Abstract
The issue of public health in the society is influenced by some factors that concern the access to health care facilities and services within a given environment. The access to healthcare is the key issues that hinder the proper provision of health care and the overall well-being of individuals in a given society. The most important factor to consider to overcome the issue of access to health care concerns understanding the social determinants of health in a given society to devise an approach that may help in providing a decisive intervention relating to the given issue in the society. The critical issue that influences the rate of access to health in a given society is the level of poverty or wealth among individuals in the society. In this case, the most appropriate intervention that would help in overcoming the issue concerns improving the livelihoods of individuals in the society to enhance their access to healthcare and in turn result in improved health within the entire society.
Access to healthcare in a given environment is one of the critical issues that affect the overall health and well-being of individuals. There are a number factors in the society that hinder effectiveness in accessing healthcare thus affecting the public health in situations where individuals are not in a position to access healthcare. Although access to healthcare is an overall term, access to quality care is critical since quality healthcare services play a significant role in improving the health conditions of individuals in a given environment. The implementation of proper interventions to deal with the healthcare issue in the society is an essential factor that ensures that specific populations in the society are in a position to obtain quality healthcare services in a bid to improve their health. The interventions focus on enhancing positive development among individuals with regards to the health conditions as well as the overall delivery of healthcare services in a given environment. It is, therefore, necessary to ensure that the interventions implemented to deal with a particular issue in the society play an important role in enhancing the overall health care services provided in a given environment.
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According to Pega et al. (2017), there are some social determinants of health in a given population within a society that plays an integral role in ensuring that individuals in the society have or cannot access quality health care services. The primary factor that interferes with the provision and access of quality health care services in a given society is the level of poverty among individuals. Wealth and poverty are significant plays that help in ensuring that individuals in the society can access healthcare thus creating an improvement in the overall health of individuals in a given society. In cases, society has high levels of poverty, the rate and ability to access quality healthcare are considerably lower than in regions where society has lower levels of poverty. Lucyk, K., & McLaren (2017) maintain that poverty and health are two primary and essential factors that are inseparable considering that access to healthcare services is costly. Additionally, maintaining proper and positive healthcare services in a given organization requires a significant investment to ensure adequate provision of quality health care services to individuals in the society. An outcome that indicates the relationship between poverty and reduced health among individuals in a given society is the mortality rates, which are high within the region experiencing extreme poverty compared to regions where individuals are considered to be well off.
In cases where individuals to not have the ability to access quality health care services, there are increased cases of infant mortality and cases of disability, which result from severe medical conditions that fail to be addressed promptly that worsening and leading to deteriorating public health. On the other hand, in wealthy populations, individuals tend to tend to have the ability to access quality healthcare services despite the high costs associated with the provision of healthcare services within healthcare organizations. Such wealth neighborhoods are advantaged to have well-equipped healthcare facilities that are in a position to address various issues that concerns the overall healthcare issues that affect the society. On the contrary, the healthcare organizations that are found within poor neighborhoods are often disadvantaged based on the fact that extreme poverty hinders the efforts to provide a clean and stable environment to offer quality care to the patients and members of a given society (Theiss, J., & Regenstein, 2017). The high poverty rates in the society are characterized by high rates of unemployment in the society leading to stresses in within the family settings based on the financial and economic constraints.
The establishment of proper measures to intervene the given issue in the society may help in ensuring that more individuals in the society are in a position to access quality health care services thus an improvement on the overall health of individuals in the society. One of the essential interventions that have been implemented to overcome the identified health issue in the society is the improvement of living conditions of individuals and enhances their overall wellbeing. Considering that poverty is a significant issue that is attributed to deteriorating health conditions in the society, it is critical to consider an improvement of the living conditions of individuals in a bid to resolve the issue of accessing health care. According to Fu, Y., Whitfield, S., & Nix (2017) improving the living conditions of individuals in the society is a gradual process that involves an understanding of critical factors in the society that concerns the individuals and their way of life. It is essential to understand factors that hinder the access of quality healthcare in the society to devise appropriate interventions that help in improving the quality of healthcare services and the overall health of individuals in a given society.
The first notable intervention identified when trying to improve the issue discussed revolves around the cost of health care, as this acts as one of the notable determinants of whether one is in a position to access quality health care services. According to Kasthurirathne, S. N., Vest, J. R., Menachemi, N., Halverson, P. K., & Grannis (2017), cost of health care remains as one of the critical issues affecting the concept of access to health considering that a vast majority of people in given health settings cannot afford health services offered. The intervention focuses more on ensuring that those in the healthcare setting achieve an overall increase inability to access health care based on cost reduction. Ultimately, this would mean that more people would find themselves better positioned to go to healthcare facilities if they would require specific health services. On the other hand, reducing the cost of health care services would also act as a guarantee that health care indicators for the affecting population in the healthcare setting would improve significantly.
The second intervention focuses more on improving access to information for the local population, as this would enhance the overall understanding that health care remains a crucial part of improving access to the same. In most cases, people tend to lack the expected knowledge that would allow them to understand the importance of accessing health care services in case of need. Thus, this highlights the value associated with this particular intervention, as it seeks to ensure that all people understand the need for a specific quality of health services offered in health facilities. The intervention, in this case, focuses on the provision of a proper environment for individuals to have proper access to the healthcare services in a given society regardless of their statuses in the society. Additionally, the intervention allows the healthcare organizations to have appropriate measures that allow individuals to access quality care thus allowing for the enhancement of public health in the society.
In conclusion, the issues of health and healthcare in regards to access to health care are crucial issues in the society, which influences the overall health of individuals in the society. The social determinants of health in the society plays a significant role in defining the extent to which individuals in the given society are in a position to access quality health care services to overcome their health issues. The proper establishment of appropriate interventions may help in ensuring that members of the society are in a position to access health care services thus ensuring that they are in a position to deal with health issues that often result in fatal implications if not catered for. The interventions mentioned in this case provide an avenue for individuals to access quality care and in return contribute to bettering of the overall public health. The central gap identified, in the interventions, is that they do not evaluate the viability of the measures that health care facilities or administrators ought to take as part of their approach towards promoting access to health care. It was important for the interventions to establish a position from which healthcare administrators would operate primarily when trying to ensure that more people understand the value brought about through improved access to quality healthcare services.
References
Fu, Y., Whitfield, S., & Nix, T. (2017). PolicyMap: Mapping Social Determinants of Health. Medical reference services quarterly , 36 (3), 266-272.
Kasthurirathne, S. N., Vest, J. R., Menachemi, N., Halverson, P. K., & Grannis, S. J. (2017). Assessing the capacity of social determinants of health data to augment predictive models identifying patients in need of wraparound social services. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , 25 (1), 47-53.
Lucyk, K., & McLaren, L. (2017). Taking stock of the social determinants of health: A scoping review. PloS one , 12 (5), 1-24.
Pega, F., Valentine, N. B., Rasanathan, K., Hosseinpoor, A. R., Torgersen, T. P., Ramanathan, V., ... & Dora, C. (2017). The need to monitor actions on the social determinants of health. Bulletin of the World Health Organization , 95 (11), 784-787.
Theiss, J., & Regenstein, M. (2017). Facing the Need: Screening Practices for the Social Determinants of Health. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , 45 (3), 431-441.
