Inequalities 2

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Institution

Describe an equity issue that exists in a public health center

The access to effective and quality health services is an important priority that every person needs in a health care centre. Equity forms the heart of all health care centers worldwide, and is a strong social relation between people. Ensuring everyone has access to equal and effective medical services irrespective of age, gender, tribe, color, financial status or religion is an important equity issue that exists in public health centre today (Marmot, 2010). This is also referred to as the issue of universal access to health care services. Most public hospital chose the type of patients to give more attention depending on the one of the factors stated above. Ensuring people, especially children, have the right to start life in a better environment is one of the most just and fair issue in the society involved in health inequalities today. The Medicare program focuses on access of basic health needs and not on the ability to pay. This calls for all public and private health care centers to offer services to all without discrimination. In addition, the issue of providing similar medical services to all should be discussed in depth because some health care systems do not meet people’s cultural demands (Cohen, 2013).

Analyze its impact on the people within the organization and those it serves

Lack of proper medical attention has a number of effects to both the people in the organization and those it serves. Firstly, the organization and its staff gain a poor reputation from the society because of their ignorance. A public health centre starts showing signs of inequality lose its credibility to the government and the people working in that organization might face court cases. Secondly, people who used to get services from such an organization look for other alternatives because of poor and lack of universal health access. The organization loses most of its customers due to discrimination, and this might lead to its closure. On the other hand, the people who get services from that organization also suffer a lot. To start with, the neglecting of some patients by the doctors might lead into increased ailments and even death of the ignored victims. The society or families suffer loss of their loved ones due to the inability of health care clinicians to take care of patients. Secondly, people are forced to seek medical attention from private institutions whose charges are higher compared to public health centers. This has an impact on the budget depending on the level of income of the affected persons (Kronenfeld, 2008).

Recommend solutions to the equity issue using the decision-making model

In order to overcome the following health equity issue, the following solution is recommended. Figure 1 represents the steps taken to come up with the solution.

Figure 1: Decision-making model for eliminating universal access inequality issue in healthcare centers.

To start with, the organization offering services should educate its staff on how to maintain a good patient-physician relationship. The clinical officers will be taught on how to approach patients from different tribes, races, color and religion and make them gain trust with the services offered. In addition, the health centre should introduce a shared decision making process that will enable staff to discuss various difficulties encountered and look for mitigation measures. These shared decision-making processes promotes patient understanding by the provider, self-efficacy, patient satisfaction and trust. On the other hand, patient management is a crucial issue in health care industry. The health care providers should possess high patient self-management qualities that ensure all patients receive equal and fair treatment without discrimination. Following this model yields an effective health outcome that will make patients enjoy the services offered in the health centre (Beach et al, 2005).

Explain any factors that you think would constrain or facilitate implementation of your recommendations.

Two main factors would hinder effective implementation of this decision-making model. Firstly, poor collaboration between health care practitioners would lead into slow implementation of the process. When staff members become reluctant in following instructions, there will be low progress and this would constrain the implementation. Secondly, the ignorance of the people served by the organization will have an effect on the process implementation. Some people are slow in accepting changes that come along after a long time of suffering making it hard for the program implementers to test the credibility of the recommended solutions.

References

Beach, M. C. Et al. (2005). “Cultural Competence: A systematic review of health care provider educational interventions”, Med Care. 43:356–373.

Cohen, G. I. (2013). The globalization of health care: legal and ethical issues. Oxford [UK:

Oxford University Press.

Kronenfeld, J. J. (2008). Inequalities and disparities in health care and health concerns of

patients, providers and insurers. Amsterdam: Elsevier JAI.

Marmot et al. (2010). Fair Society Healthy Lives: The Marmot review. Strategic review of health Inequalities in England post.