Comp1_unit1_discuss.doc



Introduction to Healthcare and Public Health in the US: Introduction and History of Modern Healthcare in the US

Discussion Questions

Lecture a

1. What is health? What is healthcare?

2. Who delivers healthcare services?

3. Compare and contrast inpatient and outpatient facilities?

4. What are hospitals? What are the different pathways by which patients can be admitted to a hospital?

5. What type of nursing/residential care facilities would be most appropriate for:

(a) a patient who has recently undergone hip replacement surgery whose orthopedic surgeon thinks he can go back to living at home in a few months, and

(b) a patient with advanced Alzheimer’s dementia?

6. Can you name different types of ambulatory health care services?

7. Consider the statement: “although hospitals constitute only 1 percent of all healthcare establishments, they employ 35 percent of all healthcare workers”?

What is it about hospitals that make them employ such a large percentage of healthcare workers?

8. What is a healthcare system? Describe different models of healthcare systems.

9. Can you suggest some benchmarks to measure healthcare systems? Defend your choices.

Lecture b

1. What is public health?

2. Name some of the significant public health achievements in the US in the 20th century.

Pick an example of a public health achievement that you consider to be impressive, and present your findings to your class.

3. What is epidemiology? How does it help medicine?

4. There have been multiple confirmed cases of Disease X in your community.

You suspect that the disease is caused by long-term consumption of a particular food item. How would you begin to collect data that would help you prove your hypothesis? How would you want to analyze this data?

Lecture c

1. Do you think that health care expenditure in the US is high? If so, why? If not, defend your position.

2. What are the options for financing healthcare in the US? Which do you think is the most effective when considering the entire population of the US?

3. Discuss the cultural shift in medicine that led from physician-centric to patient-centric care – from paternalism to patient autonomy. Which model of care delivery would you prefer your own physician to use? Why?

4. Discuss the reasons why care of patients has shifted from an individual to a team-based approach.

5. What is a patient centered medical home? Why do you think that this model of care is finding increasing acceptance by clinicians?

6. Discuss some of the advantages and disadvantages of the dominance of technology in healthcare delivery.

5. What is the structure of public health services in your town/city and state?

Lecture d

1. What, in your opinion, are the advantages and disadvantages of maintaining patient medical records in an electronic, as opposed to a paper-based format?

2. What is a personal health record?

Consider personal health products – take a tour of Microsoft HealthVault at . Do you think the use of personal health records will become universal, or will they become unfashionable and extinct over time? (web site accessed on 12/8/2011)

3. Give examples of the use of technology in the inpatient and the outpatient settings.

How do they help (a) patients, and (b) clinicians?

4. How can clinical decision support improve patient safety?

5. Consider that you inhabit an alternate universe where radiology does not exist as a medical specialty. Discuss the disadvantages of not having this technology both from the perspective of the physician and the patient.

6. What is assistive technology? Can you give some examples of assistive devices?

7. List some of the online resources that can be used in the practice of medicine. How do you think online resources have helped advance medical education?

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