Chapter 13!

Chapter 13 deal with the health care delivery system. Health care delivery in the United States can be best described by the four levels of practices displayed in the spectrum of health care delivery. These four levels of are; population-based public health practice, medical practice, long-term practice, and end-of-life practice.
Population-based public health practice is defined as a practice that "incorporates interventions aimed at disease prevention and health promotion, specific protection and a good share of case finding." Most of population-based public health practice is based on health education because before you can promote your health you need to know how. This type of practice mainly takes place in governmental health agencies along with with voluntary health agencies, social service agencies, schools, and businesses.
Medical practice refers to services that are provided by a physician or other traditional health care provider. These services are offered at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.
Primary medical care plays the role of a regular source of care for patients including dental checkups, annual physical exams, and screenings to detect health problems in the early stages. Primary health care has eight elements according the WHO. These include education on prevailing health problems and methods to prevent and control them, promotion of fool supply and proper nutrition, adequate supply of safe water and sanitation, maternal and child health care, immunizations, prevention and control of endemic diseases, treatment for common disease and injury, and provision of essential drugs.
Secondary medical care is "specialized attention and ongoing management for common and less frequently encountered medical conditions." Secondary medical care is divided into two categories of their own; acute and subacute. Acute is short term intense medical care for illness or injury that may require hospitalization. Subacute is care given to people with an unstable condition that require active monitoring and treatment, or technically complex nursing treatments.
Tertiary medical care is given to people unusal or complex condition. It is performed in specialty hospitals or specailized floors of hospitals and provides advanced care for patients with illnesses like cancer or heart disease that need speical procedures.
The third level is long-term practices that also has two catagories; restorative care and long-term care. Restorative care is given after surgery, during remission of a cancerous diseasem or when the progression of an incurabe diesease has been arrested. Settings for restroative care include rehab units, nursing homes, and halfway houses. Long-term care helps patients with chronic illnesses and disablilities that limit them physically or mentally. This type of care can help with taks such as bathing, dressing, an preparing meal.
End-of-life practices is the last level and is defined as care given to people shortly before their time of death. This is most commonly in the form of hospice care in which physical, psychological, social and spiritual care is given to the terminally ill with a life expectancy of less then six months, and their families.
There are over 200 different career in the health care industry which are catagorized six different ways. The first is independant providers who are professionals with the education and legal authority to treat any health problem. Independant providers include allopathic providers (Doctors of Medicine, MD) and osteopathic providers (Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine, DO). The two providers are very similar, infact it would be hard to the differance in care. The group of inependant providers also includes nonallopathic providers who studycomplementary/alternative medicine such as chiropractors.
Limited care providers are health care providers who provide care for a specific part of the body such as a dentist, optomerists, or psychologist.
Nurses have their own group within which they are further divided based on their education and schooling. Nurses can be classified as licensed practical nurses (LPNs), registered nurses (RNs), professional nurses, and advanced practice nurses.
Nonpysician practitioners are "clinical professionals who practice in many of the areas similar to those in which physicians practice but do not have a MD or a DO degree. This group can include nurse practitioners, certified midwives, and physician assistants.
The last two groups are allied health care professionals who are health care workers that provied services that assist, facilitate, and compement the work of physicians and other health car specialists and public health professionals. These are health care workers that work in a public health orginization.

The beginning of the chapter states; "other develped countries have national health insurance run or organized by the government and paid for, in large part, by general taxes. Also, in these countries almost all citizens are entitled to receive health care services, including routine and basic health care." It also tells us of the stuggles president Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton endured during their many attemps at changing the health care system in this country that never went into affect. Personally I cannot wrap my head around the argument for not providing free health care to all citizens. As a future tax payer I can personally say that there are not many places I'd rather see my money go than contributing to this cause and help those who either cannot pay themselves or normally would not qualify for health insurance. As a united country we need to live up to that reputation and pull together to help one another. What better way is there to support each other than to make sure each and every citizen of this country is accounted for and given the services they need?.