DISCUSSION QUESTION 3-2
MH601 Survey of the Health Care System
Lesson 3: Technology, Food Safety, and Compliance
Discussion Question 2 (50 points)
Describe the links in the process by which an infectious disease is transmitted from person to person. How might the spread of disease be controlled relative to each link? (50 points) (A 2-page response is required.)
Activity 2: Case Study Analysis (100 Points)
Using a minimum of 8-10 slides, develop a PowerPoint presentation showing an epidemiologic analysis of a health problem. Your slides should define and show comparative measures that quantify the problem, for example using information spread over years or among nations or age groups. The slides must show both tabular and graphic data and be comprehensible to a layperson without benefit of a complete presentation. Try to relate this activity to your Stand-Alone Project so that your presentation will serve as an outline for your project. Then write a 4-page synopsis of your slide presentation with a bibliography formatted in APA style. Your Activity responses should be both grammatically and mechanically correct, and formatted in the same fashion as the Activity itself. If there is a Part A, your response should identify a Part A, etc. In addition, you must appropriately cite all resources used in your response and document in a bibliography using APA style. (100 points) (An 8- to 10-slide presentation and a 4-page synopsis are required.)
Discussion Question 1
In the past two decades, public health professionals have launched a variety of interventions designed to improve the health of low-income urban populations. Public health strategies can be defined as organized activities designed to achieve specified health outcomes based on an analysis of causal factors and informed by a theory of health determinants.
Explain why the primary-care setting offers important opportunities for health promotion to low-income urban populations. Then, describe the attempts that have been made to increase low-income urban population access to quality primary care.
This Stand-Alone Project requires you to select a health threat to the American public. You will present a descriptive analysis of its history and current status, outline the social, economic, and political implications for the community-at-large, and describe the issues within the context of the overall health care system. Information may come from many sources, for example books, journals, news media, the Internet, association news, etc. A table of contents and a bibliography listing only those works that you cited in your analysis are required.
Part A
Select a health care issue that currently involves the American public: Alcohol and other drug problems, infectious disease control, HIV, tobacco use and smoking, maternal and child health as a social problem, diabetes, clean air and water, and solid and hazardous waste control are only some of the appropriate problem areas and topics that you can select. Then, research the background of the problem you have selected, limiting historical trends to several paragraphs and archival research to publications from the last three years, except when historical comparisons require the use of older statistics, such as in mortality rates, for example.
Part B
Describe the health problem you have selected, giving close attention to the incidence of it (a measure of new cases of a disease or the frequency of occurrence of disease based on new cases in a particular population within a certain time period) and the prevalence of it (a measure of the extent of a health problem or disease in a population based on the total number of existing cases at a given time). Use examples and statistics from your research.
Part C
Discuss the implications of the problem. What have been and will be the social, economic, and political implications of the problem for the community-at-large if nothing is done to control it? Provide four (4) or more examples and statistics along with the prevalence of the problem in the United States.
Part D
Discuss current solutions or ways of controlling the problem. Describe steps taken within the public health and other health care system components to control or eradicate the problem. Why haven't these been effective?
Part E
Prepare an outline of a plan that would reduce or eliminate the problem in our society. What would be the estimated economic, social, and political costs associated with your proposed plan?
Having rational health care delivery systems means little if the quality of service clients receive is poor. Discuss the use of quality as a control tool in public health. Then provide a brief review of two (2) quality measurement tools used by health care organizations as a means to improve their services. Lastly, discuss the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award Program. (50 points) (A 2 page response is required.)
DISCUSSION QUESTION 3-2
MH601 Survey of the Health Care System
Lesson 3: Technology, Food Safety, and Compliance
Discussion Question 2 (50 points)
Describe the links in the process by which an infectious disease is transmitted from person to person. How might the spread of disease be controlled relative to each link? (50 points) (A 2-page response is required.)
Prepare a narrative summary of workforce preparation for public health and status of continuing education in this field. (A 2 page response is required).
MH601 Discussion Question 1-2
One of the key components of the health care system is the health care professional. Nurses, who happen to make up the majority of the public health care workforce and other facilities' workforce, have seen their work roles change as a result of the current U.S. nurse shortage. While the recession altered the supply and demand of these professionals, demand is still present. Research and discuss how the nurses' roles have changed as a result of these shortages. Describe at least three (3) recruitment methods companies are using as a means to fill their vacancies. Based on your research, which of these three (3) methods do you feel will work the best and why? A minimum of three (3) Internet sources must be cited.
MH601 Activity 6: Measuring Health
Go to a medical internet site such as www.cdc.gov and select article about a current topic from the ones displayed. Thoroughly review and summarize the article. Then discuss how this problem impacts your community (neighborhood, ethnic group, geographic area, health groups such as the elderly, etc), and your family. Limit your response to four pages, including the summary of the selected article.'
Activity 4
Interview With A Hospital Administrator
Question Description
Arrange and conduct a brief face-to-face or telephone interview with a public health or hospital professional (this could be a planner, educator, or other professional performing in an administrative capacity) to obtain his/her perspective on the current local health care delivery system and the relationship between the community clinical system and the public health system. Explore the interviewee's expectations for future health care delivery, for example, over the next five (5) years. Include your own questions and follow-up questions to those suggested below. If an interview is impossible to arrange, research your local (county or state) public health Web sites to discern responses to your questions. Following the interview, prepare a 4-page summary of the administrator's comments, including answers to the questions you have posed.
Prepare your questions in advance, including:
A Plague Upon Us
You are an epidemiologist with the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C. You met this morning with the department director. She is concerned about the return of certain diseases, long considered conquered, such as the bubonic plague and polio, as these diseases have re-emerged in Africa and India in the past decade. The director is confident that the public health standards in the U.S. would not make the emergence or reemergence of those diseases on U.S. soil likely. However, since the risk of harm is so great if the diseases did emerge or re-emerge, she feels it is important to conduct a study/investigation of this matter. In addition, there is also a concern about bioterrorism in the U.S. in which terrorists could introduce "plague diseases," such as small pox into the U.S. deliberately, and thus a study/investigation into the matter is doubly relevant.
Your orientation into this investigation is from the standpoint of a managerial epidemiologist, meaning that you are attempting to develop a strategic plan to prevent and control these potentially large-scale diseases. You are to draw up a preliminary memo that discusses five (5) primary objectives of managerial epidemiology and methodology to find the root cause of the reemergence in these third-world nations and five (5) possible techniques you could use to conduct this study. In your memo, be sure to be as specific as possible as to how you might address a catastrophic emergence of one or both of these diseases.
You may wish to refer to the MH601 Graduate Student Learning Guide, Lecture and Research Update, Assignment #3, pp. 3-4.
Double Vision
You are the administrator at Vision Health Care, Inc., a managed care organization. You are particularly pleased to have recruited three new physicians groups in the last two weeks. One of these groups of contracted physicians, Radiology Center of California, is located in Rosedale, California. The Center has never been a part of a managed care plan before. In fact, whenever they had been approached in the past, they had been highly resistant to the idea of managed care. The physicians at the Center are "old school," all of them beginning their careers in the middle 1980s when Fee-For-Service was the primary mode of reimbursement.
In the last few years, however, they have suffered declining revenues as they have lost patients and failed to attract new ones because of the employer-sponsored managed care programs that now cover many patients. These patients desire the simplicity of handing the plastic membership card to the receptionist, who passes it off to someone else in the office, who then takes care of all of the billing aspects of the patients' visits. The physicians in the Center have begun to recognize the need to contract with health plans.
Reviewing their file, you are especially impressed with the physicians group at the Radiology Center of California. Their skills and the level of their technology are exceptional. You know that this account will be an asset to your company, and you are determined to make the transition as smooth as possible for the physicians at the Center. You decide to meet with them as soon as possible to acquaint them with the incentives that are provided to physicians who contract with the plan.
You now must design two incentive plans that will motivate the physicians and direct them to meet your organization's goals of quality, access, and low cost for plan members. One of the plans should be a capitation-fixed plan and the other should be a performance-based plan.
