Will County Health Department plays a major role in the state of healthcare of the community. WCHD is the fifth largest and most diverse public health agency in all of Illinois (). For the fifth consecutive year, the University of Wisconsin’s Population Health Institute ranks Will County among the upper 25th percentile of Illinois’ healthiest jurisdictions(). The mission of the Will County Health Department is to prevent disease and promote a healthier environment for all (). To that end, agency professionals assure the maintenance of flexible program initiatives and develop sound public health policies, based on a thorough assessment of community needs (). With over fifty-five programs and services and 320 staff members, the WCHD does it’s best to collect current public health data and continue to improve healthcare of the residents in Will County. The Will County Health Department consists of a board of health, the executive director, the assistant executive director, and three large divisions: Environmental Health, Family and Health Services, and behavioral Health Programs. The organizational chart is on Appendix ().
Administrative Division
Board of Health
The Board of Health is the decision making body of the Will County Health Department. It is composed of 12 members, who are appointed by the Will County Executive and the Will County Board. The members are a combination of Will County Health Department employees and others being from the community. For example, the
Healthcare in the United States is a constant struggle. For generations the country has been in heated debate over the best approach to this unsettling issue. While many changes have been made, none seem to be effective enough to please and serve the country effectively. No matter what course is taken there is always a group, or groups of individuals who are left out and underserved. As a country we need to provide for all of our citizens to ensure healthy living and overall quality of life. Unfortunately, our society is based off of socioeconomic class. This becomes an issue in regards to healthcare requirements due to the fact that many poverty stricken families go throughout their lives with little or no coverage at all. For those in good financial standing healthcare is easily accessible, while the poor struggle and deal with illness in inhumane ways. Millions of American citizens are uninsured; this number includes all walks of life from children through the elderly. In order to overcome this devastating issue the American people have to come to a decision on how to care for all of our citizens so that no one is left out. In today’s society this has become an even more difficult task as we face an ongoing struggle within our economy, leaving many families in financial hardship.
As Executive Director, I will provide staff leadership for Better Health Association. Our goal for the company is to improve the well-being of individuals. Audiences of all ages will be able to take part in learning about living a healthy lifestyle and developing the skills needed to make healthy choices to prevent diseases and ameliorate conditions for those already afflicted with illnesses. Over the course of the next year, It is my responsibility to develop and lead the staff, management structure, dedicated to achieving the mission for Better Health Care Organization. I plan to make significant changes to our organization, to help guide individuals in Central Ohio, to living a better and healthier lifestyle. My goal is to empower the staff with the training needed to meet our company’s standards.
The health status of the population in the United States is a national priority. The Healthy People 2020 outlines priorities and to improve the health of individuals and communities across the country. Healthy People 2020 is defined as a comprehensive set of national objectives for “improving the health of all Americans” (Healthy People 2020, n.d, para. 1). The Healthy people 2020, is aimed at improving the health of individuals and communities and envisions “a society in which all people live long, healthy lives” (Healthy People 2020, n.d, para 4). A short priority list was developed and contains twenty-six objectives knowns as Leading Health Indicators (LHI). The list of objectives was created to prioritize health issues that must be addressed and to find appropriate actions to take in order to improve the health of the population.
Health care in America is a serious issue as it involves families that are unable to receive accessible, affordable and quality medical treatment. Middle class or impoverished families are unable to receive the benefits of health care due to low income levels and a volatile economy. Politicians discuss the reformation of the health care system, but people who are uninsured suffer the consequences of a system that overlooks middle class families in favor of wealthy families, a dominant issue for conflict theorists. Some argue that the health care system is not in need of reform and state that
The entities Comprising the Public Health Infrastructure include: County and city health departments and local boards of health - State, territorial, and island nation health departments - Various U.S. Public Health Service agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) - Tribal health agencies coordinated at HHS by the Indian Health Service - Public and private laboratories - Hospitals and other private-sector healthcare providers - Volunteer organizations, such as the American Red Cross, American Diabetes Association, American Cancer Society.
Many ways are used to measure how much Americans values life. Obviously, good health is a major factor of being happy and satisfied with an Americans’ life. People also place family, friends, and owners potential is very high on the list of value for health care insurance. Health care has become the stress to every person’s life. Health care controls everything a person does due to the draw backsdrawbacks of not having it when it is necessary, like breaking an arm or coming down with a deathly illness. You have to introduce your quotations “Health care reform will be on the agenda for future sessions of Congress, because the economic pressures of rising health care costs on the federal government, business, and
Tina Ahlberg is professional speaker and she works at Black Hawk County Health Department as Health Officer. She talked about six different titles of job such as Sanitarian, Health Officer, Health Inspector, Environmental Health Officer, Environmental Health Professional and Environmental Health Specialist. There are several sites to work in Environmental Health and Public Health such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Environmental Protection Division, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Department of Public Health, Iowa Department of Inspection & Appeals and U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They are working in diverse area like Grocery Store Inspections, Foodborne Illness Investigations, Tanning Bed Inspections and Swimming
The Director’s office is the head of the whole department. It is the director’s duty to advocate for public’s health in Iowa and to act as the spokesperson to local health boards, public health agencies, local health care providers, and also consumers of health care services. The director works hand in hand with local, state, national, and international policymakers. The six divisions contained in the IDPH are; the Iowa Board of Medicine, the Iowa Board of Nursing, the Office the State Medical Examiner, the Iowa Dental Board, the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, and last but not least the State Board of Health (Des Moines 19).IDPH is averaged to be about 1.7 million dollars. According to their annual report, they spent 1.72 million dollars in 2013 which was lower compared to the amount spent in 2014 which amounted to about 1.81 million dollars (Darling et al.
Today, many Americans are affected by health care decisions made without their prior knowledge. More than likely most Americans are unsure how those decisions are decided and who is responsible for making those decisions that ultimately affect how health care is administered. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the United States government’s principle agency for protecting the health of all Americans and for providing essential human services, especially to those who are unable to help themselves. HHS administrators over two hundred programs and it accounts for almost forty percent of all United States federal government spending. HHS mission is to keep Americans safe and healthy through effective health and human service programs. The department has five strategic goals: strengthen health care, advance scientific knowledge and innovation, advance the health, safety, and well-being of the American people, increase efficacy, transparency, and accountability of HHS programs and strengthen the Nation’s health and human service infrastructure and workforce (Department of Health and Human Services, (n.d.).
As such, it works to promote policies and practices of public health to enable provision of quality healthcare for quality life (Arkansas, 2015). The ADH comprises 10 business units, particularly, five health regions that support healthcare services offered in other 94 local health units across Arkansas. The services offered mainly emphasize on various health aspects; these include provision of individual health services in the community-based health clinics and in homes of patients acknowledged as chronically, acutely, or terminally ill. As well, the department is responsible for conducting education and checking industries that promote public health impacts, such as water systems, food services, industrial and individual sewerage systems, and health facilities. To foster health programs, ADH provides leadership, guidance, and technical assistance to local Hometown Health Improvement Initiatives mandated to improve community health, monitoring, and assessment of public health trends and challenges, promotion of healthy behaviors, response to public health emergencies through bioterrorism preparedness, emergency response programs, and control of communicable
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
State and local governments create health councils to ensure local health agencies have the capability to provide the essential public health services the policies dictate once the policies are implemented. Redistributive and regulatory policies are the two types of policies that are created. Redistributive policies are policies that take goods and services away from some members of the population and gives them to others. Regulatory policies are policies that restrict or constrain behavior in some way to a group of people or profession (Clark, 2015). One example of a policy-creating group in Jackson County is the Environmental Health Division. It is responsible for implementing the policies and procedures of the Jackson County Food Code. At this time, the key concerns for Jackson County are the aging population, the high poverty rate, the increasing prevalence of diabetes, the high percentage of the uninsured in the county, and the teen birth rate. The governing bodies are continually implementing programs to help with these key concerns. One at-risk population in Jackson County is
State health departments are responsible for multiple areas in regards to providing health care services to the people of their state as designated by the U.S. Constitution. (Niles, 2018, p.98) One main role of the state health department is to "monitor communities to identify health problems". (Niles, 2018, p.98) This includes creating and implementing laws and regulations to promote the well being of their citizens, and to work with federal programs to use them on the state level. According to the American Public Health Association, "The state health department's mission to advance community health is carried forward through four basic functions: (1) health surveillance, planning, and program development; (2) promotion of local health coverage;
The current state of United States’ health care system is one of the most polarizing subjects of debate among scholars and other health care professionals across the globe. This can be attributed to the fact that at one extreme end, there are some who argue that that Americans have the best system of health care in the world (MePhee, 2013). Perhaps the availability of the state-of-the-art facilities and free medical technology that have become highly symbolic of the various industries in the United States have motivated the idea of the country’s health care system being unparalleled to others. However, there is a common belief that the fight for universal health care can only be successful if its current state of health care is described as a failure in the modern era as emphasized by MePhee (2013).
A health care system is a framework of interrelated, interacting, and interdependent descriptions of human development in a given country, region, or community. This system of human development functions as an organized measure to promote and provide treatment in which individuals reach their highest attainable level of physical, mental, and social well-being. All health care systems are grounded in the concept that genetic and biological factors must be taken into account to understand the problems and behaviors of a specific population. The interconnected factors that determine an individual’s health status includes personal features, social status, culture, environment, educational attainment, health behaviors, childhood development, access to care, and government policy. International collaboration of ideas on the progression of transnational health is greatly endorsed for the benefit of complete global health care. Health care has social, governmental, and financial implications that affect all members of the health care system and in countries within the Central American region specially, citizens have fallen victim to health disparities that have resulted from long-term neglect of the underlying factors that perpetuate this issue.