Identify local health services in the following areas: health promotion

1)Identify local health services in the following areas: health promotion, illness prevention, diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation, and long-term care. Judging from the number of agencies for each service, where does the health care emphasis seem to be? What implications does this have for citizens of your community?(we live in charleston, South Carolina)
2) What process should be used to determine how health care resources are allocated? List criteria you would suggest to determine whether a person should receive a kidney transplant, a hip replacement, or a bone marrow transplant. Should ability to pay play a role in the decision? Why or why not?
student responses
1) Lauren Conley
RE: DQ2_CH 14RE: DQ2_CH 14
Over the last several years, the United States healthcare system, has been working on allowing all citizens of the U.S. to be available to healthcare. (Black 303). Although the U.S. favors a free-market economy, the federal government has taken steps to ensure certain groups have access to health care through publicly funded programs including: Medicare and Medicaid (Black 304). Multiple steps should be considered when allocating health care services. Decisions should include normal societal values, and there should be no biased or discriminative opionions among people. The public, insurers, and physicians should be allowed input of health care resources. An effective plan to conserve and distribute health care will help to elimate inequalities and enable proper health care to all Americans. Whether an individual is covered by insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, or other sources of payment, individuals should recieve the same care. In regards to if a patient needs a kidney tansplant and they can not afford it, they still get on the list. If a kidney becomes available, they will recieve that kidney. As a nurse, it does not matter if a patient can afford their medical bills. It doesnt effect the care in which the patient will recieve. The patient should be treated the same reguardless of their income, and should be provided with the same medical treatment as patient who was able to afford their medical bills.

Black, B.P. Professional Nursing: Concepts and Challanges (7th ed.). St. Louis, Missouri: Elsevier Saunders.
2)Summer Elliott
RE: DQ2_CH 14RE: DQ2_CH 14
How should health care resources be allocated is a difficult question to answer. I think that more of the resources should focus on health promotion and maintenance, and prevention. These offer ways to keep the patient healthy and prevent problems, identify risk factors, or detect illnesses in the early stages when there is a better chance for treatment or survival (Black, 2014, p. 286). Maybe we wouldn’t have to deal with so many kidney transplants, hip replacements and bone marrow transplants if we put our resources in those categories of health care service. A more difficult question is what criteria should be used to determine whether a patient receives certain care or not. Where do you draw the line? If the issue is not enough resources, then I guess patient compliance has to be factored in. You can’t waste an organ on someone who is not compliant. If we spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to transplant a kidney for a patient and deny someone else the benefit of it, then the patient should be counted on take all his medicine, go to appointments, and follow his plan of care so he doesn’t need another one in a few years. I believe that currently there is a procedure that ranks those who need organs by criteria such as how sick they are, whether they use drugs, their age, etc. I think if someone could benefit from a bone marrow transplant or hip replacement the same sort of criteria could apply. Of course, it’s easy to say that until it’s you or your family member that is the one being denied that life saving procedure because you don’t fit the criteria. I don’t think that the ability to pay should be a factor. I don’t believe that the wealthy should have more right to health care than the poor. You are not a better person or more worthy just because you are rich. Black (2014), points out that “an illness or injury severe enough to require hospitalization can quickly exhaust a family’s financial reserves, forcing them into bankruptcy” (p. 307). According to Black (2014), “the United States and South Africa are the only two industrialized nations that do not provide universal access to health care to all their citizens” (p. 308). Health care expenditures are higher in the United states than any other country (Black, 2014, p.308). Since everyone is so concerned about bringing down health care costs, maybe going to universal coverage will help rein in the soaring costs. If people had the right to basic care, maybe they would quit using the emergency rooms as doctor’s offices, catch problems before they become severe and more expensive to treat, and participate in health promotion and maintenance, all which would bring down health care costs. People who wanted more than basic coverage could still obtain coverage through private insurers. I know universal coverage won’t fix all the problems, but the system seems broken the way it is.
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