Reproductive Rights and the Medical Care System: A Plea for Rational Health Policy

1993 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 174 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Stephenson ◽  
M. G. Wagner
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Reproductive Rights ◽  
Medical Care System ◽  
System A ◽  
Care System

Business and the Pushcart Vendors in an Age of Supermarkets

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda A. Bergthold
Keyword(s):  
Health Policy ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
The Political ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
Medical Care System ◽  
Business Power ◽  
State Policymaking ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Care System

The subject of this article is the impact of the political participation of business on the substance, process, and power of State policymaking about medical care in the 1980s. The article focuses on organized business coalitions, how and why they emerged to participate in the health policy debate, and the impact of these interests on health policy itself. It asks the question, How and to what extent has the emergence of business as an actor in health care politics changed both the process by which health policy is formulated at the state and federal level and the substance of health policy itself? It comes to the conclusion that business involvement has varied in impact and intensity from state to state, that business participation ultimately reinforces the control of the private sector over medical care resources, that business power can be used to decrease the autonomy and power of medical providers and is consistent with and reinforces current trends toward privatization and corporatization of the medical care system, and that the political participation of business has produced a degree of structural change in the medical care system. These changes have profound implications for unorganized consumer constituencies and their access to the policy process.

Medical Care for a Mass Gathering: The Suwa Onbashira Festival

2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 431-435 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuyuki Yazawa ◽  
Yukihiro Kamijo ◽  
Ryuichi Sakai ◽  
Masahiko Ohashi ◽  
Mafumi Owa
Keyword(s):  
Medical Care ◽  
Medical Records ◽  
Medical Service ◽  
Medical Problems ◽  
Medical Care System ◽  
Mass Gatherings ◽  
Emergency Medical ◽  
Cervical Spine Fractures ◽  
First Time ◽  
Care System

AbstractIntroduction:The Suwa Onbashira Festival is held every six years and draws approximately one million spectators from across Japan. Men ride the Onbashira pillars (logs) down steep slopes.At each festival, several people are crushed under the heavy log. During the 2004 festival, for the first time, a medical care system that coordinated a medical team, an emergency medical service, related agencies, and local hospitals was constructed.Objective:The aims of this study were to characterize the spectrum of injuries and illness and to evaluate the medical care system of this festival.Methods:The festival was held 02 April–10 May 2004. The medical records of all of the patients who presented to an on-site medical tent or who were treated at the scene and transported to hospitals over a 12-day period were reviewed.The following items were evaluated: (1) the emergency medical system at the festival; (2) the environmental circumstances; and (3) patient data.Results:All medical usage rates are reported as patients per 10,000 attendees (PPTT). A total 1.8 million spectators attended the festival during the 12-day study period; a total of 237 patients presented to the medical tent (1.32 PPTT), and 63 (27%) were transferred to hospitals (0.35 PPTT). Of the total, 135 (57%) suffered from trauma—two were severely injured with pelvic and cervical spine fractures; and 102 (43%) had medical problems including heat-related illness.Conclusions:Comprehensive medical care is essential for similar mass gatherings. The appropriate triage of patients can lead to efficient medical coverage.

Les Nouveaux Miserables: Modem Victims of Social Asphyxia

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 96 (4) ◽  
pp. 851-857
Author(s):  
David R. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Medical Care ◽  
Health Care Costs ◽  
Health Care Services ◽  
Preventive Services ◽  
Medical Care System ◽  
Care Services ◽  
Care Costs ◽  
Care System

During the past 30 years, social and economic barriers to health care services have increased for many Americans, especially for the nation's most vulnerable populations. Health status actually has declined for certain populations during this time. Meanwhile, national attention has been focused primarily on containing health care costs and on devising strategies for reforming the financing of health care rather than strategies for achieving improvements in the health status of the population. Existing methods of financing health care services, health research priorities, the increasing centralization and compartmentalization of health care services, and the recent failure of national health reform all serve to hinder this nation's progress towards developing a comprehensive and accountable health care system focused on promoting and achieving improved health as well as treating sickness. Recent changes in the health care marketplace, however, including a growing movement toward measuring the outcomes of medical treatments and an emphasis on improving the quality of services, have increased interest among payers and providers of health care services in investing in preventive services. Health maintenance organizations and other integrated health care delivery systems are beginning to devise incentives for increasing preventive care as well as for containing costs. The transformation of the nation's current medical care system into a true health care system will require innovative strategies designed to merge the existing fragmented array of services into coordinated and comprehensive systems for delivering primary and preventive health care services in community settings. The community-Oriented Primary Care concept successfully blends these functions and has achieved measurable results in reducing health care costs and improving access to preventive services for identified populations. There is flexibility in existing funding sources to promote preventive services in various public and private health care settings and to assist in the transformation from a disease-oriented medical care system to one focused on health.

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