, and why reform is so difficult to achieve. It tackles issues including tobacco, obesity, gun violence, insurance gaps, the rationing of services, the power of special interests and medical errors.

Author: Margaret L. Brandeau
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402080662
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 870

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Book Description
In both rich and poor nations, public resources for health care are inadequate to meet demand. Policy makers and health care providers must determine how to provide the most effective health care to citizens using the limited resources that are available. This chapter describes current and future challenges in the delivery of health care, and outlines the role that operations research (OR) models can play in helping to solve those problems. The chapter concludes with an overview of this book – its intended audience, the areas covered, and a description of the subsequent chapters. KEY WORDS Health care delivery, Health care planning HEALTH CARE DELIVERY: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES 3 1.1 WORLDWIDE HEALTH: THE PAST 50 YEARS Human health has improved significantly in the last 50 years. In 1950, global life expectancy was 46 years [1]. That figure rose to 61 years by 1980 and to 67 years by 1998 [2]. Much of these gains occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and were due in large part to improved nutrition and sanitation, medical innovations, and improvements in public health infrastructure.

Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309036437
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 580

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Book Description
"[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Author: Committee for the Study of the Future of Public Health
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309581907
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
"The Nation has lost sight of its public health goals and has allowed the system of public health to fall into 'disarray'," from The Future of Public Health. This startling book contains proposals for ensuring that public health service programs are efficient and effective enough to deal not only with the topics of today, but also with those of tomorrow. In addition, the authors make recommendations for core functions in public health assessment, policy development, and service assurances, and identify the level of government--federal, state, and local--at which these functions would best be handled.

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030946921X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 161

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Book Description
The Social Security Administration (SSA) administers two programs that provide benefits based on disability: the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program and the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. This report analyzes health care utilizations as they relate to impairment severity and SSA's definition of disability. Health Care Utilization as a Proxy in Disability Determination identifies types of utilizations that might be good proxies for "listing-level" severity; that is, what represents an impairment, or combination of impairments, that are severe enough to prevent a person from doing any gainful activity, regardless of age, education, or work experience.

Author: Thomas R. Oliver
Publisher: CQ Press
ISBN: 1483370453
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1109

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Book Description
The contentious passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010 highlighted the incredible complexity and controversy surrounding health care in the United States. While the U.S. federal government does not provide universal health care, it has an extremely wide reach when it comes to the health of its citizenry. From important scientific and medical research funding to infectious disease control and health services for veterans and the elderly, the pathway to legislation and execution of health policies is filled with competing interests and highly varied solutions. The Guide to U.S. Health and Health Care Policy provides the analytical connections showing researchers how issues and actions are translated into public policies and institutions for resolving or managing healthcare issues and crises. The Guide highlights the decision-making cycle that requires the cooperation of federal and state governments, business, and an informed citizenry in order to achieve a comprehensive approach to advancing the nation’s healthcare policies. Through 30 topical chapters, the book addresses the development of the U.S. healthcare system and policies, the federal agencies and public and private organizations that frame and administer those policies, and the challenges of balancing the nation’s healthcare needs with the rising costs of medical research, cost-effective treatment, and adequate health insurance. Additionally, the book comprehensively addresses significant disparities that exist in the U.S. system and the challenges to public health posed by our increasingly connected world. Taking a comprehensive approach, the Guide traces policy initiatives across time and takes into account the most recent scholarship: Part One: Evolution of American Health Care Policy Looks at the emerging and expanding role of government in the health care sector and the position the U.S. occupies today as the only advanced industrial nation without universal health care. Part Two: Government Organizations that Develop, Fund, and Administer Health Policy (1789-Today) Examines the role each branch of government plays in the forming, executing, and regulating health care policies. The authors examine the origins, organization, budget, and function of major government organizations including the FDA, CDC, and VA. An exploration of legal oversight and the roles states play in the health sector round out this section. Part Three: Contemporary Health Policy Issues: Goals and Initiatives (1920s-Today) Explores the wide range of players in the health care sphere and the role the government plays, particularly in funding them. Special attention is paid to policy issues surrounding medical research and medical professions. This section also looks at the ethical issues in play when making health policy and the inequalities that have plagued the U.S. health care system. Part Four: Contemporary Health Policy Issues: People and Policies (1960s-Today) This part of the book looks in-depth at health disparities in the U.S., health challenges particular to specific groups, mental health, obesity, and the influence of interest groups. Part Five: U.S. Response to Global Health Challenges (1980s-Today) The last section of the book looks beyond the borders of the United States and the serious challenges posed by our increasingly connected world.

Author: National Academy of Engineering
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309120640
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
Improving our nation's healthcare system is a challenge which, because of its scale and complexity, requires a creative approach and input from many different fields of expertise. Lessons from engineering have the potential to improve both the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery. The fundamental notion of a high-performing healthcare system-one that increasingly is more effective, more efficient, safer, and higher quality-is rooted in continuous improvement principles that medicine shares with engineering. As part of its Learning Health System series of workshops, the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Value and Science-Driven Health Care and the National Academy of Engineering, hosted a workshop on lessons from systems and operations engineering that could be applied to health care. Building on previous work done in this area the workshop convened leading engineering practitioners, health professionals, and scholars to explore how the field might learn from and apply systems engineering principles in the design of a learning healthcare system. Engineering a Learning Healthcare System: A Look at the Future: Workshop Summary focuses on current major healthcare system challenges and what the field of engineering has to offer in the redesign of the system toward a learning healthcare system.