Barriers Erected By Health Care Systems

Health is fully available in every moment as one of the most accessible of life’s biological forces. Health is a feeling of basic and fundamental goodness, wholeness and uncompromising strength. Health care systems are designed to help maintain the health of individuals by eliminating disease, illness or injury from the body system. However there are barriers that limit health care systems from achieving their goals. The barriers may include shortage of health workers, unaffordable health care services, lack of health care equipments.

Shortage of health workers in hospitals especially during weekends occurs because of inadequate funding which compromises the ability of providers to provide a quality and affordable health care services. Some of the barriers of health care are erected by our divisive and dualistic western culture, others by our own habits to separate rather than unify. Making health care affordable is one way of eliminating most barriers of health care this ensures that every one can visit a health center or clinic without fear of being overcharged.

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Setting up health savings accounts (HSAs) gives workers the opportunity to save tax-free routine expenses, the security of insurance against major illnesses and the freedom of knowing you can take your account with you whenever you change jobs. Barriers erected by health care personnel Shortage of health care personnel /workers creates a barrier to accessing quality health care. Quality health cares are services offered by people caring for other people. Patients and the general public are unaware of this critical problem and always blame the health workers for insufficiency.

Recently accompanied by grand mother for her appointment to the hospital and I was very disappointed, we reported very early for her check up since she was using a pace maker for breathing, we had to wait for three hours before being attended. This was very frustrating. I thought this was worse but and elderly man was brought to the waiting bay with epilepsy. He was convulsing after every two minutes but no one seemed to notice. The nurses and other workers seemed so busy taking care of other patience so we assumed they were ignoring those on the waiting bay.

Barriers created by health care systems In most health centers of hospitals health care equipments are insufficient. This results to poor health care administration many patients die due to lack of special equipments and drugs. I went for my practical in a certain health center and witnessed and elderly woman die from muscular dystrophy. This is a rare disease with very devastating symptoms. Her muscles would contract and remain in situ and this affected her breathing patterns. The doctor said there were ho resources to treat her unless if transferred to a state hospital.

Her family could not afford to transfer her to a bigger facility. In such situations the public tends to blame the health worker for insufficiency and at times negligence. The state should be responsible for funding health care centers and hospitals to provide enough resources, equipments and drugs. Lack of affordable health insurance policies is also to blame in this case because if this patient had health insurance, she would access health care services from any health facility. Plans to change the barriers to reflect an environment of wellness

Rising health care costs are imposing a burden on families and small businesses and put health coverage out of the reach of many Americans. Employing more health workers makes health care provision easier and better. This ensures that the ratio of health workers to patients is even. Reducing the rising costs of health care while improving quality and safety, makes health care accessible to more people especially those with minimum wages. Having a free health centre or clinic in every poor country in America. This will ensure that the jobless also have access to quality health care.

This will increase the number of people served by health centers by approximately 35%. Fighting health care fraud and waste by cutting wasteful spending out the Medicare and Medicaid programme. Affordable health cares for low-income families and individuals. High healthcare costs are the reason why many Americans are not insured. The state could help them by contributing to buy their insurance. Affordable health cares for all children. This ensures that all children are born in hospitals and immunized immediately after birth.

Association Health Plans (AHPs) for civic groups and other community organizations. Local groups should be allowed to bond together through their regional or national organizations to negotiate low-priced coverage for their members. Maternal child health care should be improved and made affordable to reduce child and maternal mortality rates. This should be coupled with decreased post partum stays to an average of seven days. Hospitals should not overcharge patients for long stays in the wards. They should aim at providing affordable quality services to all patients.

Public health awareness should be encouraged to educate the public on the importance of buying health insurance, routine medical checkups and the importance of vaccinations. National market place to shop for health insurance should be established, individual consumers should have the freedom to shop for health insurance in a competitive market place across the state lines to increase the availability of health care coverage and drive down costs. State run insurance pools to help low income Americans get the most of their credits. Free health care for all children should be established.

Strengthening competition between generic and brand name drugs will help American consumers save more than $35 billion in drug cost over the next 10 years. There should be more school-based enrollment where parents are informed of the availability of health coverage for the children through medicaid. Grants to faith based and community organizations to join with their state medicaid To enroll targeted low-income children. Home visitation should be encouraged and enough funding put into this policy to provide transport and enough medication for the home visits.

This should be coupled by the strengthening of the community follow up for the mothers and newborns by public health nurses. Direct accountability for implementation should be assigned by the policy to public health care professionals who believe in the initiative. The support of public health practitioners who advocate for this approach is required for implementation. . How the book changed my personal thinking The book changed my thinking by making me realize that the public is very ignorant to routine check ups such as pap smears, breast examination and eye check ups.

Our attitude towards health workers especially nurses and doctors determine how we receive health services. Some people believe that doctors should be men with big bodies and so if treated by female doctors, they have a negative attitude. We should always be positive about the treatment we receive. It quickens the recovery process. Giving them incentives allowances should motivate health workers or salary increments to encourage them provide better quality health services. In the hospital sector, a major barrier, which appears to have influenced implementations, is that of organizational context.

These include lack of beds to allow for longer stays in hospitals and lack of funding to purchase hospital equipments. Direct funding flowed to heath units targeted for provision of special health services, eliminates barriers of health resources and medical equipments. The book made me realize that acquiring health insurances made it cheaper to access health care services. Public health units should receive additional recourses to provide a service they have long wanted to offer to the community and should be trained to provide it professionally. Conclusion

Policy enactment is sometimes in adequate to stimulate practice changes and barrier elimination in health care systems. However policy as a tool must thoughtfully address the organizational, professional and social contexts within which it is to be implemented. To reflect an environment of wellness, all players need to be included. Consumers need to know about health policies and should be informed about their health care options. Policy implementation in any health care system relies upon provider commitment. Providers, consumers and policy makers share the common goal of positive health outcomes.

Consumers of health care need to be informed and prepared to hold both providers and policy makers accountable in the making and implementing of health policy. Providers must be convinced that the policy can be implemented and that the outcome will be positive. While health care is often described, as a product health services are fundamentally people caring for other people, therefore, health workers must be devoted to their work to serve and treat patients equally despite of their financial status or racial backgrounds.

When barriers to policy implementations exist the policy may fail to meet its objectives to achieve quality affordable and accessible health care services. Health care should be made accessible by ensuring that every county has a health facility or a clinic to serve the community members. All health facilities should charge minimum fees to ensure that all individuals are able to visit health centers without fear of being overcharged. Health workers such as nurses and doctors should be encouraged to be polite and friendly to all patients despite the type of their conditions.

Doctors should be encouraged to diagnose a patient’s condition well before prescribing any form of treatment. This ensures that patients are treated for the illnesses. Health system administrations must be established to serve every patient equally despite their races or financial affordability. Health care systems must be designed in such a way that they are able to treat any form of disease or illness. Crucial medical equipments should be provided to the hospitals by the state to make-work more efficient and also to save more lives.

This is because patients won’t need to be transferred to bigger facilities for treatment. Health care administration systems should encourage the health workers to encourage both patients and the public to buy health insurance so as to make assessing quality health care easier and cheaper for them and their families. For health care provision to be efficient the general public should be involved in decision-making concerning the health system. REFERENCES Milio, N (1988). Primary care and the public’s health; Ann Arbor, Michigan, university press.

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