Introduction to Health Care Organization

Course Description

This non credit course introduces students from outside the USA to the historical development, structure, operation, and current and future directions of the major components of the American health care delivery system. It examines the ways in which health care services are organized and delivered, the influences that impact health care public policy decisions, factors that determine the allocation of health care resources and the establishment of priorities, and the relationship of health care costs to measurable benefits.  The course enables students to assess the role of organized efforts to influence health policy formulation, and the contributions of medical technology, research findings, and societal values on our evolving health care delivery system.

Performance Objectives

Upon completion of the course students will be able to:

• Describe the private, governmental, professional and economic contributions to the development and operation of the health care system.
• Describe the types and interrelationships of health care facilities, services, and personnel.
• Understand important challenges of public sector health policy making.
• Understand the major ethical, economic, professional and legal issues confronting providers, insurers, and consumers.
• Describe the special problems of high-risk populations and health system responses.
• Identify and describe the quality control activities of the current health care system and relate service provider behaviors to legal, ethical, and financial considerations.
• Describe the values and assumptions that underlie the changing priorities in health planning resource allocation.

Required Text

Health Care USA 7th Edn. . Sultz & Young. Publishers Jones & Bartlett. 2010

Can be purchased directly from Jones and Bartlett (www.jbpub.com) or Amazon.com

Only certain chapters are recommended for review. Each chapter has a set of PpowerPoint slides associated with it and may be enough to help undesrtand the US Health Care System.

Chapter 1 Overview of Health Care: A Population Perspective
Chapter 3 Hospitals: Origin, Organization, and Performance
Chapter 4 Ambulatory Care
Chapter 7 Financing Health Care
Chapter 8 Long-Term Care
Chapter 9 Mental Health Services
Chapter 11  Research: How Health Care Advances          
Chapter 12  Future of Health Care

Additionally I provide  a schematic of  the current health care system as it seems to work. It is important to understand that in the USA the system has developed in an unorganized manner as bits and pieces came to the attention of Congress.  There is no central health planning system in the USA.