Disease Trends and the Delivery of Healthcare Services Disease Trends and the Delivery of Healthcare Services The United States population is increasing in age because of the increasing infertility rates, and also people are living longer these days. There has been a 20 year increase in the average life span since the second half of the 20th century. We are often left with questions such as where does that leave my children and I in the future? How will this impact health care services? Aging Trend The United States population is increasing in age because of the increasing infertility
Health Care Reform Project Part I HCS 440 Bruce Peterson December 24, 2012 Summary The rapid population growth in the United States along with the continuously rising health costs makes managing the health care industry difficult. Because of technologic advancements both in healthcare services and medicine, people are able to live longer lives. However, as the aging population grows, more will need healthcare and more services will need to be provided. In the 1950s, not that many people lived longer than their 70s (Getzen & Allen, 2007). Furthermore, in the 1950s there were larger families so elderly care was more commonly given by family members.
Using Material from Item 2B and elsewhere, asses the view that an ageing population creates problems for society. Many western societies such as the United Kingdom are experiencing the social, political and economic issues that are associated with an ageing population. Rising life expectancy poses a number of problems. People are living longer due to medical advancements (including the NHS) and improved sanitation. This has resulted in more services being needed to support the continually ageing population.
The United States health delivery is at a crisis point at the moment. Health care environments are increasingly complex for both patients and health care professionals alike. There is great demand for expensive services as we are experiencing great shortages in the medical professionals that are their duty to give care. The cost of health care has doubled if not tripled in the last decade. The yearly health care spending for an individual or household is more than doubled what it used to be a decade ago.
Employers are now requiring employees to spend more out of pocket for benefits due to the rising cost of medical costs. With the ever rising cost of prescription drugs employers are taking steps to curb the costs of medicines. Some employers require
As statistics show, there has already been an increase in the cost of health care partially due to the shortage in health care practitioners and the need to offer higher reimbursement for treatments. If predictions are true, and there is a shortage of 125,000 physicians by the year 2025, the cost of health care will increase more rapidly. Because health care and therefore an individual’s life is considered priceless, there are demand shifters that often affect the demand curve of a health care product. As demonstrated in the example above, physician loyalties and experience are just two of the many types of demand shifters. This demand shifters can cause an even steeper rise in health care cost in the real world.
They do have a group of eight oncologist and two radiation oncologist have expressed interest in an affiliation with the hospital. The community needs are already great, with an expected increase in new cancer diagnosis of 34% in the next five years. Currently oncologist are operating at capacity and are actively recruiting new physicians. Also in line with the increased demand of physicians is the increase in demand for facilities, equipment to diagnose and treat patients, operating rooms, chemo units and advanced imaging equipment are also not keeping up with patient demand. The coordination of patients is also poor which can result in devastating delays in diagnosis and treatment of patients.
One primary factor is the population growth patterns. Currently the American population is growing older, which means there is both a growing need for nurses as well as the implication that the workforce of nurses is also growing in age, roughly half of the nurses being 50 years or older. In most professions the reason for shortage is more directly related a lack of qualified applicants to the profession, in the case of nursing it is more directly related to the colleges and universities cannot meet demands of an increased enrollment. The inability to increase the enrollment is secondary to a lack of resources to both teach courses as well as issues related to student saturation at clinical sites (Fox & Abrahamson, 2009). A third contributing factor is very interrelated to nursing education is that nursing education has shifted from hospital-based diploma programs to university and college programs.
Almost one-third of adults in the U.S. are obese, and more than two-thirds of adults are overweight. Obesity rates have increased by 214 percent between 1950 and 2000(Livestrong.com). Also According to livestrong.com, the main cause for the increase it weight among American’s is lack of exercise, as well as the convenience of fast food, and caloric increase. This rise in obesity has increased diseases such as heart disease, and type 2 diabetes. As a country, we are spending over $190 billion a year treating these diseases, diseases that could be prevented by increasing exercise and decreasing calories.
Reimbursement and Pay-for-Performance The cost of healthcare in the United States is continually increasing. Over the past decade, the financial situation in the United States, emphasized by the cost of health care, has cost many employees in the health care field to accept lower wages or face unemployment. The healthcare premiums required for health care benefits have created strain for employers and employees. Increasing enrollment in government programs, such as Medicaid and Medicare, has created tension on the governmental budgets. The Patient Protections and Affordable Care Act of 2010 intend to address the current inadequacy of the incentive structures in the United States health care system.