Iowa Department Of Public Health (IDPH)

The health care system must change to improve our nation’s health and takes strong steps to address the unsustainable growth of health care costs in America. We still have a long way to go before our health system become effective. We still have population that do not have insurance, have difficulties accessing their health care, or their needs are not met within the healthcare system. It is an investment in prevention and wellness and increasing access to primary care physician.

For the last five weeks research has been done on Kaiser Permanente, an organization that contains Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Permanente Medical Groups in eight regions. Since its inception in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has become the largest not-for-profit, integrated health care delivery system in the United States, serving 8.6 million members in eight regions: Northern and Southern California, Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, the Mid-Atlantic States, Ohio, and the Northwest. About three quarters of the members are in California, the organization’s birthplace. It is the largest nonprofit integrated health care delivery system in the United States. Its mission is to provide affordable, high-quality health care services to improve the health of their members and the communities they serve. For the purpose of this research, focus will be on Northern California in a randomly selected hospital.

Sultz, H.A. & Young, K.M. (2010). Health Care USA: Understanding its Organization And Delivery (7th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the U.S. government’s principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. HHS is responsible for almost a quarter of all federal outlays and administers more grant dollars than all other federal agencies combined. The mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is to enhance the health and well-being of Americans by providing for effective health and human services and by fostering sound, sustained advances in the sciences underlying medicine, public health, and social services. In addition, HHS is also responsible to provide better services to people by adapting to new technologies to keep pace with the advancement in technology. As we compare the health and human services from last ten years to present, it is very clear to analyze how health and human systems have improved over the years. The Department manages programs that cover a vast spectrum of activities that impact health, public health, and human services outcomes throughout the life span.

Barton, Phoebe Lindsey. Understanding the U.S. Health Services System, Fourth Edition. Foundation of the American College of Healthcare Executives, 2010.

The Health system in Louisiana and Illinois is widely different on basis of access to healthcare, mental health issues and many others. Looking at overall performance of healthcare system by measuring 42 different variables such as at systemic level, from insurance coverage to vaccination rates to avoidable hospital stays and at individual level, from rate of obesity to numbers of adults who have lost six or more teeth, Illinois is among the third quartile while Louisiana is among the bottom quartile (The Atlantic, 2014). Furthermore, we can identify the differences by measuring indicators of health status such as adult obesity rate, mental health issues in young and adults and adult smoking behavior. For health resources, we would look for access to health care, primary care physician and mental health providers. For identification of risk factors, we have to mainly measure the uninsured rate and for focusing on child issues, measure rate of teen-age pregnancy, low birth weight children and infant mortality in the country.

Every individual in the world deserves to enjoy health and wellness. Maintaining or achieving proper health needs enables individuals to be productive at work and leisure. Traditionally, many people have had barriers obtaining adequate healthcare due to economic constraints or personal inconveniences. Despite impressive technological advances in medicine, the challenge of delivering quality healthcare to the Americans continues to be debated amongst the nation’s political and healthcare leaders. The aging baby-boomers and the increased number of uninsured people add to the equation of population growth which results in limited access to primary healthcare for the entire public. On the

Funding for human services as defined above has been largely neglected by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), or stimulus bill. Of the $700+ billion national program, $140 billion over a 2 ½ year period is specifically devoted to addressing budget shortfalls experienced by 48 states (all except Montana and North Dakota). Illinois’ portion of that total is $10.5 billion, equaling about 40% of our state’s shortfalls for combined fiscal years 2010 and 2011. At least 80% of that funding is specified by law for health care, education, and employment security.

This is assignment is to review and reflect on your own personal values and beliefs which shapes how you interpret and analyze population health. The purpose of this paper is to reflect on how you see your role as a healthcare professional in advocating for, and influencing population health. Describe the connection of this role to public health and address your thoughts around the influence that health care providers may have or not, in promoting the health of the community. What role should heath care providers play, and what strategies may increase the influence of healthcare providers in improving population health? This assignment can be approached from a clinical, academic or public health focus.

Itasca County Public Health works with local, regional and state partners to protect health, to guide public health practice, to plan for emergency response and to align resources for planning (Itasca County Health and Human Services, 2016).

The Indian Health Service (IHS) is a healthcare program within the Department of Health and Human Services. (Agency Overview n.d.) It provides federal health services to eligible American Indians and Alaska Natives at IHS facilities. (Agency Overview n.d.) Services that IHS provide include medical, dental and vision, ancillary services, such as laboratory and pharmacy, specialty care which include services provided by the physician or specialist. (Agency Overview n.d.) The factors that affect the type of health care depend on the community needs, level of funds and whether treatment is medically necessary (Marx n.d.) American Indians and Alaska Natives can receive direct care at hospitals, health centers and they may be federally or

Health problems are a growing concern for individuals today, as health-related issues increase in complexity and require a multi-faceted approach to prevention and treatment. Additionally, there is also a large, underserved population that exists within the U.S. at present. The Banner Health Network (BHN) recognizes this adversity and through strategic planning is transforming healthcare to overcome this challenge. Banner has created one of the largest health systems in this country and is striving to meet the global healthcare needs of citizens. One of the ways that Banner is effecting change is by performing community health assessments wherein information regarding community health status, local public health systems, and legislative and demographic forces

In the United States, the health care system differs state by state. Each state has their own set of laws and regulations that fit their standard of morality. When it comes to health care, each state may differ in healthcare’s cost, access and quality. There are also many things that affect these regulation, such as the states sociodemographic and the populations overall health. In the state of Louisiana, there are great differences in their system compared to the overall country’s population.

Department of Health & Human Services. (2011). National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Healthcare. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Columbus Regional Health (n.d.) serves 10 counties in Southeast Indiana. The demographics include a predominantly Caucasian population of approximately 300,000 people (Economic Opportunities through Education by 2015, n.d.). In southeastern Indiana, about 140,000 individuals have employment, and 15% of them, who are over the age of 24, have a bachelor’s degree (Economic Opportunities through Education by 2015, n.d.). Approximately 30% of the high-school students drop out in this mainly rural area with a flat population growth (Economic Opportunities through Education by 2015, n.d.).