The Evolution Of Health Care

Nursing care was unscientific and consisted of assisting patients with usual body functions; and was typically administered by women of a religious order or by women who by nature of their lifestyle frequented hospitals. Hospital care was for the poor and destitute; since home based medical care was better than risking additional infections in the dirty, crowded, and disease-ridden hospitals. During the typhus epidemic of 1852, hospital staff and patients suffered the greatest morbidity and mortality. (Ranade , 199817-19)

In the preindustrial era, 1800s, the United States fell behind other countries in health services. There was no medical training until around 1870 (Shi & Singh, 2013). Medical training began with students training under the supervision of physicians. Physicians saw patients by making house calls. Health care was delivered in a free market (Shi & Singh, 2013). No one had insurance so costs were out of pocket. For most Americans, this was a problem and some rural areas relied on folk medicine to heal the sick. The medical institutions during this era were not sanitized properly and nurses were not trained to practice safety and hygiene care. The government provided facilities for elderly, chronically ill patients, and clinics that offered free care.

The delivery of the U.S. healthcare system has changed drastically over the years from the inception of organized healthcare to today’s underdeveloped system. Prior to the 1920’s,

Randolph, F. (2009). The Evolution of the U.S. Healthcare System . : Gale, Cengage Learning. Retrieved from http://www.sciencescribe.net/articles/The_Evolution_of_the_U.S._Healthcare_System.pdf.

To ensure high quality care to a patient an approach known as patient centered care should be

There are four evolutionary phases in healthcare. The first phase was the preindustrial era, which started in the middle 18th century to the beginning of the 19th century. At this time, American medicine was not developing as fast as other countries; in Britain, France, and Germany, medical science and research was much more advanced than America. The postindustrial era began in the late 19th century, physicians in America were becoming more successful than others in the world. The third phase was the corporate era, which was marked by the growth of managed care, organizational integration, the information revolution and globalization. Finally, the fourth phase is the one in which we are in today, it is still fairly new and is characterized by the health care reform, which was brought about by the Affordable Care Act.

Hospitals Hospitals first started to appear in American in the early 1700’s. They were basically built as a place to put those with contagious diseases and contain these people during epidemics. They were mostly located in seaport towns like New York City, Charleston, S.C.and Philadelphia. Later in the 18th century almshouse was started solely for the poor in the cities as those with money chose to be treated in their own homes. These almshouses were the first institutions to provide continuous care and were organized as acts of charity by people and sometimes by colonial governments.

The period of time from 1850-1900 the focus was on epidemics resulting from conditions of food, water, housing and conditions of life (Williams & Torrens, 2008). The next major changes to healthcare in America was from 1900 to World War II the focus was on acute events, infections that affected the individual and not the group, as well as, the beginning of organized trauma care. Chronic diseases were the primary focus from World War II to 1980 focusing on diseases such as heart disease, cancer and stroke. 1980 to the present chronic diseases are still a focus with the addition of Behavioral disorders, as well as, prevention. Attention is paid to environmental hazards and working conditions. There are other factors not mention here, such as, patient education and response to terrorist

Managed care and its competition is being viewed to solve their issue on the struggle to control

Health care has been inclined by several significant events that have occurred throughout history. Change is the primary focus on what has shaped health care and continues to by pain of improvement, and to focus on the importance of our population and their needs. Though there are several influences politics, finance, culture, technology, health trends, and religions they all play a major contribution towards shaping the healthcare field. (Shi & Singh, 2012) Throughout this paper we will present significant events that have changed and affected health care today, give details about how the historical evolution of health care

One of the greatest changes in healthcare in the past ten years has been the rise of managed care, much to the displeasure of many patients and physicians alike. Managed care arose out of concern about spiraling healthcare costs and was designed to encourage physicians to give patients treatments that were cost-effective out of their own financial interests. "The consumer strategy was directed at imposing some barriers to use by levying various forms of co-insurance. The most common approaches used either deductibles (where the consumer paid the first portion of the bill a technique familiar in other types of insurance) or co-payments (where the consumer paid a portion of the bill and the insurance company the rest) or a combination of both' (Kane et al 1994). Managed care has given health insurance companies an increasingly significant voice in how treatment is administered and allocated. Managed care has proliferated in the past decade despite considerable criticism of the practice of 'nickel and diming' patients as well as the considerable bureaucratic red tape it is has generated. Also, research indicates that healthy, well-insured patients tend to over-consume care without meaningful co-pays but poorer, sicker patients can be deterred even by moderate co-payments and suffer negative health consequences (Kane et al 1994). However, managed care has not gone away and is a reality that all healthcare

What aspects and characteristics of American health care of the 18th and 19th centuries have had a major impact on shaping today’s U.S. health care system?”

Healthcare industry in United States has been an important industry for a long time. It is one such industry that has representation from both public sector and private sector. The current health care system is segregated and fragmented in America. Some states have very effective and efficient healthcare system while some states lack the desired infrastructure. The evolution of healthcare system in USA can be traced back to 1750. The period from 1750 to 1849 is termed as preindustrial period where the care of sick people was primarily handled by families (Brian, 2010). The period of 1850 to 1969 is termed as postindustrial period which reflects the growth of organized medicine and systematic healthcare delivery.

Patients today can judge better regarding their health care quality than anyone else. When patients are given quality service experience and provided with the detailed information on their health problems and the corresponding medical diagnosis and treatments they will be in a position to judge the health care he/she receives

Campbell & Sweeney, 2002; Blumstein, (2002) suggested that quality of care is not a unitary concept that reflect a uniform process. Many have referred to the quality of care in varying ways and distinct conceptualizations. Therefore, (Morse et al. 1991; Wilson & Cleary, 1995; Anderson & Burckhardt, 1999) only considered the quality of medical care at the patient-physician level, which is the approach of this research. Quality of medical care is a multidimensional construct with three components: outcomes, process and settings. The first goal of the patient, as well as the physician is to treat the condition with most proper care resulting in a better health outcome. Restoration of function, recovery and survival are few examples. The inclusion of this dimension is essential since it provides a robust metric to evaluate the quality of medical care provided. Second, the process dimension refers to