Hospitals

Hospital

The central theme of problems facing hospitals in the United States is public health care . It is a problem between individual patients and hospitals as it is and more importantly an issue that concerns the government and the public . I will proceed with the by offering a set of possible solutions and the practical problems that go with them

Health care involves government funding for health programs - which in turn refer to services that must be provided by the state . The challenge presented to the state is efficiency in delivering health

services . The problem of hospitals offering services funded by the state is quality improvement . The weakness of the state as a provider of health care is also absorbed by other hospitals , both non-profit and profit-oriented (Staiti , et .al , 2005

US hospitals , in general , face the problem of balancing quality with access to health care . This is a challenge to hospitals retaining and improving the quality of health care without bloating the expenses of patients . This is also a public policy issue since a form of regulation is needed to oversee the rising health care cost as well as quality assurance (Staiti , et .al , 2005 ) A close scrutiny of US hospitals will show that many are making changes in their billing and collection services . There are reports that this issue is continuously being raised in court . Congress has also shown interest in examining the health care industry . But the fact remains that without public demand , it is an issue likely to fall on deaf ears (Staiti , et .al , 2005 ) This problem in addition , is not only about changes in hospital billing . Hospitals may accommodate uninsured patients but the doctors in the hospitals may not always be ready to treat them . This is especially true for specialty hospitals (Guterman , 2006 ) There are reports that doctors try to avoid low-income patients . Given these problems , how will the government in cooperation with hospitals , persuade private physicians to attend to uninsured patients ? How will the increase of uninsured patients be lessened (Staiti , et .al , 2005

Although most affected in the problem of balance of quality and access are the uninsured patients , the stakeholders are both public and private payers . Even those who can afford to pay hospital fees demand that the money that they spend must be worth the care they receive (Agency for Health Care Policy and Research , 1997

Measures . One measure to limit the losses and improve the status of hospitals is the establishment of health care organizations or associations . These organizations can assist in the management of health care provision . At the same time , they can push for reforms for the improvement of hospitals . An example of an important campaign of existing organizations is pushing policy makers to address the billing and collection practices of hospitals . This should result in the creation of hospital policies with regard to payment (Staiti , et .al 2005 ) Another measure is by linking health organizations to hospitals and forming partnerships between hospitals and doctors...