County Profile on Sacramento
Araceli Valencia
California State University, Long Beach
Abstract The County of Sacramento had its humble beginnings during the California Gold Rush and booming railroad industry. Since then it has grown to encompass seven cities and the states government buildings. This county is the home of the city of Sacramento, the state capital of California. The county of Sacramento is growing in population and is facing the same issues as the rest of the state when it comes to healthcare accessibility, affordability and quality. The following research paper speaks to the demographics, economic status, chronic diseases and healthcare initiatives the county is implementing to improve the quality of life
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Also, the way these physicians are distributed is poor. In 2008, there were 69,460 practicing physicians in California (this includes Doctors of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine), and 35 percent (or 24,124) of these physicians reported that they only practice primary care. That works out to 63 working primary care physicians in patient care per 100,000 residents. The Council on Graduate Medical Education recommends that a range of 60 to 80 primary care physicians are needed per 100,000 residents to adequately meet the needs of the surrounding population. As it stands, only 16 of California?s 58 counties comply with the needed supply parameters for primary care physicians. The areas within California that meet the recommended numbers for primary care physicians are the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Orange counties. The same is true for other healthcare professionals such as Physicians Assistants, Nurses/Nurse Practitioners and Registered Nurses. Even though the numbers are growing, the county and state are still below the necessary numbers to adequately assist the existing population. This might be further impacted with the passing of the ACA. It is expected that 4 million more residents will be insured due to mandates written into the ACA legislation further impacting the availability of health care professionals. An area that is greatly under represented is in the Mental and Behavioral Health Services area. There is a particularly low representation rate for child psychiatrists, community-based counselors, and psychiatric nurse practitioners. It is expected that the currently uninsured adults gaining access to health insurance through ACA are likely to have more behavioral health problems such as substance abuse and mental health issues, which will increase demand for these. In addition to
According to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, they have assessed the nation’s health system annually since 2003, reported that, in 2015 the health care delivery system has made progress to achieve the three aims of better care, smarter spending, and healthier people (City of White Plains Health Equity Report, 2017). However, they continue to promote health equality and reach the goal of New York State being the healthiest. But most importantly aiming to reduce or eliminate racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic health
Other Sutter Health-affiliated hospitals date back to the 1800’s and was some of Northern California’s earliest health care providers. In 1866, the predecessor of today’s Sutter Medical Center of Santa Rosa opened its doors to residents of Sonoma County. Today in the United States there are nearly 47 million Americans uninsured and 80 percent of that comes from working families. The article by Souza and McCarty, “From Bottom to Top: How One Provider Retooled its Collections,” covers how one of Northern California’s largestproviders, Sutter Health, approached implementing a new strategy to increase collections. In collecting payments from new patients, services provided, comes from the need to implement new strategies on how and when to collect the payments. Sutter Health have made a successful new program to implement and define most problems within their A/R department, developed solutions to their problems and have recognized the need to ensure the program is continuo...
There has been a shortage of physicians, lack of inpatient beds, problems with ambulatory services, as well as not having proper methods of dealing with patient overflow, all in the past 10 years (Cummings & francescutti, 2006, p.101). The area of concern that have been worse...
When one examines managed health care and the hospitals that provide the care, a degree of variation is found in the treatment and care of their patients. This variation can be between hospitals or even between physicians within a health care network. For managed care companies the variation may be beneficial. This may provide them with opportunities to save money when it comes to paying for their policy holder’s care, however this large variation may also be detrimental to the insurance company. This would fall into the category of management of utilization, if hospitals and managed care organizations can control treatment utilization, they can control premium costs for both themselves and their customers (Rodwin 1996). If health care organizations can implement prevention as a way to warrant good health with their consumers, insurance companies can also illuminate unnecessary health care. These are just a few examples of how the health care industry can help benefit their patients, but that does not mean every issue involving physician over utilization or quality of care is erased because there is a management mechanism set in place.
The number of doctors that present in the United States of America directly affects the communities that these doctors serve and plays a large role in how the country and its citizens approach health care. The United States experienced a physician surplus in the 1980s, and was affected in several ways after this. However, many experts today have said that there is currently a shortage of physicians in the United States, or, at the very least, that there will be a shortage in the near future. The nation-wide statuses of a physician surplus or shortage have many implications, some of which are quite detrimental to society. However, there are certain remedies that can be implemented in order to attempt to rectify the problems, or alleviate some of their symptoms.
State and local public health departments throughout the country have the responsibility for improving health in workplaces, schools, and communities through identifying top health problems within society and developing a plan to improve. Barriers the public health system has encountered over the years include: changes in the overall health system that support cost containment and improved health, and an increase in the number of individuals with insurance coverage for direct preventive services; reduction of qualified public health professional and funding at all levels of government; increasing focus on accountability, with higher expectations for demonstrating a return on investment in terms of cost and health improvement (Trust, 2013). In the near future, health departments ...
It is no secret that the current healthcare reform is a contentious matter that promises to transform the way Americans view an already complex healthcare system. The newly insured population is expected to increase by an estimated 32 million while facing an expected shortage of up to 44,000 primary care physicians within the next 12 years (Doherty, 2010). Amidst these already overwhelming challenges, healthcare systems are becoming increasingly scrutinized to identify ways to improve cost containment and patient access (Curits & Netten, 2007). “Growing awareness of the importance of health promotion and disease prevention, the increased complexity of community-based care, and the need to use scarce human healthcare resources, especially family physicians, far more efficiently and effectively, have resulted in increased emphasis on primary healthcare renewal.” (Bailey, Jones & Way, 2006, p. 381).
In consequence, this will limit poor adults finding the proper treatment since many doctors do not accept Medicaid patients. High rates of uninsured populations were associated with lower primary care capacity (Ku et al., 2011). Thus, expanding insurance coverage can support more primary care practices in rural areas and can help equal the gap in primary care positions. The impact of not expanding affects APRN practice by limiting them to practice in areas where they are needed the most. This not only affects APRNs from practicing without a physician supervision but also limit those that need coverage for basic preventive measures to reduce non-paying visits to the emergency room. Ensuring access to care will be contingent upon the ability to attain progress from insurance coverage and primary
Primary health care is the essential step to the Canadian health system. It is often associated with other specialized health care sectors, and community services. Many patients visit various services under primary health care such as family doctors' offices, mental health facilities, nurse practitioners' offices; they make phone calls to health information lines, for example, Tele-health; and receive suggestions from physicians and pharmacists (First Ministers; meeting on healthcare, n.d.). This service can prevent patients from visiting the emergency department, when all that is required is some guidance and advice. Having primary care services can reduce the consumption of acute beds, where only seriously ill patients can use the acute beds when it is available. Primary care not only deals with sickness care, but it helps patients receive preventable measures; it promotes healthy choices (Primary health care, n.d.). The focus on appropriate health care services, when and where they are needed, enhanced the ability of individuals to access primary care in various settings: at home, in a hospital or any number of family health care venues, such as Family Health Teams (FHTs), Community Health Centres (CHCs), or Nurse Practitioner- led clinics. This paper will look at the litigious heated argument in the Romanow Report concerning primary care. It will begin with a discussion of the outcome of the Accord on Health Care Renewal (2003) and The First Ministers' Meeting on the Future of Health in Canada (2004), both referring to primary care, which will then be followed with an assessment and analysis of the different ways in which the accords have been addressed in support of primary care. Followed by a discussion about the changes on ...
North County includes wealthy and well insured patients; East County includes middle-class residents with mixed insurance plans; South County has higher rates of poverty, indicating no or public insurance plans, and Central County has the highest rates of poverty and uninsured patients. This is a big factor when making decisions as to where new hospitals or clinics should be located, and where community benefit should be provided. Recently, many clinics and outpatient services have been shifted from central urban areas to the more affluent north county areas. As competition for the highly insured affluent North County patients increases, facilities such as UCSD and Scripps are upgrading facilities to provide the best, most desirable
In underserved communities there are too many peoples, and less much health care. There are plenty of benefits for new graduate of primary care such as loan forgiveness program. In stead doctors spending most of their career digging out from educational debe, with loan forgiveness the physician gets help paying down educational debt.
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Electronic Medical Records (EMR), affects healthcare delivery. I will discuss the positives and negatives this issue has on healthcare and how it effects the cost and quality for healthcare services. In addition, I will identify any potential trade-offs to cost or quality. Lastly, I will discuss how the EMR affects my job as well as any challenges or opportunities this issue presents.
In comparison, the population health discipline is relatively new in Northern Iowa, concentrating primarily on patients suffering from chronic disease, such as diabetes and/or conges...
When promoting primary health care services, there are many factors that must be considered when developing an effective marketing plan. Primary care providers are the gatekeepers of health care in the United States; many patients have to visit them before being referred to specialist providers (Bodenheimer, 2003). They are also being tasked with ensuring patients are receiving preventative services and managing more complex chronic diseases (Akinci & Healey, 2004). Recruitment of primary care physicians is challenging because they are expected to do more and are not being reimbursed proportionally for the added workload (Bodenheimer, 2003). In this paper, a group of primary care physicians in Washington D.C. is looking to research their consumer population base in order to provide them better services and recruit new primary care physicians to their practice (Colorado State University-Global Campus, 2013). A successful primary care marketing plan will recruit quality health care providers while improving consumer accessibility to their services, customer satisfaction rates, and patients’ continuity of care with their health care provider.
Primary health care is the indispensable care based on the real – world, systematically sound, socially adequate technique and technology which made unanimously available to the families and every individuals in the community through their fully involvement where the community is capable to afford at a cost to uphold at every phase of their growth in the essence of self-reliance and self-government. Primary health care in international health is associated with the global conference held at Alma Ata in 1978; the conference that promoted the initiative health for all by the year 2000. “Primary health care defined broadly at Alma Ata emphasized universal health care across to all individuals and families , encouraged participation by community members in all aspects of health care planning and implementation and promoted the delivery of care that would be scientifically sound , technically effective , socially relevant and acceptable” (Janice E.Hitchcock,2003). Primary health care is commonly viewed as a level of care or as the entry point to the health care system for its client. It can also taken to mean a particular approach to care which is concerned with containing care, accessibility, community involvement and collaboration between other sectors. The primary health care policy has some principals that have been designed to work together and be implemented simultaneously to bring about a better health outcome for the entire society.